When planning a honeymoon, many couples go for obvious destinations, like Paris, the city of love or the Maldives, with its stunning azure waters.
Few people, unlike Croatian newlyweds Kristijan and Andrea Ilicic, opt for a freight train carrying wagons of dirty iron ore across the hot deserts of Mauritania in northwest Africa.
The couple hit on their unusual post-wedding experience after they had already visited scores of destinations around the world as travel influencers Kristijan has clocked up no less than 150.
Kristijan told CNN via email that they saw a lot. This time, it had to be something completely different. We found it in. The climax of their trip was a daring photoshoot on top of the iron ore-laden train as it rumbled through the desert on its 700 kilometer 435 mile journey from the mining town of Zou rat to the Atlantic port of Nouadhibou.
The photos were posted to Instagram and racking up more than 40,000 likes.
Andrea's dress can be seen stained with iron ore carried in the open-top rail wagons.
Kristijan said everything was full of ore. Clothes, air, food, everything. It was a miracle we kept the white wedding dress mostly white for the shoot! In recent years, riding the iron train through the desert has become a rite of passage for extreme travel influencers, which have popped up on YouTube and other social media sites.
It is not for faint of heart. The 20 hour ride involves temperatures reaching more than 45 degrees Celsius in the day and below freezing at night. Winds also whip up iron ore dust.
Clambering aboard the 200 wagon train can also be fraught with hazard.
Kristijan says the trip to Mauritania exceeded expectations as a welcoming and underestimated tourist destination despite the hardships of their honeymoon photoshoot.
He said it has a lot to offer.
Local people managed to surprise us with a wedding ceremony in a village we visited. Andrea and I were dressed in their traditional wedding clothes, and it was a two-hour dancing, drumming and singing experience that I'll never forget.
Andrea and I got married twice! Kristijan said jokingly.
It was really not a typical honeymoon, but it was also the trip of our lives!