On the latest episode of In Those Days we discussed octogenarian Milton Sanchez's final solo travel adventure.

It began when his wife came home from art class to find a letter in the type writer. It said:

Dear Lal,
You're not going to like this, but I've gone to South America. Back in two weeks.
Milton

On the podcast we discussed how Milton did indeed travel from Adelaide, Australia to Chile. He wanted to ride a particular train line, but we weren't sure which one.

I've since found out that his aim was to travel on the highest cog railway in Chile. Cog (or rack) railways are used when the gradient is steeper than 10%. I think it might have been the Arica La-Paz railway though not completely sure.

Milton managed to travel solo to Chile (sans his Alzheimer's medication) but he was "rescued" before he could ride the cog railway of his dreams. He returned to South America on a later trip with family, but sadly wasn't allowed to ride the high altitude train without a medical certificate.

It's a great story but in the movie version he will catch the train.

The episode is here:
https://inthosedays.transistor.fm/episodes/grandfathers-letters-to-the-editor

#CogRailway #RackRailway #SouthAmerica #RailJourneys #TrainJourney #HistoryPodcast