Iron train to Nouadhibou | Warning

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You can pick up the iron ore train on its way to Nouadhibou here. We did this with two motorcycles, thought we would be in a passenger car. Wrong. Motorbikes we're quickly hoisted on top of dusty iron ore (slightly damaged in process) and then we clambered in after and sat on top of the train car for the 12 hours + journey. Not exactly comfortable but certainly memorable.

The fees: we were originally told it would only cost a little for the labor to put bikes on and get them off. Wrong. The Chef du Gare told us last minute that we had to pay 9000 ougiya for the "society" and then that we had to pay 15000 UG for putting the bikes up. After a lot of haggling and arguing, we got the society fee down to 5000 and the labor fee down to 7000 per bike. Then we paid 4000 per bike at the other end for the removal. But we told the men we only had 20000 UG on us, otherwise they would've tried to extort more for sure.

Note that the bikes are definitely roughly handled during this and may be damaged. Also the ride gets very cold and is very dusty, be prepared to be very dirty at the end.

We've heard that if you ride from Nouadhibou out to Choum or Zouerat (going the opposite way that we went) it may be easier to ride in the passenger car. Unsure.

The road next to the rail is VERY BAD. Cannot be done with our 125 motorcycles, too sandy. Literally driving over dunes. I think only a 4x4 could manange.