Choum

Understand

Choum has a passenger boarding opportunity for the iron ore train to the port of Nouadhibou. These ore trains are reputedly some of the heaviest (c. 20,000 t) and longest in the world at 3 km and bring iron ore from the many haematite mines around Zouérat the 700 odd kilometres to the coast.

Straddling what was once a major camel train route across the Sahara, the settlement has declined as this trade declined. It didn't help that, in 1977, it was attacked by French troops who suspected that it was supporting the Polisario Front, a national liberation movement that has fought for decades to free the Western Sahara from (successively) French, Spanish, Moroccan and Mauritanian rule.

Getting there

By train

The Iron Ore Train from Nouadhibou stops in Choum.

By minibus The road to Atar (c. 150km to the South) is paved; minibuses cost about 200 (new) ouguiyas per person. If you'arrive in Choum by train you will likely find minibuses waiting by the train tracks to take passengers to Atar.

See

This is scorching and dusty grey-yellow-pink desert with very little to see, although some small-scale trenches, berms and firing positions are left over from the fighting with the Polisario Front.

Do

Very little, other than catch the train.

Buy

Coke and camping gaz from a few very small grocery shops.

Eat

Flies, since the Restaurant de l’amitie is a bumpy 4 hr 4x4 drive away in Atar.

Camel meat with onions and couscous or rice may be about the only thing available in Choum apart from the ubiquitous La vache qui rit (laughing cow) processed cheese (obviously in semi-liquid form in the heat) so you might want to bring some vitamin pills.

Drink & nightlife

A lot! Temperatures during the day are above 40°C in July and August and sometimes top 46°C. You may not realise you are sweating a lot in the shade, since the air is very dry and your sweat usually evaporates before you see it, but you will need to drink about 4 litres a day. It's chilly at night under the clear desert sky, so pack your woollies.

Sleep

In your sleeping bag. Bring a sleeping mat because there are a lot of small, sharp stones on the ground.

Go next

On the ore train to

Nouadhibou - on the coast and this country's second largest settlement Zouérat - the end of the line, 250 km to the North-East By truck or Toyota Hilux on dirt tracks to the N1, 5 km to the East or South and then to

Atar - to the South that used to have direct flights onward to Paris and Marseilles before they were scared off by AQIM franchised kidnappings Fderîck - a mining town to the North with the former French Légion étrangère Fort Gouraud