Arlit and the Air (pronounced I-Ear) Mountains

Arlit is a three hour drive north of Agadez and could not be more different. While Agadez has been settled and important in th history of the region for over 1000 years, Arlit was built in the 1960s when uranium was discovered under the sands of the Sahara. For several decades, Niger boomed, and while the price of uranium has fallen, still is responsible for 1/3 of Niger's exports. We had to visit one of the mining company offices at the mines to get permission to conduct our survey in the miner's quarters, which had been randomly selected for the survey.

The miner's houses are built in very mod (1960's) squares, with blocks and straight streets, very unlike the rest of Niger.
Arlit's climate is noticeably different than Agadez, as Arlit is in the true Sahara. It was about 105 in the shade and I pulled my thermometer out of the sun after it hit 115. It was a dry heat, and even 95 degrees at night felt pleasant with the desert breeze. After we finished mapping the quarters in Arlit that has been selected, we set out for the villages that had been selected in the Air mountains. You have to get across about 60 km of desert first, which is not trackless, but has many intersecting tire treads, and unless you bring a good guide to set you on the right one to enter one of the narrow passes into the mountains, you could end up in Algeria.

The sand and fine gravel are occasionally punctuated by large boulders and few sparse, stunted trees. When it rains it the desert, water puddles stand all around for a few days.

We traveled in a convoy of our vehicle, two teams, and a logistician. In the end, we were glad we had so many of us traveling together. It was a lot of fun to race across the sand together.
Since there had been sporadic banditry in the mountains, we picked up an armed escort from a military base in Arlit. They were Tuareg, and I really enjoyed interacting with them.

One rode in our vehicle in front, and three piled into the back of the logistician's (Idrissa's) truck. With their fatigues, turbans, and rifles, they looked like some sort of desrt militia, but you feel so safe when you know they're your guys. I love this picture of Idrissa with the thumbs up out the window!

Eventually, the desert gives way to rocks, which give way to boulders, and you start climbing into the mountains. We stopped for a photo op here.