Malalcahuello Rail Trail
Rail Trail, Andes, Chile
Like many of my age, I have a sad fascination with disused railway lines. Back in 1962 I did my first walk along a rail line long since closed – it was the 20 km line that used to connect the shale oil mine in Newnes (now a ghost town) with the main western line in NSW Australia. The great advantage of walking along a rail line is that it is level – sometimes embankments and sometimes cuttings and in very special cases – tunnels. In the case of the Newnes line, the one tunnel, at the time I did the walk 50 years after the closure of the line, but before too many people knew about it, the tunnel was like a starry sky, lit by glow worms.
Imagine my delight, when staying at Chile Wild – Las Vertientes cabins in Malalcahuello, I discovered that Malalcahuello was once on a rail link that ran from Lebu on the Chilean coast to Lonquimay in the Andes near the border with Argentina. If fact it was one of two sections actually completed of a visionary plan hatched in 1910 to link the Pacific and Atlantic oceans by rail. The other completed section went from Zapala in Argentina to Bahia Blanca on the Atlantic coast. The biggest engineering challenge was a tunnel through the Los Raices mountain range 11 km East of Malalcahuello. Construction of the 4 km tunnel commenced in 1931 and took 8 years to complete – somewhat longer than anticipated due to a cave-in which trapped 42 men for 90 hours in 1932. The rail link opened in 1941 but was closed in the early 1990’s. The tunnel is now an alternate one way road tunnel.
The good news is that the sections East and West of Malalcahuello are being converted into rail trails. We rented mountain bikes to ride the 12.5 km section from Malalcahuello Station to Manzanar Station. It is a nice ride on a gravel track – only downside is that some of the old bridges are no longer in place so you need to be careful where the track crosses Route CH181 on some blind corners. A nice day trip is a ride from Malalcahuello along the cycleway to Manzanar then visit the thermal baths where one can view historic photos of the steam train and township. They have an outside thermal pool adjacent to the river and a spa and Jacuzzi salon that has not been renovated since the original building so makes for a curious visit. The restaurant serves traditional Chilean food.
Very soon the section from Lonquimay to the Southern portal of the tunnel will be ready for riding and there are plans to complete the link by restoring the 11 km section from Malalcahuello to the tunnel. Just how cyclists will get through the tunnel is a matter under consideration. Possibly two set periods a day when the tunnel is closed to vehicular traffic in both directions and used two-way for ten minutes by cyclists.
If you are looking for accommodation close to Malalcahuello, there are many rental cabins to choose from and various other accommodation options, depending on your budget. There is something to suit every budget from 5 star Corralco Hotel at Volcano Lonquimay, to budget backpackers and family-based homestays.
Author: Warren Yates
[Image from El Austral newspaper (Chile: 9th August 2015) p5]
