After her first bike ride through the recently opened Combe Down Tunnel on the Two Tunnels Greenway, my 11yo daughter announced that she wanted to turn round and go through it again. I promised her that we could go back and unicycle through it some time.
Today we did.
We drove to Bath and parked close to Linear Park, then rode to the first tunnel (the Devonshire Tunnel). Holding my hand, Jenny had no difficulty in riding its 400m length with not a single dismount.
Once through the first tunnel we stopped for a rest and Jenny told me that she no longer wanted to ride through the second tunnel, as it would take too long. I persuaded her to carry on to the start of the second tunnel then, after another rest and a few jelly babies, she was ready to continue.
The Combe Down Tunnel is Britain’s longest cycle tunnel, at 1,672m. Still holding my hand, she again rode through with no difficulty. Total time from entering the first tunnel to exiting the second was about 30 minutes.
We had a longer break, sitting in the sun, before turning back. Fuelled by more jelly babies, we again traversed the mile-plus length of the Combe Down Tunnel without dismounting. Another rest and we rode back to the Devonshire Tunnel. This time Jenny chose to walk through the 400m tunnel, to make it last longer.
By the time we got back to the car we had ridden about 4 miles, Jenny’s longest ride so far on one wheel.
