Qualla: Choum https://qualla.com/choum en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:09 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/e/e/y/9/choum-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Choum https://qualla.com/choum Choum: Introduction https://qualla.com/choum/ Photo credit Jah Abdul, CC BY-SA 4.0. Say it aloud and it sounds like a sigh: shoom. Choum is barely a place at all, fifty-odd wooden shacks pinned to a grey-yellow-pink plain that stretches to every horizon. The whole district supposedly holds five thousand people, though you would never guess it from the sparse, sun-bleached sprawl. There is no telephone, no mobile coverage, no internet, no newspaper for sale. What Choum has is a railway, and on that thin steel thread the town's entire reason for existing depends. Twice a day, the longest train in the world rolls in out of the emptiness, and Choum comes briefly to life.

Read more: Choum on Qualla

Image: Jah Abdul | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/e/y/9/choum-wk/eey9-choum-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Choum: Where the Iron Train Stops https://qualla.com/choum/ Photo credit Emesik, CC BY-SA 3.0. Choum's whole purpose is the boarding opportunity it offers onto the Iron Ore Train bound for the coast at Nouadhibou. These trains are reputed to be among the heaviest and longest on Earth: up to three kilometers of open hopper cars, hauling hematite the roughly 700 kilometers f...

Read more: Choum on Qualla

Image: Emesik | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/e/y/9/choum-wk/eey9-choum-where-the-iron-train-stops.mp3 0:06 2 full Choum: Scars in the Sand https://qualla.com/choum/ Photo credit Jah Abdul, CC BY-SA 4.0. Choum once straddled a major camel caravan route across the Sahara, and it declined as that ancient trade withered. History has not always been gentle here. In 1977, French troops attacked the town, suspecting it of supporting the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement ...

Read more: Choum on Qualla

Image: Jah Abdul | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/e/y/9/choum-wk/eey9-choum-scars-in-the-sand.mp3 0:06 3 full Choum: Surviving the Heat https://qualla.com/choum/ Photo credit Fischersfritzchen, CC BY-SA 4.0. This is unforgiving country, and Choum tests anyone who lingers. Summer days routinely climb past 40°C and sometimes top 46°C. The air is so dry that your sweat evaporates before you ever feel wet, which makes dehydration sneak up quietly; plan on drinking around four liters a da...

Read more: Choum on Qualla

Image: Fischersfritzchen | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/e/y/9/choum-wk/eey9-choum-surviving-the-heat.mp3 0:06 4 full Choum: Onward Into the Adrar https://qualla.com/choum/ Photo credit Grullab, CC BY 3.0. For most travelers, Choum is a transfer point rather than a destination. Arrive by train and you will likely find minibuses waiting by the tracks, ready to run passengers south down the paved road to Atar, gateway to the Adrar plateau with its oases, ancient caravan towns, and sc...

Read more: Choum on Qualla

Image: Grullab | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/e/y/9/choum-wk/eey9-choum-onward-into-the-adrar.mp3 0:06 5 full