A series of videos have gone viral on TikTok showing extreme travel influencers speeding through the Sahara on the back of Mauritania’s Iron Ore Train.
They make it look like something out of a sci-fi novel, cameras panning across vast sandy landscapes and herds of wild camels before cutting back to their own faces, eyes and smiles wide through layers of iron dust.
Some describe the 20-hour journey across 700km of desert as a “once in a lifetime experience” or a real life version of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic Dune.
In truth, it’s a dangerous and illegal act undertaken by ‘adventure’ tourists in one of the least visited countries in the world, where slavery is still legal and Australians have been warned not to visit.
Smarttraveller advises Aussies considering a trip to Mauritania to ‘reconsider your need to travel’, and deems several provinces as under strict ‘do not travel’ warnings.
Crime, including violent crime, is a persistent issue and there is a very real threat of terrorism and kidnappings, especially for foreigners.
A predominantly Islamic nation, Mauritania also enforces strict religious laws.
Then there’s the issue of slavery.
Mauritania technically outlawed slavery in 2007, making it the last country on Earth to outlaw the practice, but the 2018 Global Slavery Index estimated that there were still about 90,000 slaves in the country a decade later.
Despite all that, extreme tourists still visit the north-west African nation every year with the express desire to hitch a ride Mauritania’s Iron Ore Train.
The Mauritania Railway, the country’s national railway, consists of a single line that stretches more than 700km across the Sahara between the iron mining capital of Zouérat and the port of Nouadhibou.
A one-way trip on the up to 3km-long train takes about 20 hours, sometimes (but not always) stopping at the desert towns of Fderik and Choum.
On the journey to Nouadhibou, the train’s 200 to 210 cars are filled with up to 84 tonnes of iron ore. On the return trip, they’re empty.
While the train does typically have a passenger car attached to the back for people wanting to make all or part of the long journey, most tourists who travel to Mauritania to ride the train aren’t interested in spending their time in the cramped, sweaty back car.
Instead, some wait for hours in the desert for a chance to scale the ladders attached to the side of the ore cars while the train is stopped in Zouérat or Choum (or somewhere else along the line) and make the trip atop the piles of iron ore inside.
The practice has become so common that in 2024, state agency Société nationale industrielle et minière (SNIM), which controls the railway line, banned people from riding atop the piles of ore in the carriages.
Based on the videos currently going viral online, the ban hasn’t stopped some people.
TikTok user Isaac Elam, who goes by @isaacexploress, posted more than 10 clips filmed from one of the train’s ore cars in February.
It’s unclear when the videos were filmed.
“The TRUTH about riding the worlds longest, heaviest and most dangerous train is that it lives up to the hype in every single way!” he captioned one of the clips.
He is also selling an e-book for prospective travellers detailing “everything you need to know” about riding the train illegally, including “contacts of all of those who helped us make it possible”.
Elam’s videos have sparked controversy with some social media users commenting that the practice he’s promoting is illegal and dangerous.
Tourists riding atop the Mauritania’s Iron Ore Train are exposed to extreme weather conditions, including searing days and freezing nights, with no access to facilities and no way to get off the train safely in the case of a medical or other emergency.
As SNIM pointed out when it banned tourists from riding atop the iron ore cars in 2024, the activity is illegal because it endangers the safety of passengers.
Anyone still hoping to hitch a ride on the train can do so in the dedicated passenger car at the end of the train.
Australians are still currently advised to reconsider travelling to Mauritania.
