2021
SJ2837 : Inside Chirk Tunnel on the canal towpath, looking north
taken 3 years ago, near to Chirk Bank, Shropshire, England
Inside Chirk Tunnel on the canal towpath, looking north
The tunnel is known as 'the darkie' apparently, as it is long, at 421 metres / 1,381 feet, and therefore very dark once you get a short distance in. Due to the curve of the tunnel wall overhead all walkers have to adopt a semi-crouch-sort-of-lean pose in order to traipse through, constantly assessing where the brick wall is in relation to your ear / side of your head / shoulder and arm, and simultaneously where the hand-rail is on the canal side in relation to your other arm / watch / hip / kneecap.
Once you emerge you are pretty relieved. Especially if you don't have to pass anyone coming the other way. We had to pass two cyclists, a husband and wife I assume, and they really hadn't seen or heard my approach and were a bit surprised when I spoke up and we had to weave in and out of their bodies and bikes in close confinement, in pitch blackness with a wall to one side and a canal and hand rail to the other. It involved quite a bit of huffing and puffing into a stranger's ear and them huffing and puffing into your eyeball but we disentangled and passed on with only a slight very British uncomfortableness as I wouldn't recognise them if they passed me again in daylight and as we were travelling in opposite directions there seemed little to no chance of that.
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