Michael Palin is off again, this time to the seemingly desolate Sahara
Desert. There's no easy way across, as he and his team discover on their
most challenging expedition yet.
From a starting point in Gibralter, Michael makes his way to Morocco,
then over the Atlas Mountains to the little-known countries of
Mauritania, Mali, and Chad. He travels on the longest train in the
world, meets with the Paris-Dakar Rally in the middle of nowhere, and
sees the world's largest mud mosque before arriving in Timbuktu.
Then it's a journey with nomadic herders and a camel caravan, to Algeria
and a recently re-opened Libya. Finally, Michael returns to the
classical remains of Tunisia, where Life of Brian was filmed and he
was crucified.
The mysterious, barren desert is revealed to be a place full of people,
landscapes, and stories, a vibrant land with a history of civilisation,
trade, and conquest stretching from the ancient Egyptians to the
oil-rich Islamic republics of today.
