Update in 2025: we rode Mauritania’s iron ore train in 2021. I’ve lately read that as of 2025 the company that operates the iron ore train, SNIM, has banned tourists from riding on top of the wagons. Apparently the trip has gone from being ‘tolerated’ to being illegal and the police might/will stop you from riding the train, unless you go inside the passenger carriage.
We’d been waiting for hours in an empty expanse of sand next to some train tracks. The tracks stretched away into the desert, seemingly to nowhere. Finally, as we stood there watching in edgy anticipation, the iron ore train approached and slowed to a stop right in front of us. Grabbing our backpacks we ran for it, and boarded a wagon not too far behind the locomotive. It was the first time in my life (and probably the last) that I ever ‘boarded’ a train by climbing up on top of it.
So away we went, into the desert. Sunset, sunrise. Sixteen hours overnight rumbling through the Sahara and out to the coast, all alone under the stars, on top of a train.
And hey – it’s a free ride. All seven hundred kilometers of it. Besides, how else were we gonna get to Nouadhibou?
If you like extreme train trips, you’ve got a couple of options in Africa. One of them is the Tazara train – around three days of meandering through forest and savannah from Zambia to Tanzania.
And then there’s the iron ore train in Mauritania, and that’s the train this post is about.
But while the Tazara train is a passenger train, Mauritania’s famous iron ore train is not. It’s exactly what its name suggests: an iron ore freight train. It’s also one of the longest trains in the world. From two to three kilometers in length, pulling up to two hundred wagons, it runs through the Sahara transporting iron ore all the way out to Mauritania’s second city on the coast, Nouadhibou. And it can transport you, too. Right on top of the cargo, if you like.
This post is about our experience riding Mauritania’s iron ore train from Zouerat to Nouadhibou, and what you need to know to try it yourself. And trust me, you want to ride this train.
Before you go
First you’re going to need to get yourself to Mauritania. If you’re planning to come from Morocco through Western Sahara, check that the (disputed) border is open. At the time we were there, it was most decidedly closed. Coming from Senegal, if you go through the infamous Rosso border – well, that’s a good time (not really). Be prepared for some intense hassling that pretty much crosses the line to harassment.
Think about the direction in which you want to ride the train. We went from Zouerat in the interior, to Nouadhibou on the coast. This is the ‘recommended’ way. I say that as if riding on top of a freight train in the Sahara desert is recommended at all, in either direction. If you go the same way, you’ll find that the wagons are full of iron ore and you can perch on top and enjoy the view. But if you go in the opposite direction, the wagons are empty and you’ll be riding in the bottom of a cargo container. Not quite the same dramatic effect. So plan your travels in Mauritania accordingly.
The train does have a passenger carriage. It’s hitched on at the back end far from the locomotive. I’m not sure how this works. There’s a station just outside Zouerat where you can board the passenger car and I assume buy a ticket. But you probably didn’t come all this way to ride inside yet another overcrowded passenger vehicle. Honestly, riding on a pile of iron ore was more comfortable than riding inside a lot of buses I’ve been on.
Bring appropriate clothing and bedding. We rode the train in late December and it was a little chilly in the night but comfortable. In the midst of winter the desert can be very cold at night. You should bring blankets (or buy some in the market). We both had long underwear on, pants and a hoodie. We brought sleeping bags. Remember, it’s a long journey, up to eighteen hours or more, overnight.
The iron ore itself can range from a coarse powder right on up to rocky chunks. Either way, you’re going to get dirty and whatever clothes you bring might not be salvageable. We threw out almost everything we’d been wearing. For ages afterwards I was finding grainy black dirt in the seams of my old sleeping bag (and I love that…the memories…).
Since we were planning this epic train trip in advance, we brought ski goggles from home. I’m not sure how easy it would be to pick these up on the way, but if you can, bring them. The iron ore is dusty – and that stuff blowing in your eyes for eighteen hours is no joke.
We also picked up the iconic blue tagelmusts (or hawli) in a local market – the Sahara’s all-in-one protection against sand and sun (and iron ore, as it turns out). Winding one of these around your head before you climb aboard is a great idea.
Bring water and some food. Remember it’s the desert after all, and the train could break down – but still, I think it goes without saying that for obvious reasons you want to try not to drink too much.
Bring a big garbage bag to wrap your backpack in. If you’ve got a computer or anything like that, think about how to protect it from a serious amount of grit and dirt.
For traveling in Mauritania in general: bring about a million photocopies of your passport. You will need to hand out these ‘fiches’ left and right.
Going it alone – is the iron ore train safe?
We did this trip December 2021. We were totally alone on the top of the train. It felt absolutely wild and I cannot overstate how awesome it was.
I’ve noticed that various tour operators are offering ‘independent travel’-type tours in Mauritania that include a ride on the iron ore train. It seems to me that getting on this train with an organized tour group defeats the entire purpose and turns an incredible adventure into just another uncomfortable train trip.
Having done it, I can say that we felt safe and we weren’t worried at any point – once we got going. Yes, it seemed distinctly crazy at the moment of climbing on top and I couldn’t believe we were actually doing it, but we just moved fast and got on. During the stop at Choum, hearing all the voices in the darkness, while more people were getting on and off or whatever was happening there – I’d possibly have felt uncomfortable by myself, but as two it was fine.
Maybe you feel nervous about climbing onto a freight train by yourself in the middle of nowhere and riding it through the desert overnight? Put like that, it does sound a bit daunting. If you don’t have a friend who shares your interest in unconventional modes of transportation, I’d suggest joining a Facebook group and trying to find someone going the same way as you. Or, hanging out at your accommodation in Nouakchott (Auberge Triskell is good) to see if you can meet another independent traveller or two to team up with.
Possibly a tour makes the train trip more smooth – they will take care of the details and might be able to cut down on wait time, eliminating some of the ‘Is it coming? Have I lost my mind?’ and other general nerves. But I think general nerves and plunging into the unknown are the best part of the whole thing.
Getting to Zouerat
We arrived in Zouerat by minibus from Atar. That took about four hours. Approaching town the minibus was pulled over at a police checkpoint and our presence in it caused a pretty big fuss. By that I mean one of the gendarmes took particular exception to us being there. He made us get out and bring our fiches into his office in a shipping container and have a huge discussion about why we came. This was exceptionally difficult since we don’t speak French but we nevertheless managed to convince the angry gendarme’s boss, Boubacar, that we weren’t up to anything. Boubacar tore a piece of cardboard off an empty cigarette packet and wrote his phone number on it. Then he let us get back into the minibus after making us promise to call and tell him when we eventually left town.
In Zouerat we went to Hotel Tiris Zemmour. However we weren’t too impressed by the room standard/price ratio, so we opted for Auberge Restaurant Tourine instead. It’s very simple but fine, and the family who owns it are lovely people. They welcomed us into their restaurant (and later, their home), served us up a bunch of food and gave us a hotspot since the Wi-Fi wasn’t working anywhere else and neither was our sim.
Catching the iron ore train
First of all: the train runs every day in both directions. It doesn’t keep a schedule and there’s no point asking about it or trying to find out more. Leaving from Zouerat, it supposedly departs any time after about 13.00. You get on at Fderik, where the train (usually, but not always) pauses while a couple of kilometers down the line they are attaching the passenger wagon. That’s your cue to throw caution to the wind and climb aboard.
Since we were planning to hitch a ride on top, we made sure to be at Fderik as on the map below, before 13.00 to be on the safe side.
The spot at Fderik is just an empty stretch of sand and tracks. It took us about half an hour to get there by taxi from Zouerat.
If you want to ride in the passenger car, you should probably be at the spot marked ‘passenger carriage’ shown on the map above, before 12.00.
The train can be over two hundred wagons long. That’s a lot of dust blowing in your face. To reduce the sensation of going blind, jump on fairly close to the locomotive. We deliberately waited in front of the only building in sight (some kind of locked-up shed) – because we’d read the locomotive would stop there, and we wanted to be close to the front.
Sure enough, when the train finally did appear it rolled to stop almost directly in front of us, and we clambered up and made ourselves at home on wagon six for the night.
In our case, the train showed up at about 17.00. We had no idea how long it would stop for so we moved pretty fast. But it stayed put for about twenty minutes so no need to panic (or hysterically throw bottled water and packets of Oreos up top as fast as you can, like we did).
While we were waiting, Oyv spotted a broken plastic jug lying nearby. He brought this with us and as it turns out, it was a smart idea. He used it as a shovel to scoop out a sort of trench in the iron ore. Then we lined the trench with our sleeping bags and got a pretty decent night’s sleep.
And yes, the train does go at a half-decent speed, about 35-50 kilometers per hour. So you’ll feel that (and it feels pretty great if you like sleeping on trains in general).
Riding the rails
‘Oh no. Not this guy…’ Oyv muttered under his breath. My heart sank. Stopped at a checkpoint on the edge of town, the gendarme we’d had trouble with before was approaching our car at a fast clip.
This officer had delayed our arrival into Zouerat in the first place by nearly an hour. He knew our plan: ride off into the sunset on the iron ore train, thereby leaving his jurisdiction altogether. But still, he questioned us some more. Considering that ever since we’d got to Zouerat he’d wanted nothing more than for us to leave, he was doing a good job of stopping our departure. Ultimately undecided as to whether or not to let us go, he called his boss again. Boubacar, our friend and the local gendarmerie’s voice of reason, apparently told him to knock it off. So we drove onwards to Fderik.
A few minutes later my phone rang. ‘Sarah. Why didn’t you call me?’ asked Boubacar sadly. He’d given us his phone number when we’d met the day before, and made me promise to call when we left Zouerat. This was all starting to feel a bit surreal. Rattling around in the back of a taxi on the way to some random place called Fderik, trying to explain in French to the gendarmerie-boss that I’d been planning to call him once I’d climbed onto an iron ore freight train and you know, officially left town. On top of a train.
In a patch of sand next to the train tracks, Oyv and I dragged our backpacks out of the car and got out some ouguiya to pay for the ride (on a side note, if riding the iron ore train isn’t challenging enough, try learning to pronounce the name of the Mauritanian currency). The taxi driver looked around doubtfully at the empty shed, a collapsing barbed-wire fence, and the tracks stretching out into the desert. ‘You can’t just stay here alone’ he said and he got out of the car, slammed the door, and stretched out on the ground in the scant shade the vehicle afforded.
We scuffed around in the sand. Nobody came, nothing happened, and we waited. The driver dozed in the heat. We wandered along the tracks and stared at the shimmering vanishing point.
And then we saw it appear on the horizon. The taxi driver woke up, clearly interested in our next move. All three of us stared in anticipation as the iron ore train slowed to a halt almost right in front of us.
After hours of lethargy in the sun, the sight of the huge train brought on a surge of adrenaline. Picking up our gear, we broke into a run straight to a wagon close behind the locomotive.
I hauled myself up the ladder with a bit of extra momentum, and landed on a pile of scratchy black powder. Pointlessly dusting myself off I turned around to catch the bottles of water Oyv was tossing up one by one. He pushed our backpacks up the ladder and I dragged them onto the heap of iron ore.
Then Oyv climbed up and we stood on top of wagon six and surveyed the scene. The taxi driver waved enthusiastically. There were so many wagons linked behind us that we couldn’t see the end of the train.
There was a conductor onboard too. That is, a man wearing a reflective vest was already riding on top of the first wagon. Now he sat there watching us as we scrambled aboard. The conductor was clearly concerned with our safety: he gave a thumbs-up and waited for us to return it. Then he indicated we should get low, so we sat down on the iron ore. The train rumbled to life underneath us and slowly pulled away. Gradually it picked up speed, and we chugged towards the coast.
I’ll say this: there are train trips, and then there are train trips.
We sat on top of the swaying train, mesmerized by the desert rolling away underneath us on all sides. A road ran parallel to the tracks for a while, and we passed a broken down bus. The passengers gathered around it watched as the train drew closer. As we rolled past they threw their arms up in the air and waved. So we did too, hollering at the top of our lungs.
At dusk, the train stopped. The door on the locomotive opened and four staff got out. The conductor scrambled down from his perch on wagon one. They prayed in the desert, their shadows slanting in the sand as the sun went down.
Soon enough the sun was gone.
It was chilly, but we were warm enough, huddled in our sleeping bags on the iron ore. All alone under a canopy of stars, on top of a train in the endless desert night.
Nouadhibou to Nouakchott
The train ‘arrived’ in Nouadhibou – that is, it just stopped rolling – around 09:00 the next morning. We woke up and rubbed (more) dirt out of our eyes.
As I mentioned it’s pretty freaking long, and the wagon we were riding on halted nowhere near any kind of station. But that didn’t stop a taxi driver from racing the train for the last few minutes and then off-roading beside the tracks, in order to reach us. We climbed back down over the side and got him to take a photo of us:
We didn’t want to stay in Nouadhibou overnight. We had the taxi driver drop us off at the office of a minibus company, and got tickets back to Nouakchott later that day. The bus company let us use their bathrooms to wash off the worst of the black dust that we were coated in, and clean ourselves up at least a bit.
Then we just killed a day in town waiting for our ride at the place where the minibuses where leaving from. The trip from Nouadhibou to Nouakchott takes around seven hours.
You can certainly get buses or shared pickups from Zouerat back out to the coast (like the one we saw broken down on the road), but the iron ore train is the fastest way to go. And I wouldn’t recommend going any other way.
Read More
As I mentioned, this isn’t the only excellent train trip we’ve undertaken in Africa. We spent three days on the Tazara train from Zambia to Tanzania, and you can read about it here: Riding the Tazara train: cross-border from Zambia to Tanzania
If you’re travelling onwards to Senegal, check out our Senegal stories and guides.
