The cart was so much bother that I stuffed myself on stamina food and hauled 20 stacks of ore across the map, stopping to drop most of it and regen stamina every once in a while, then pick it all back up and repeat. You can carry 30 elephants on your back, if you put them down to take a break once in a while, and the better your food gets, the longer you can go before you need to set them down too. Its risky, you have little stamina to fight with if you get ambushed, but if you move carefully, you can do it.