Mauritania: Riding the Iron Ore Train
And here it is – one of the ultimate bucket list items – riding in top of the Mauritania’s iron ore train. You could ride it the entire way from Zouerat to the coast, but we opted for the first 5 hours until Choum – it’s during the daytime, scenic, and exciting (compered to freezing your ass off at night while seeing nothing and suffocating on iron ore). The train leaves daily from the small train station just near Zouerat sometime between noon and 6pm, when the 210 wagons are loaded with iron ore and ready to go. We got lucky and our train got moving at around 2pm. We climbed into the eighth wagon from the head of the train, joined by two more nutcases to do the same insanity. Wrapped head to toe, our bags in plastic trash bags. The ride was spectacular – stunning panoramic views of the Sahara and a few mountain ranges, herds of camels and a few lonely ones, and loads of iron ore in your lungs. And also iron ore in your eyes, ears, nose, face, and pretty much everywhere else. Fine magnetic iron ore dust! And it gets stuck to anything magnetic, like your iPhones! Five hours of an incredible adventure on top of piles of iron ore! And then hours and hours of washing off the iron ore dust from every orifice of your body. Dump all your clothing in trash.
