Othello Tunnels, Canada: Gorge yourself on scenery

In First Blood, Rambo hangs off a cliff above a raging river, while a policeman falls out of a circling helicopter into the gorge beneath. This is only Hollywood, but a hundred years earlier workers were hanging off ropes and clinging to ladders on these same cliff faces, hacking out most of the rock by hand to create one of the world's trickiest and most spectacular stretches of railway line.

Fortunately, you can enjoy the Coquihalla Gorge these days without any of the celluloid or construction drama. All you have to do is get in your rental car and drive 150 kilometres east of Vancouver to Hope, a well-timed location for a leg stretch if you're heading onwards to Kelowna or Kamloops on the road to the Rocky Mountains. The railway sleepers have gone, replaced by a walking and cycling track that leads on a gentle incline through forest and tunnels, and across bridges that span the chilly, foaming waters of the river far below.

The railway that once ran through here was built in response to the discovery of silver and other metals in southern British Columbia, and to the incursions of American interests in the region. In the 1890s a strategic supply line was devised. From the get-go the Kettle Valley Railway, which traversed three mountain ranges in remote terrain, was Canada's most difficult railway line to operate. No section was worse than the Coquihalla Subdivision between the towns of Hope and Coquihalla, which required 42 bridges and was challenged by a solid granite gorge squeezing a turbulent river. Many a timid engineer declared that building a railway here was impossible.

Scotsman Andrew McCulloch thought otherwise. The experienced, Rambo-esque railway engineer had himself lowered off the cliffs in a wicker basket, cut precarious footholds for his survey instruments, and devised a series of tunnels and bridges through the geological tangle. Nearly all the construction work had to be done by hand, but in 1915 the gorge was conquered. It included the most expensive mile of railway track in the world, costing three times the average.

Today this section is colloquially known as the Othello Tunnels after the nearest train station at Othello. (McCulloch, an avid fan of Shakespeare, called other stations Juliet, Romeo, Iago and Lear.) It was widely believed the train traversed the gorges at night so that passengers couldn't see the horrors of the terrain from the windows. These days you'll want to go in daylight to admire the spectacular feat of engineering as well as the spectacular landscape. Bring a sense of drama, a head for heights and perhaps a torch, though many walkers shuffle through the tunnels guided only by the wedges of daylight at each end.

An easy, level walk passes through five tunnels and across two bridges and is family friendly. You can see the lot in 3.5 kilometres of walking, though in fact the path continues on past the tunnels and down to the town of Hope. Most people turn back to the Othello parking lot, but it's a good idea to walk at least 15 minutes beyond the last tunnel, as you'll be rewarded by one of those lovely Canadian forests lush with ferns, berries and moss-covered pine trees.

Kettle Valley Railway was short lived. Mudslides and snow were constant disruptions and in 1959 heavy rains washed away sections of track that were never replaced, since by then roads were a viable alternative. Most of the excellent four-lane highway eastwards to the Rockies now follows the original railway bed. Other long lengths of it have been reinvented as public recreation corridors for hiking and mountain biking. If you want one concentrated dose of human endeavour, however, the Othello Tunnels will deliver with an embarrassingly low level of effort. You don't have to be Rambo, though you'll find this little walk as theatrical and improbable as any Hollywood movie, as it threads through shadowy cliffs and growling waters under the watchful eyes of eagles circling overhead.