Ah, the shifting sands of the Sahara... I ran into Kourou Arkenne after I started a flight in the stock Baron 58 from Gibraltar with the idea of airport hopping as deep "into" the Sahara as I could. After arriving at Kourou Arkenne, it seems any direction you fly takes you back "out", so the Heart of the Sahara, Kourou Arkenne must be. Here's another weird bit: The RWY runs N-S, but the prevailing winds run E-->W, clearly visible as you zoom outm thus a perfect corss-wind! So much for proper airfield layout planning. I too ran into that odd picture from China you found on Panoramio. Reported the wrong geotag, but it hasn't been fixed yet. The mystery deepens... Cheers, - jahman.

But what's the thin black line maybe three miles east of the runway?

Yes! A highway! This is so odd: An airfield with a 9,560 ft runway in the middle of nowhere with what looks like a paved highway that goes by the arfield... completely without acknowledging the airfield even exists! AFAIK nearby major roads usually connect with airports, that's the whole idea! But in the case of Kourou Arkenne, you could just drive along that road and drive right past the airfield. (Airfield Sign: "Welcome to Kourou Arkenne Airfield, World's Gateway to ... Nowhere!") Even odder, the airfield seems to have a short 1 mile dirt access road (to what seems like some sort of a small-scale mining operation?), but leading to the West, i.e. in the opposite direction! In all fairness there are "just dirt tracks in the sand" leading from the northern end of the RWY in an ENE direction to the highway into Libya, and off the southern end of the southern under-run in a SE direction (parallel to the border) to the highway into Niger. There is another dirt track going off from the northern end of the northern under-run in a SW direction parallel to the border, but it fades-out into just sand before reaching some dark circuar rock formations. Now figure the cost of the paved highway, and figure the cost and strategic military value of the airfield: But none of this justifies the cost of a paved 2.5 mile road connecting the airfield with the highway? How odd. Cheers, - jahman.

Have a look at this: http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=424300 It is a log of a trip by someone called Giannisax from Tajarhi to Madama and you can see he makes a detour off the road to the airport. There is indeed a road running from the north (coming out of Libya) to the south (going into Niger). I've sent an email to Giannisax to see if he knows anything.

Have a look at this: http://www.wikiloc.c...ew.do?id=424300 It is a log of a trip by someone called Giannisax from Tajarhi to Madama and you can see he makes a detour off the road to the airport. There is indeed a road running from the north (coming out of Libya) to the south (going into Niger). I've sent an email to Giannisax to see if he knows anything.

That's an interesting find! I look forward to what he might have to say. Regarding the "roads" they seem to be just dirt tracks (see my previous post). The highway that runs N-S east of the airfield is/was one of the medieval trans-Saharan trade routes. The Zaoula-Bilma segment crosses the Libya-Niger frontier right at Kourou Arkenne: Also found Niger has important uranium deposits (of unfortunate fame), but they seem to be rather far away to justify building the airfield where they did, unless the remoteness of Kourou Arkenne is being exploited for sub-rosa exports of yellowcake to countries with no natural deposits of their own (or where consumption exceeds domestic production.)

...The reference above to China is kind of funny, because one of the geotagged pictures (to the south) is actually from China. Some sort of mistake obviously....or an inside joke? :)http://www.panoramio.com/photo/25207914

So is the mis-tag just a coincidence? You might be onto something! Word Uranium Minining Production: Also consider the the ICAO identifier Z23L for Kourou Arkenne (at least according to FSX) vs. the ICAO country prefixes for Libya ("HL"), Niger ("DR") and China ("Z"). ICAO Airport Code Prefixes by Country: Still, none of this theorizing would explain why the airfield was built in the first place (or maybe it does?) So why would Niger then place Kourou Arkenne over the border with Libya? The mystery deepens... Cheers, - jahman.

An unfortunate landing in the sands of Erg Ténéré (literally, the dune sea ("erg") of wilderness ("Tiniri")): Kourou Arkenne is at the north-east corner of Erg Ténéré. I think I'm going to go rent The Flight of the Phoenix tonight! F-BVRB Profile here. Cheers, - jahman.

Just found this. http://fs-duenna.com...ort.php?id=Z23L Strange how it says there 4 runways.

Introducing The Google Maps First Annual "Tripoli - Kourou Arkenne" Trans-Sahara Armchair Tourism Challenge!All for fun and no profit!

1. Start here at a 2 mile / 2 Km zoom scale.
2. Hail a virtual Taxi-Cab at Tripoli
3. Head South for Suani Ben Adem,
4. Then Al Aziziyah,
5. Then Fondigh esc Sebani,
6. Then Bu Gheilan Qhawasim,
7. Go South to Garyan,
8. Then Mizda,
9. Then Mazuzah,
10. Always South to B'ir Abu Al Ghurab,
11. South on to Qaryat,
12. SW to Ash Shwairif,
13. South to Qirah,
14. And on to Sabha,
15. 4 miles South to the fork,
16. Take the left,
17. SSW to Gadduwah,
18. Then right after Gadduwah,
19. Take the first left,
20. SE to Umm al Aranib,
21. Then South for about a mile,
22. Until you come to a "T".
23. Hang another leftie to the East,
24. After a mile and a half
25. Until you come to a fork.
26. Hang another leftie,
27. Continue to the NE and then ENE,
28. Pass Meseguin,
29. About a mile after the road hangs a right and goes SE,
30. After another 2 miles there's a crossroad,
31. Continue straight down to the SE.
32. Pass Al Qatrun,
33. Pass Al Bakki,
34. Zoom to 2,000 ft / 1 km,
35. The road heads South now,
36. To Al Wigh Airport.
37. Back-up 4 miles,
38. "Take the Road Less-Travelled!"
39. to the SE by hanging a right turn
40. (from the NE as you are backing-up from the airport).
41. This is where the fun starts: No more easy-to-follow Google Maps labels for you!
42. Make sure you switch to a 1 km scale here to follow the tracks on the desert floor.
43. The tracks (intermittently paved) will head East for a while and
44. Then turn to a generally SSW heading for the remainder of the journey,
45. Except for an S-turn to climb a ridge.
46. The tracks are a straight line for many miles at a time so they should be easy to follow.
47. The road is now paved again and
48. Goes almost south for a while,
49. Then turn to the SW,
50. Then South again.
51. If you get to the turn to the SSE and
52. Right after a turn the frontier post of Madama, Niger,
53. You've gone too far.
54. Back-up and go a mile North,
55. Then "take the first left",
56. Is a track in the sand heading to the NE that
57. Will take you to the under-run of Kourou Arkenne RWY 36.

Make sure you pack your own lunch because I understand the catering service at Kourou Arkenne is rather spotty. Now if some kind soul did the Sahara in photo-real scenery we'd be all set ... Fly around and stare long enough at the scenery, get to now the geography and the names of the places (most can be found on Wikipedia), and sure enough, you'll start to get that déjà-vu feeling that you've actually been to the place! Note there are some airports along the way you can then fly into and of course you can VFR your way along the roads and tracks you are now familiar with to see if you can find your way without GPS (Tile-Proxy required, no idea how well it would work.) Hope you enjoyed this cheap, cheap trek about the Sahara Desert! Cheers, - jahman.