Ha! I wanted to finish my journey on an adventurous note, and I got what I wanted! Wow!
Yesterday the 23rd, was one of the most fun and adventurous days I have had in a while...at least since I got to Africa.
The price of the seat inside the pick up truck to get from Atar to Choum was to my taste way to expensive for such a supposedly short distance.
So I got a ticket to sit on top of all the cargo loaded on top of the pick up truck. Basically I was sitting on top of loads of stuff slightly unstable and higher than the actual roof of the truck. And well, good thing I was the only one there as there was no space for another person up there. What a ride. The driver drove as if there was no one sitting on the roof. I had to duck down quite often to not get swiped out by the dangerously thorny branches of acacia trees. I had to hold on tight to the ropes all along in order to not get thrown out of the roof. I had to cover my head and eyes in order to not get burnt by the hot and sandy air. And every time we passed humans on the desert trail I would obviously be the source of much surprise and shock. A toubab sitting alone on the roof and the local sitting comfortably inside with the A/C and all. Crazy toubab! Lol but I absolutely loved it. And the views while crossing the desert were just priceless. Beyond imagination. Even on Photoshop one could not create such natural beauty.
After a good 2 hours we finally arrived at Choum...a small group of small mud houses gathered there on the edge of the rail tracks. A tiny village looking nothing like a village. There, in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Why in the world would people even want to live here and remain here?! Why? No restaurant, no bar, just rows of small boutiques selling snacks and sodas and a couple of resting huts with foam mats on the floor where people can lay down and grab a plate of rice to eat while they wait for the train to arrive. All the forums mention that there are three trains per day. False! There seem to be only one train going towards Nouadhibou and it usually comes by around 6pm or so. Since I got there at 2 pm I had quite some time to wait, yet a not anxiously as no one in Choum was able to inform me of when would the train arrive and where I was supposed to stand in order to get onto the wagons containing the minerals: the free wagons. And since it is the longest train in the world (about 2.3km) I didn't want to have to walk such distance a the last minute and risk missing the train. So it was not much of a fun and relaxed wait.
I ate a huge plate of rice knowing that my next meal would probably not be before the next day at lunch time, and I tried to nap a bit.
By 5pm I couldn't wait any longer and so I decided to walk towards what looked like a sort of tiny station right on the tracks.
On my way I got joined by three local kids from the town. Probably around 12 years old each. Two of them only spoke Hassania and one luckily spoke Spanish. (I forgot to mention that apparently in Mauritania, I look more Spanish than anything else...probably better for me given what the islamists in the region have declared they wanted to do to the French). And so we spent a good half hour chit chatting together, while the other two were acting foolishly and doing silly things along the tracks. It was actually quite funny and entertaining. They obviously wanted to show off their foolishness like any kid their age and interact with a white foreigner which they must see very rarely. Choum has absolutely nothing of interest except that iron ore train going to Nouadhibou, and even then, going to Choum to catch the train is more of a detour than anything.
When the kids left after a while not knowing exactly where to stand I joined a group of locals who had a ton of boxes and bagages and thus looked like the kind of traveler who would ride for free and jump on the iron ore powder wagons. My intuition was right on, so I waited next to them. Language being a barrier yet again and then not being very social at all, I luckily once again was joined by two Saharawi of about my age who both spoke Spanish. (I had no clue that Spain had colonized a part of the western Sahara region back then). Great meet, as we kept on chatting as the day turned to total dark night. Indeed, all of a sudden it was 8pm, not a light around other than our cell phone lights and the waiting locals wooden mini stove to make their tea. The train was late.
By 8:30pm it finally showed up...we saw a bright light very far away in the valley getting bigger and bigger as it got closer to us. And then finally, we saw the monster of a train. Well not the train as it was way to dark, but its black silhouette in the night. An endless giant black stripe going as far as the eye can see. The most impressive thing!
Once the monster finally stopped, then it was an exhilarating moment of rush. Everyone ran as fast as possible to climb up the wagons throwing all their bags and all high up into the wagons. Movie like. Like clandestine. The two Spanish speakers and i jumped into our own wagon. The locals with their loads and even goats climbed the wagon next to ours. We all hiked up and jumped not having a clue of what to expect nor where we would land. It so happened that the wagons were full up to the rim of black iron ore powder. Very thin and warm powder. The one thing we all knew off was that during the ride the powder would be hell for us to see and breath. But we were far from expecting it to be that much hell nor how fast it would all start once we had jumped on the train.
Thank god I had anticipated it a bit and made sure to rain proof both my bags, put my sweater aside just in case, and got my very long turban in hand as well as my sun glasses for what I thought would insure full face protection. Yeah right!
There was so much powder flying around and with such intensity, that I might as well not have had anything on my face. At one point I couldn't stop spitting powder through my turban in order to try and breath a bit. It was insane. But I loved every second of it.
The best part was how much space we had and how nicely warm the powder was to lay on. Little did I know how much it would all eventually stain every inch of my body and clothe.
Anyhow, no landscape to look at given the dark night. So I tried to lay on my back and star gaze. Ha! Only problem is that to star gaze you need to open your eyes...mission impossible.
Nothing to look at but the back of my eye lids. I was not tired, so I thought to fetch my iPod and listen to some tunes to add some spice to the adventure. Bummer, the battery was dead. OK...sleeping is the only option...which i can't just yet do as I really want to pee.
Try to take a pee on a speeding train that stops or skills unexpectedly, with your eyes closed because of the dust, and with a strong wind turning around every second. Ha!
Suddenly the wind seemed to have take a break, the air was a bit clearer. So I get up, stumble to get to the edge of the wagon and finally do it. At last!!!
Now time to sleep.
The hardest part was to get my mind to accept the incessant powder on my lips and teeth and the fact that my breathing had to slow down much in order to create less incoming powder into my mouth and nose. Once I got my mind to accept this, I quickly fell asleep...to my surprise, as every single blogger I had read about had mentioned that sleeping was mission impossible on that train.
I did wake up a couple of times we went through sand storms during the night. Apocalyptic storms adding to the already quite intense train created powder storms. If only I had had a friend of mine with me to share this experience.
Anyhow, I woke up with the sun...well...my sun glasses, with all the accumulated sticking depot of black ore on top of the lenses gave me the impression that it was still night when the sun was getting up.
Once the sun was up I could help but to take my glasses off to watch the beauty of the landscape. All the way till we got to final destination.
The whole ride was 13 hours long. Not that long I guess.
When the train finally came to a stop, the three of us looked at each other...all black or dust and dirt. Ufff...the only thing I was dying to do at this stage was to shower. I knew that it would take days of scrubbing to remove of that black dust.
Lucky me Wedadi had connected me with one of his friends in town. Well...not all that lucky actually...no offense but so far the worst host I have had in Africa.
Anyhow, that friend (I think his name was Dah) picked me up and took me to his shack or a room so I could clean up and rest. At last. My hair was so thick of dust it felt like a helmet.
Once I was clean and ate some rice in the room, Dah fell into the longest of naps, pretty much the entire afternoon. What a waste of a day. I didn't get out as I had no clue where in the city I was, nor had the keys of the place. So I waited for him to wake up just before the sun set. At last. Then he took me for a ride around the city. I barely got to see anything at all of the city, which sucks as this city being the capital of the Mauritania blue gold of the fish industry in west Africa it must have had some amazing sites to visit.
But I listened to my gut feeling once again. Both Dah and the city didn't make me feel all that comfortable, and on top of that I was really looking forward to getting to morocco at last. So I decided to leave Nouadhibou tomorrow morning and not spend the couple of days I initially thought I would. Big deal. I know I will come to this country again in the future, so I will take the time then.
I love to travel alone, but now that I have a life partner, traveling alone is not all that much fun anymore.
So off to sleep I go, knowing that tomorrow will certainly be a very long day...crossing the border between Mauritania and Morocco won't be a walk in the park.
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