Dirty. Uncomfortable. Amazing!

When we left you yesterday, we had just boarded the iron ore train in Mauritania, Africa headed west from Choum to the Atlantic coast at Nouadhibou.

The train travels at between 35 to 40 km/h (22 to 25 mph). With a distance of 400 kms (248 miles), and several short stops along the way, it should take around 12 hours to get to our destination. But certainly none of that is written in stone.

(NOTE: There is still some kind of problem with the clarity of the photos on today's post. However if you click on the photo to make it full screen, you get the original quality. Then when you go back to the blog, it is good again. I don't have an explanation of why, but it works!)

Our leader Johnny has ridden this train seven or eight times. More times than any other foreigner in the world. He has had it take as long as 18 hours. Sometimes it is late arriving to begin with. And sometimes the train breaks down.

Us, at sunrise the next morning.

We had packed a few snacks and each car was loaded with a case of bottled water. Once the train is moving, it's difficult to eat or drink though. But, you need to be prepared. If the train breaks down and you're stuck in the heat of the desert during the day in the middle of nowhere with no shade, you'll be wanting that water.

We had managed to finish a bag of pistachios that we had before the train actually started moving, but that was it until morning.

Once moving, there is actually too much dust to make it enjoyable trying to eat or drink something. You really need to keep your mouth and nose covered up as much as possible. When the train stops (and it did, five or six times) you can have a snack or a slurp of water but I just didn't bother.

We shared each others pictures, so I picked some of the better ones to share with you...

Cathy and Aidan.

At sunrise the next morning.

Marissa.

A lot of questions yesterday regarding bathroom facilities.

Well as you could guess... there aren't any! So what we did was to designate one corner of the ore car as the bathroom. You obviously want to have planned your schedule so that you wouldn't have to do a number two. And to pee, you just do what you have to do. I thought it would be easier for a man, and it probably was... but it still wasn't that easy when the train was moving. You couldn't really stand up for fear of falling because the train jostles around quite a lot. I found it easier to get on my knees, but then I still had to work my way through three layers of pants to do the job!

Ruth said it wasn't too bad, but she is pretty used to squatting to begin with due to all the outdoor hiking and stuff that we do. She had that rain poncho on though and when you were moving it was actually quite windy so the poncho was blowing around and getting in the way.

Marissa, looking back.

I took this selfie during one of the stops.

Once the train is moving, the iron ore dust gets literally everywhere. The swim goggles worked well for us though, and we each had a Covid mask as well as the turban wrapped around our faces. When we looked at some of the other people when we got to our destination, we actually fared better than some of the others!

This photo clearly shows the dust blowing over to the left side.

This is us.

We were pretty well dressed for the conditions. The forecast called for a low of 8C (47F) but it may have been a little lower than that. The problem was the wind. We had two blankets like the one that Ruth is wrapped in above, plus we each had a thin foam mattress. The mattress was partly for comfort, but also to insulate you from the cold iron ore.

We did get a little cold around 4:00am. Never to the point of shivering, but my toes were cold and the wind kept blowing the blankets around. Those who had sleeping bags fared better. And it was difficult to share body heat because we just couldn't get comfortable. 

Marissa, Ruth, and Kevin.

Arrived at our destination at Nouadhibou at 8:15am, almost exactly 12 hours later! Johnny said it was the best time yet so we were lucky in that regard. The train never broke down, and only stopped five or six times for between five minutes and maybe a half an hour.

It was dirty. And it was uncomfortable. But it was amazing.

True adventure travel. 

I remember thinking "Wow, look at where I am!".  I couldn't believe that I was riding on top of an iron ore freight train in one of the least visited countries on the planet, in the middle of the Sahara Desert looking up at the beautiful night sky. 

Ruth says she saw four different falling stars and I saw two or three of them. Unfortunately neither of my cameras are good for night photos

With our leader Johnny at the end of the train ride.

Group photo.

From there, we were driven to the nicest hotel in Nouadhibou. In fact, it was far better than we were expecting!

Yes, that bed is looking very comfortable compared to where we just came from!

And a hot shower was definitely on the agenda!

Our room was a full suite with kitchen and living room.

We had a shower and a nap, then we were brought to a coastal restaurant for fish lunch. Back at the hotel, I had yet another nap. 

Slept like a rock that night!

I'm still a couple of days behind in posting. It's now Tuesday morning, and we fly back to Casablanca later this afternoon. It's been a great trip, but we're looking forward to getting back home to Max, and continuing to explore Morocco by motorhome. Next post coming to you from Morocco!

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