The Thing About Iron Ore Class ...

You may have heard about first class, maybe second class, some of you even third class. But
Mauritania has a different class all of its own. Iron ore class.

So we find ourselves waiting to board the train leaving Nouadhibou, a wait which lasted 6 hours and was highlighted by our refusal to give a policeman a bribe. When it finally arrived in all its glory, over 2 km in length and dusty as hell, fridges, goats and people are frantically crammed into the passenger car. This is where the ore class comes in; we had opted for the free ride, also we opted to take it easy. Ore class means clamouring onto one of the empty ore cars, immediately being coated in a seemingly permanent layer of pinkish red ore dust.

We attempt to make a break for our own private car, but our neighbours insist we join them. We all climb aboard, gear in tow and we're off into the Saharan sunset. By the time we realize what's happening, and that everything, including us is covered in red dust, our car mates have set up a carpet and fire and are offering us sweet mint tea. We settle down in a circle on the carpet and the food is ready, goat and rice for dinner, eaten with our red ore stained hands, delicious and amazingly unexpected. We're on an ore car for gosh sakes!

Finally, with the food finished, we are literally tucked in under a blanket with our Mauritanian travel buddies. We settle into an amazing starry Saharan night.

Now at this point there are no downsides. You might even think that this free ore car class could be better than the crammed in steerage class. But there is a glaring downside besides the dust. Due to the fact that this is not a passenger train, when the engines change speed, a shockwave caused by the cars smashing into one another reverberates along the entire 2km of train. The terrifying sound of the cars colliding along the length of the train can be likened to the approaching whine of an incoming bomb. The explosion of this 'bomb' is the violent shaking of the entire ore car. Jarring physically, traumatizing mentally. For the few days after we suffered a mild case of post traumatic stress, grabbing at any solid object for support at any abrupt noise.

All in all, we agreed that this was by far a highlight of our trip so far, not to mention waking up to watch the sun rise over ther Sahara, enjoying yet another three cups of mint tea. We make it to Atar pink and exhausted.

The thing about iron ore class is may not be high class, but it could just be the best class there is. Except for the PTS.

Cheers