We make it across our pair of seventy-metre long bridges and regroup, as much to gather our breath as be thankful for our continued survival. By virtue of it being a railway, our ride is about as flat as mountain biking can be. But rolling out of Abra Pampa on day one we ride straight into a gentle but unrelenting uphill gradient that joins forces with a strong headwind and combined with our lack of altitude acclimatisation has us dropping through gears by the dozen.

It was the simple concept of the railway cutting the shortest route from A to B while following the line of least resistance that had attracted me to the idea of riding along it. But now I feel short changed. Our first two hours become a punishing grind.

Adventures are often such a whirlwind of non-stop surprises, rewards and physical beat-downs that the emotional punch of what you’re attempting doesn’t usually strike home until afterwards. The sense of achievement and realisation of what, where and how comes later, when you have time to reflect, usually sitting with tired legs and a beer in hand. And so it is with this adventure too.

“Our first two hours become a punishing grind.…”

Even riding along a railway line, something so apparently undemanding, simple and flat that most mountain bikers would sniff at the idea, our adventure quickly becomes a full body immersion in a sea of physical and mental challenges.

As we make headway along the line the once but now forgotten grandeur of this railway dawns on us. After its construction, and long before a road was created, it represented the fastest and only safe way to travel through these bandit-infested hills. Trains represented progress, and according to Argentina’s president Avellaneda, under whose 1870s watch the railways got a footing, a lot more besides, including “industry, commerce, art, science and poetry”.

In the late 1880s a sprawling network of railway lines had begun to spread across Argentina’s northern provinces, working their way steadily north to the Bolivian border. Some were sold to the British, others bought from the French in a frenzy of ownership changes and nationalisation programmes. At the turn of the century, the railway was big business.

But time moves on. Now the sun-bleached bones of another unfortunate llama-like vicuna lie littered across the tracks — another victim of this unforgiving landscape. We pedal past abandoned stations, their weather-boarded exteriors now a mosaic of peeling paint. Slowly the desert is swallowing up our short-lived stab at taming it. Sleepers have disappeared under drifts of sand and telegraph poles have become nesting sites for weaver birds.

In the tiny village of Tres Cruces, the station’s water tanks, once used to refill the steam locomotives remain, but now stand idle and dry. The station’s platforms are silent, victims to changes in economics, the people having turned their focus to a grimy bus stop on the highway instead. The railway is all but forgotten and we have the line to ourselves, sharing it only with herds of llama. Unaware of how they will react to four mountain bikers, at each encounter we are forced to dive off the track, descend the rocky embankment and rejoin the line fifty metres on. Our adventure is filled with unexpected treats.

For three days we thread our front wheels through an axle-high forest of brush that conspires to take back this sliver of desert from the once powerful clutches of the railway. We zigzag between the undergrowth finding our own version of singletrack, pumping every undulation in the sun-baked, hard-as-concrete, dirt for extra momentum.

For hundreds of metres at a time the railway sleepers have gone — re-purposed by locals as building materials in an impoverished area scant of trees. We roll across wide plateaux and past remote, hilltop cemeteries. We climb gentle gradients and descend through the spectacular UNESCO Heritage Site of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a rugged valley whose hillsides are a blaze of red and orange hues.

And finally we roll into Humahuaca, a small but vibrant town that brings us back to reality. Here we glance back at the railway that has been our home for three days; that has given us an insight into another era.

Boom and bust, nationalisation, privatisation and economic collapse has been the story of our railway, and of the region as a whole. Cash crops, tobacco, sugar cane and petroleum have played their part in shaping the lives of locals here and their economic successes and woes too. But as we freewheel through Humahuaca’s cobbled streets, we realise that around us life goes on: people hurry to the market, others chat idly on corners.

“Boom and bust, nationalisation, privatisation and economic collapse has been the story of our railway, and of the region as a whole.”

We check into a small hotel and order yerba mate tea followed by beers in a town that has seen more than its fare share of boom and bust. The streets are busy with backpackers and tourists buying trinkets and booking jeep excursions to see the colourful Quebrada. Tourism offers some hope for the economic future of the town, but its railway is a forgotten chapter in history.

There’s talk of reviving it, of rebuilding its embankments, of sure-ing up its collapsed bridges, but having seen its state of disrepair we agree it’s a very long shot. We raise our glasses to this now relic of a bygone era in Argentina’s history. All it can offer now is the most unusual mountain bike adventure any of us will possibly ever do.

To read the rest of the Money Issue features head here

DO IT YOURSELF:

Getting There:

You can fly to San Salvador de Jujuy, the capital of Jujuy Province, from Buenos Aires. Aerolineas Argentinas operate regular flights from £250 return.

TAM Airlines fly from London to Buenos Aires via Sao Paulo from £680 return or British Airways fly direct from £1,081 return.

Bikes & Guiding:

As the first to ride the railway line, Dan’s group was self-guided but received assistance from Jujuy en Bici (jujuyenbici.com.ar) who can organise multi-day guided bike tours in the area, including bike rental, safety gear and accommodation.

For the latest tours and pricing check jujuyenbici.com.ar/en/precios

You may also like:

Mountain Biking In Ethiopia | Adventure Cycling In The Cradle Of Civilisation

Digging Deep | Uncovering A New Kind Of Mountain Bike Adventure

In Too Deep | Escaping Avalanches On A Snowboard Trip To Kyrgyzstan