Armed with flashlights, we did a scary hike this weekend that followed the tracks of an abandoned railroad, right through the mountains and with several long, dark and creepy tunnels! It was a very exciting trip, and beautiful too since the old tracks follow a wild river that flows through a green valley.
The railroad starts right behind some houses and farms, on a small road with warning signs: “This is not a hiking trail! Dangerous!”
The railroad used to follow the river through the valley until it was not used anymore after the completion of a faster more direct railroad track:
And so, the old railroad got abandoned and overgrown, leaving this interesting trail. The trail isn’t dangerous at all, unless ofcourse you forget to bring your flashlight! This railroad crossed a total of 6 tunnels, some so long you really can’t see anything…
Bravely we entered the first tunnel…
Time to turn on the flashlights!
Until after some time, making our way through this moist tunnel with cracks in the walls, we finally saw the end of the tunnel :)
Along the way, we crossed several abandoned buildings and rusty structures. We even found an old motorbike.
The river and mountains next to the trail are really beautiful, a nice contrast with the rusty tracks.
And there’s Ward approaching the next tunnel :)
Sometimes there were side-tunnels, that were flooded and even scarier than the normal tunnels…
Who knows where these tunnels lead??
After the fourth tunnel, we were surprised by this rusty structure:
An old rusty bridge!
Kind of scary to cross it, hoping it wouldn’t collapse :p
We followed the trail for about 2 hours until we arrived at a small village in the mountains. The sun was already setting.
The final tunnel was the least scary:
In the village we took the normal train back home.
There is actually footage on youtube of the original train when the tracks were still in use. You can recognize the rusty bridge we crossed:
This trail is really not that dangerous and actually a nice recommendation if you don’t mind the warning signs and crossing long, creepy tunnels. You can easily start this trail at Namaze station and walk for two hours through the mountains to Takedao station. I’d love to do this hike again in spring, with the cherry blossoms, of in autumn when the whole mountain is bright red!!