All language subtitles for Michael Palin Travels of a Lifetime 4of4 1080p BBC

Now, let's have a look.

Let's see what we've got here.

Oh, yes.

When I was growing up, I dreamed
of travel and adventure.

Bye, thank you.

Then one day that dream came true.

This is it.

I'm standing on the
top of the world.

For three decades, I've been lucky
enough to travel the world making

documentaries and sharing my
adventures with millions of viewers.

Michael Palin set the tone for,
I think, all travel TV today.

Oh, it's a bit like a very
friendly steam roller.

He came at the right time.

He had the right daring qualities.

He has huge warmth.

And it's a warmth that spreads
across all kinds of people.

Bye-bye.

Oh.

MICHAEL CHUCKLES
Look at that.

Now, for the first time,
I'm looking back.

INDISTINCT AUDIO ON TV

Oh, God.

My way of looking at each journey
as something different new, special,

exciting, dramatic and challenging,

as not really knowing exactly
how it was going to turn out.

I'd made three travel series -
80 Days,

Pole to Pole...
Sleep well?

..and Full Circle.

Those journeys all had a set
route and a finish line.

Now I was looking for a
different kind of challenge.

A trip that would take me to one
of the most mysterious,

least-visited parts of the Earth.

My wife and I, we had some holidays,
we went to Africa, we travelled

to Tanzania and Kenya.

It was on the way back from
one of these flights,

I sort of woke up early
in the morning and was looking

at the flight map.

There was Africa

and there was a great big sort
of bare, brown mass which took

up most of northern and western
Africa - the Sahara Desert.

I remember looking at it and
thinking,

"Now, that would be a
challenge.

"It just looks totally empty
and it's a vast area

"and it can't be empty.

"There must be things there".

I said, "There's going to
be something there,

"I'm sure we'll
discover these things,"

without knowing whether we would
or not. I just bluffed it.

I love that that's how Michael
Palin got the Sahara gig.

I love that idea.

"I wonder what's down there.

"I'll come back and explore that."

Isn't that brilliant? What a lucky
man he is, but totally deserved.

I had not travelled,
really, in the Sahara at all,

so it would be somewhere

that would offer maximum
surprise value, wonderment value,

all those things that are important
when you're starting to do a series.

I was very much aware that it
would be a difficult journey to do,

but that was one of the advantages.

If it had been easy to do,
lots of people would have done it.

I really wanted to show
that the Sahara

had a fascination, had a historical
background, had a modern life there,

which just people never saw.

But to start the journey,
we chose somewhere that felt

all too familiar...

Fire!

I always have bad dreams
before a new journey,

dreams of being late or
forgetting to pack my underwear

or being shot at.
Number four gun, fire!

What do I need? Maps, boots.

Stay calm.

Now, read the newspaper, might be
the last you'll see for a while.

My destination isn't that
far away now.

From here, you can almost see it.

It all seems so easy.

Last lunch on British soil whilst
looking out across

the Straits of Gibraltar to Africa.

What terrors can the Sahara
possibly hold when it's only 300

miles from a British Home Stores?

At 3,600,000 square miles,

the Sahara is the largest
hot desert on Earth.

It covers much of North Africa,
from Egypt in the east

to Morocco in the west, and contains
within it sprawling countries

like Algeria, Mauritania,
Mali and Niger.

Yet this vast land is only a short
ferry crossing from Europe.

Is there anywhere in the world
where two places are so close,

yet so utterly different?

I think as travellers we all
have these places

that you've always wanted to go.

And so for Michael, flying
over the Sahara and seeing

the expanse, the expansiveness of
the desert and being really drawn

to going to explore it, I think
as travellers, we all sort

of have those places and
really identify with that.

And then also as travellers,
understand that you go

to these places and they might not
be anything like you imagine

them to be.

There's no way of reaching
the Sahara without crossing

the Atlas Mountains, a series
of long, steep ranges that stretch

right across Morocco.

In amongst them are some of the
oldest cities in North Africa.

This is Fez,

thought by many to
be the most perfect medieval city

in the Islamic world.

Yes, a city of arches and alleyways.

Fez, which looked a bit severe
from the outside, many doors closed,

was in fact, you know, just
preserving itself and a way of life.

And a rather serene way of life,
which I hadn't really expected

and found fascinating.

Ah, good heavens.

That is amazing.

That's exactly how it looked
in the medieval times.

But it's extraordinary, first of
all, from these narrow passageways

you've suddenly got so much space
here, but also this...

I've never seen anything
like that anywhere.

That is incredible.

So what's going on here?

I mean, obviously, dying
and tanning, but...

It's different stages
of treatment of the hides.

So there's a washing machine there.

Then they get the hide into the
holes with some lime and pigeon poo.

Yeah, there's... Pigeon poo?
Pigeon droppings? Yeah.

Is that good for sort of
stripping the...?

Yes. It's got some sort of
acid with the...

And it also feeds the hide.

Yeah. Because it is quite a...quite
a pungent smell. It is.

Yeah, and then? And then after
that, they get them into these vats

where they are going to take
the final colour.

The great dying vats which were sort
of very, very pre-industrial,

people doing the work using their
feet in the blazing sunshine.

Can you believe people are still
doing that in this age?

Well, they were.

It's also like a great paint box.

I remember when I was young,
you know, I had a paint box,

I opened it up and put the water in
there, just like that.

Yeah, it's a nice comparison.

I was really reassured once we got
into the desert that this was not

going to be empty.

This was not going to be somewhere
where there was no activity at all.

All along the route
were reminders that

there had been a great
civilisation in the Sahara.

It gave me a feeling that
we were doing the right thing.

There was an enormous amount

of history, activity then and,
of course, now.

When I started to watch it, I
thought, "I don't really get it.

"Is it just he's going to a desert?"

Like, I didn't understand?

And then you think, "Oh, my
God, there's, you know,

"such different cultures here.

"There's so much
life and it's so different.

"And it's...it's...it's not
just desert.

"It's a whole other world."

From Marrakesh it's all
uphill to the Sahara,

passing, first of all, through the
land of the Berber people, one

of whom is my companion, Amina.

Though she spent so much time
working in America,

her accent is more mafia
than Moroccan.

Are we already in the Berber
villages? Yes, we are.

Yes, we are in the Berber villages.

They were the original
inhabitants of...of Morocco

before the Arabs came through,
is that right? Yes, absolutely.

We don't quite know the origins,
but they sure were here

before the Arabs, yeah.

Sorry to harp on about this
Berber thing,

but what are the
characteristics of the Berbers?

Warm people...

..very ambitious, hardworking.

You're a New Yorker,
really, aren't you?

Not really. I'm a Casaoui, as
they say in... Casaoui?

Casaoui, from Casablanca.

Oh, Casaoui, that's good,
I like that. Casaoui.

I'm from Sheffield.

I'm a Sheffielder-oui.

Talking of that, I must go and
find the toilet.

There's a progression throughout all
the different series that he does.

I think, really, in Sahara is

where he hit his stride
as a documentarian.

He spent more time getting under
the skin of a place in Sahara

than he had done previously.

There's nothing, just the
bare...bare rock.

I can't believe there's a
village up ahead.

There is, is there? Yes, um...
They're not fooling us?

No, they're not.

I hope they're not.

I'm sure they're not. He's laughing,

so I think we're OK. Is there a
restaurant that there?

The Berber village of Aroumd,

8,000 feet up in the Atlas,
is so well camouflaged,

you could easily miss it.

It looks cold and inhospitable,
but we're in for a surprise.

INDISTINCT CHATTER AND MUSIC

OK. Well, we're not going to be
the only ones eating here.

We have to share.

Is this the national dish,
tagine, of Morocco?

This is the tagine.
That's the tagine.

And in there... Oh, wow, wow.

It's meat, potatoes, olives.

Beans, are those beans
or are those olives?

Bea... No, olive.

THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE

The Berbers are a minority
in a predominantly Arab Morocco,

so a dance like this is celebrating
more than just a betrothal -

it's celebrating the survival
of their own culture.

Sahara wasn't a test of
endurance as Full Circle was,

and Pole to Pole was in
a certain way.

It was less of just physical
survival business and more actual...

..you know, relishing of what I was
seeing, learning more about...

..you know, how people were
and what they were doing.

When Muslims talk about
making a journey,

they always add,
"inshallah", "God willing".

It seems appropriate as we climb
towards the highest pass

on the Atlas Mountains.

Inshallah.

Well, now we've crossed the High
Atlas, we are, for the first time

in this journey, on the edge of real
desert, and yet the first village

we come to is perhaps one
of the most familiar on the planet.

If you've seen Gladiator,
you've seen it.

If you've seen Lawrence
of Arabia, you've seen it.

If you've seen Romancing
the Stone, you've seen it.

If you've seen the Four Feathers,
you've seen it.

If you've seen Sodom and Gomorrah,
which my parents took me

to as a treat, you've seen it.

Ait Ben Haddou is one of the great
film sets of the world.

The towers of Ait Ben Haddou
are beautiful,

but it's hard to tell which are made

of rich red desert earth,

and which are made of
four-by-two plasterboard.

In this Moroccan Hollywood, illusion
and reality play strange tricks.

This was the desert as fantasy,

but I was drawing ever closer
to the real thing.

From now on, signs of
life are few and far between.

The last river sinks into the sand,
the last salesmen make their pitch.

Quinze, quinze.

Where we have a "vingt", we
have a "quinze". Quinze?

How about "dix"? Dix?

The dates were delicious

and they brought back a memory
from my childhood,

something that might help to explain
my fascination with the Sahara.

"My father was in charge of the

"export department of a steelworks,

"and every Christmas, he received

"an enormous box of dates

"from their agent in Algeria.

"The illustration on the packet
fuelled powerfully romantic

"fantasies of somewhere hotter,
drier and even more exotic

"than South Yorkshire,

"a place where men with
turbans reclined

"under palm trees whilst
their faithful camels stood

"in picturesque silhouette
against the setting sun."

Now, all those years later,
I was actually about to visit

that imaginary world.

Right at the very end of Morocco,
where the wind really does blow

and it almost looks as though
there's a veil being drawn -

can you go through this, what will
you find on the other side?

That was when suddenly you were into
the reality of a desert world.

The Sahara is one of the harshest
environments on Earth,

but there are people for whom it's
home, and a home worth fighting for,

as I was to discover at my next
destination.

South and west of Morocco
lies the disputed territory

of Western Sahara.

It was once a Spanish colony,
but when they left in 1975,

the Moroccans moved in.

Those inhabitants who didn't want
to be Moroccan were forced to flee.

They were given land near
Tindouf in Algeria

for four temporary refugee camps,

which is where they still are
over a quarter of a century later.

The issue of refugees and people,
stateless people, within the Sahara

area was going to be a strong theme.

There were people crossing
the Sahara all the time.

There were people, so many people
coming from Sub-Saharan Africa

to try to get into Europe.

This was a very, very
powerful issue.

And these people had been in
these camps in...in Algeria
for many years.

And they were kept going by this
dream that they would eventually

be allowed back to their own land.

The tankers shuttle back and
forth across the desert

day in and day out.

Without them, Smara
camp would die of thirst.

My host, Bashir, has been a
refugee for half his life.

Well educated and well travelled,
he lived for a while in Leeds.

And that water is for
everything they need?

It's for their cooking, for
their washing, for their bathing?

Yeah, for everything except
for tea. Yeah.

Because this is a little bit
salty...relatively salty.

So it's a very good for cooking,
for washing, for everything,

but not for tea, because tea
needs a very good water.

And it needs unsalty water.

Unsalty water. Where does the
tea water come from?

Well, from another well, which is
very, very, very far from here.

And you can't see it. How far?

It's about...something
like 50 miles.

50 miles, for a cup of tea!
Yeah, yeah.

BASHIR CHUCKLES

How many people are there
in this Smara, in this camp?

In this camp, it's the second
largest camp of refugees

and we have something
like 40,000 people.

40,000. Do people have to pay
for their houses here?

Do they have to pay any rent or...?
No, absolutely nothing.

But education is free?

Education is free, health is free.
Water?

Water, transportation.

It is a delicate
balance between journalism

and then, you know, the
beauty of the place.

If you report on what you see,
there will be beautiful moments.

But you cannot deny, you know,
in some of these places, people

are living in absolute hardship
or how much they're impacted

by the history.

And you have to talk about that.

And I think Michael must
have learnt that.

That must have been his
progression along the way.

And he did it beautifully.

Before my next camel dinner,
I retire to the bathroom

for a quick shower,

whilst Bashir's wife conjures
up another meal for us all.

Sadly, the hot water isn't working.

Ooh!

Bashir, he said, "You must
come and stay.

"There are no hotels in
the refugee camp.

"But my wife and I will
put you up.

"We have a big...sort of outbuilding
where you can all sleep".

And so we did, jam packed
a bit together.

One loo dug into the ground.

So it was fairly basic.

We're moving on tomorrow,
on around the Sahara.

And one thing I'll remember about
Smara here, I mean,

apart from the way you've looked
after us with this magnificent
hospitality... Thank you.

..is that it's a very
well-organised, very well-run town.

And I keep forgetting it's a
camp and it's not a town.

It's a refugee camp.

You are, you know, to all
intents and purposes, refugees.

Your children have never
actually seen the country

in which you were born
and brought up in.

And I wonder what the future is.

I mean, how do you see
the future developing?

For us, the future is very clear.

We will fight, we will continue
this fight until the end.

"The considerable size of the
cemetery, a scattering of rocks

"and boulders just outside the town,

"suggests that life
expectancy is low.

"Bashir shakes his head vigorously.

"'It is 70, 80 years.

"'People don't die in the
desert, you know,' he said.

"In that case, the size of
the cemetery merely emphasises

"how long the Sahrawis have
been away from home."

I was in the same camp nearly a
decade after Michael,

and it hadn't changed very much.

People were still stuck
out there in the desert.

So it's now been 45 years
or so with nothing done.

Now, another generation
is growing up

who have not known their
own country.

Leaving our new friends behind,
we headed west across the desert

into Mauritania, land of the Moors.

Zouerat is a company town.

Rich iron ore deposits have
turned this corner

of the Sahara into a
multimillion-dollar asset.

Iron ore makes up almost half
of Mauritania's foreign earnings

and production goes on around
the clock to fill the huge trains

that carry it away.

Despite the presence of the mine,

Zouerat has pockets of
great poverty.

Here, everything is recycled - an
oil drum becomes not only the side

of a house, but the roof and
the doors and the garden wall.

Five years ago, this family
were farmers till drought forced

them into the town.

The outer wall of their tent is
made from material once used

to wrap mining explosive.

I wanted to know how
they stayed so happy.

Qu'est-ce qui fait vous
le plus heureux?

Quelle sorte de celebration?

"There is in all of this not a trace
of self-pity. They simply hope

"the rains will come and turn
the desert green again,

"enable them to return to the
life they know best.

"Meanwhile, home is a tent of
explosive sacks

"behind a fence made of oil drums.

"'What makes you happy?' I ask.

"Even Mother, nervously
twisting her beads,

"smiles as this
is translated to them.

"They don't even have to
think of the answer.

"'Whatever God gives
makes us happy.'"

You know.

Having that spirit when
they've got so little

is really inspiring, moving.

"Whatever God gives makes me happy."

What makes you really happy?

Talk to somebody who's living
in a house made of explosive

wrapping and not be doing
it from the point of,

"These people need your help".

You know, it's like, this
is...this is their lives,

this is their reality.

And this woman actually is trying
to look on the bright side of it.

So it's more humanising.

Often when you're travelling,
you encounter people

who are really having a tremendously
difficult time and it really makes

you reassess all sorts of
things about your own life.

And I think that happened
to Michael quite a lot.

It certainly happened to me.

It's a very humbling experience.

And I think that is what is very
special actually about that series.

It was my first time in this part
of Africa, but if my previous trips

to the continent had taught me
anything, it was how to approach

the question of train travel.

Every day, seven days a week,
iron ore trains more

than 2km long leave Zouerat

and unlikely as it may seem,
some of them carry passengers.

After a week in
backbreaking vehicles,

the chance to cross the desert by
rail is not one I can ignore.

I've got a ticket, but
I'm not quite sure what for.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

The railway officials
aren't over-helpful.

Their primary role seems to be
to stop anyone getting on.

I don't think he's very
keen to let us on there.

There was passenger accommodation
at the back, but whether you got

a ticket or not,
you just had to go for it.

But it is the only way of
getting through Mauritania.

There's one last hope, the recycling
bin at the back of the train.

MICHAEL SPEAKS IN FRENCH

I'm very confused but
I'm told this is first class,

even though you may be forgiven
for thinking it was rubbish class.

Well...

Here we go.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

The Iron Ore Express may
take a while to get going,

but then it is the longest
train in the world...

..probably.

The train was carrying me west
towards the Atlantic coast

and Senegal, a country which,
like Mauritania and several others

in this part of Africa, had once
been part of the French Empire.

If you look at the colonial world,

I mean, the Brits tended to go
to India, Australia.

The Sahara was French, really, the
people who colonised the Sahara

were the French, and we don't
do French history.

We're not interested in
French history.

And that, to me, gave it
another attraction.

Senegal has been
independent since 1960,

but seems to be in no hurry to
shake off the French connection.

Le Monde.

Combien Le Monde,
s'il vous plait?

Neuf?

And by sad coincidence,
today's headlines

mark the death of another French
hero, the singer Charles Trenet.

Merci.

Charles Trenet est morte.

# La mer

# La-la, la-di... #

Down here it's like a huge
department store,

you've got handbags,
ladies' underwear.

PEOPLE SHOUT INDISTINCTLY TO TRAIN

There really is no better way
to get the feel of a country

than on a train.

Train journeys offer
a captive audience,

a perfect chance to meet people
and learn about their lives.

I get talking to an English teacher
called Dade on the perennial topic

of husbands and wives and
how many of each.

Yes. Islam entered Africa and men
said that, "OK, the Koran said

"that since we are Muslim,
we can marry up to four wives".

I am against that.

Why? Let's say, first of all,
I'm jealous.

I don't want to share my husband.

And in second...

In every polygamist house...

..there is always trouble.

Because four wives,
you know, are jealous.

Sometimes they finish
before the judge.

Because most of the time,
the husband, he got, you know,

one house and all the four
wives they live, you know,

in the same house.

And you know, you
can't imagine that.

Everybody would like, you know,

the man to love her better and
they put some powder in the food

or in the water, you know,
things like that.

Or sometimes when one of the
wives is sick, for example,

she's going to say, "OK,
that's my co-wife, she's a witch."

My destination was Mali's
capital, Bamako.

Luckily, I wasn't in a hurry.

My experience of African train
schedules during the filming

of Pole to Pole had taught me that
they are flexible and so must I be.

Well, we've now completed 33 hours
of the supposedly 35-hour journey,

but we've still... We're becalmed
here at some station on the way.

We're still ten hours away
from Bamako.

We've stopped because
this train came in.

It was occupying the single
track line up there.

But our progress is a matter of
considerable chance at the moment.

Whether we'll get there in 10 hours
or 15 or 20 hours,

I just don't know.

It's...

..in the lap of the gods.

Well...

KIDS SHOUT INDISTINCTLY

Bye-bye.

It's always a good sign
we're actually moving.

That's very encouraging.

A little cloud of dust up
in the front.

I can't quite seem to see the
engine, but we are on the move.

We are heading towards Bamako
and we're only ten hours late.

The ancient town of Djenne circled
by the waters of the Bani River,

is our next stop on the
road to Timbuktu.

I've hired a Mobylette to drive
myself around what many consider

to be the most beautiful of
all the cities of the Sahara.

One of the great buildings of the
world, the mud mosque in Djenne.

Utterly extraordinary. I've never
seen anything quite like that.

The buildings themselves are made
from the sand and the wet mud

of the desert.

The most striking thing
about Mali, and indeed about

most of West Africa, is that it's,
you know, it may be sandy,

a bit drab, but the colours of the
costumes are extraordinary.

Everyone is dressed to kill.

Just... And this is an
everyday market, really.

And yet almost everybody
has got a different outfit

from the other people.

I think they're aware of their
own beauty, their own sort

of need to...to show that they've
thought about what they're wearing.

And there's boring old presenter
in his Oxford button-down and jeans.

What tribal people are you from?

I'm Fulani. I'm half Fulani.
You're Fulani? Yeah. Half Fulani.

What's the other half?
My father, the other half...

Pigme was my guide, very cheery.

I heard that you met your
wife in the market.

Is that true?

If I met...
Yeah, I met her on the market.

Yeah. She's Fulani and she was...
And you're Fulani.

Yes, I'm Fulani, but for me,
it wasn't necessary

to be Fulani or not.

Yeah. For me, only she was nice.

She was very nice for me.

Then every time when I come
she would bring milk -

because she sold milk. Yeah.

And for me every time when she
come I see her and she was pretty,

young, nice.

Yeah. And for me, I was always
happy to be with her.

Can you tell a Fulani woman
here in the crowd?

Yeah. Example, she's a Fulani woman.

She's a Fulani girl. Why?

She's the cousin of my wife.

Oh, right.
She's the cousin of your wife.

He just happened to find her here.

At Pigme's house, the wife he met
over milkshakes in the market

is having her feet hennaed
by an older woman,

who suggests there was
more to the relationship

than simply buying milk.

SHE SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

I think there's another side to
this story, which is much more

interesting.
You see, what she said...

What did she say?

She said if you fall in
love with a girl,

and you try one time with
her and it's nice...

Yeah. ..you can't leave her alone,
you will follow her everywhere.

She says the same thing,
but it is not true.

For a Malian man and woman,
before you get married,

are you allowed to
have time together?

Can you sleep together?

Me, her... Yeah.

..since the day I get married,
I never know her before.

Like lovely or sleep together.

I never do that with her.

Before I get married, never.

But for the village's people,

for them, it was strange because
they don't believe I never

make love or something with her.

I like Pigme and I like the fact
that he overcame his parents'

objections to marry the
woman he wanted.

These are not people oppressed
by living in a...in a sort

of near-desert environment.

They were... They were sort of
making absolutely the most of it

and having, you know... There
was a real life there.

And there was...there was a future
potential, even though a lot

of these countries were quite poor.

Enthralling as Djenne was,
it was time to move on

deeper into the desert,
not by train this time,

but boat, up the River Niger itself.

There's no denying the sense
of anticipation

as we finally get under way.

There's no restaurant as such on
board, but food is always available

from the kitchen, which is,
well, just about anywhere.

In a sense, this was
the climax of my journey

so far because I was finally drawing
close to surely one of the most

legendary and evocative places
in all of Africa, if not the world -

Timbuktu.

The seeds had been sown a long time
ago. In my case, I can remember

the first book I was ever given
by my dad was The Arabian Nights.

It was all stories of sort
of the desert world,

the world of the Middle East and
Africa and North Africa

and all that.

So there was a sort of sand dunes
and that kind of world

and date palms and camels was
never far from my mind.

Well, here I am in Timbuktu.

Never, ever thought in my entire
life I'd find myself in a place

like this, but if you're interested
in places, names, the significance

of names and places, geography,
Timbuktu is one of the great names.

Great trading city of the
Middle Ages in...in Africa.

Now quite run down, but still
rather a thrill to be there.

CALL TO PRAYER

In a way, it was still
rather sensational,

certainly a building like this.

This great mosque here in Timbuktu
is an extraordinarily powerful

and quietly affecting building.

It's built on almost 100 columns

and it creates a sort
of forest of cool

in this cauldron of heat outside.

It was originally
constructed in 1325,

and just the sheer scale of the
place is testimony

to the power of the Islamic
presence here in the Middle Ages.

Extremely atmospheric.

I love the fan there,

somehow it just reminds you
this is the modern world.

16th century.
MAN SPEAKS IN FRENCH

The imam has a collection of
scientific texts

that clearly show the planets
circling the sun.

They date back hundreds
of years, preserved, I assume,

by the dry desert air.

It's convincing evidence that
the scholars of Timbuktu

knew a lot more than their
counterparts in Europe.

Something nice about Sahara
is the pace of it.

They took more time at each
individual place,

and, like, seeing parts of Africa
that we don't get to see day-to-day.

It's fascinating.

And they were so open to him
being there as well.

Quinzieme ou quatorzieme?

Quatorzieme siecle.
Quatorzieme siecle.

Quatorzieme siecle.

Essentially, a nicer way
to do the journey

is to pause and meet the people.

And cos, of course,
that's what it's all about.

Otherwise, we can be a little
bit like, you know, touristic

about these things. It is
about meeting the people.

SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

When there's characters you meet
along the way who you can vibe

with and have conversation with,
that definitely helps, especially

if you're stopping long enough to
really get to know them a little
bit.

And I think over the course of
Michael's career, those pauses

became longer and
that adds its own magic.

You have a chance to sort of have
some very intense views of fairly

small tribes and how they
worked and their life

and why they did what they did,
where they travelled to,

how they dressed,
what their problems were.

So we're looking at fewer people,
but much more intensely.

COCKEREL CROWS

East of Timbuktu, the Sahara
is virtually inaccessible

to all but the nomads who move
their cattle across it. Once a year,

they all have a get-together
at Ingal, in the Republic of Niger.

These are the Wodaabe, a tall,
elegant people thought originally

to have come from Ethiopia.

They walk and ride hundreds
of miles every year,

seeking pasture for their cattle.

They move camp every six
or seven days,

so all they own must be portable.

Recent rains have brought food
and water, and they must take every

advantage of these conditions
to fatten their cattle.

The Wodaabe grow no food, so without
the animals they would not survive.

CACOPHONY OF ANIMAL NOISES

The fattening of the animals
on the salt grass is celebrated

at an annual festival called
Cure Salee - the Salt Cure.

This great gathering of the nomadic
clans is now only days away.

ALL SING ONE NOTE CONTINUOUSLY

And as I discovered, a key part of
these celebrations is a remarkable

courting ritual, the Gerewol.

The young men go to enormous lengths
to make themselves irresistible.

This means plenty of make-up, exotic
hairdressing, the ability to repeat

the same song and the same movement
for hours on end,

and some very fancy eye work.

When you got to see the tribe,
all these rituals that they had,

it's fascinating, it's incredible.

And for that to be captured on
camera, and I hope long may those

traditions continue and, you know,

the Western world doesn't impose and
try and change them.

How long do they dance for?

Something like seven days.

Seven days? Yes.
Seven days?!

Now it's the girls' turn.
Once decked out in all their finery

by doting mothers, aunts
and grannies, they will parade

in front of the boys and make
their choice of partner.

Now comes the time for the girls to
play their part in the ceremony.

SINGING CONTINUES

Do they come forward?

Yes, people, like women,
want to see this.

Though the girls have the
right to choose,

it looks to be more of an ordeal
than a privilege.

Their choice must be made in
full view for everyone to see.

Nerves are beginning to show.

NOTE CHANGES TONE SLIGHTLY

Do the girls...? Do they choose,
they choose one boy?

Yes. They go up and they put
their hand on one?

Maybe one woman, maybe two.

Ah, oh, right. Ah. Yes.

Guided by the mistress of
ceremonies, each girl walks the line

until contact is made and the choice
announced in the traditional way.

WHOOPING

Now, the worst is over. Her chosen
one will meet up with her later.

He's hers for the night.

There's an ease and there's
sort of investigation,

but in a...in a lovely,
curious way.

It's about curiosity, really,

and about really taking
one step at a time.

And I think that is really
what Michael Palin does so well.

For me, the Wodaabe are some
of the most remarkable people

I've met on any of my travels.

Their way of life felt
like something outside time.

But of course, this was an illusion.

They lived in the 21st century,
like the rest of us.

A world that, although it felt far
away, was about to deliver a shock.

"I'm standing on the small roof
terrace of the Pensione Tellit,

"in Agadez. There's only one tall
building in town, and that's

"the minaret of the Grand Mosque,
a pyramid of mud, stones

"and projecting wood beams,
which rises high

"above the surrounding town.

"I'm staring at it now as my wife,

"on the other end of a
satellite phone,

"is describing the almost
unbelievable destruction of

"two other iconic towers,
6,000 miles away in New York."

We're in Niger, which I think
is the second-poorest country

in the world. The people there
weren't moved at all

by what was happening in New York.
They barely knew about it.

But, by the end of the journey,
I was aware that there were problems

that were going to be exacerbated
by what had happened in New York.

Some of the jihadi groups working
in the Sahara, which had been fairly

small, were beginning to get...

..er, were encouraged
by what had happened.

In the years that followed,

many of the places we visited
in the Sahara became overrun

by Islamic extremists. Travel
to much of Mali, and Niger

became all but impossible.

And, tragically, Timbuktu was an
inaccessible place once more.

We were now deep in the Sahara,
some 2,000 miles from the sea,

and we were about to go deeper
on foot, accompanying a camel train

in temperatures of up to
55 degrees centigrade.

We're ready to go.

Everything we need for the journey
has to be carried on the backs

of the camels, except, of course,
fresh food which walks alongside.

Well, here we go.

Not quite sure about me yet.

Come on, come on!

MEN SPEAK IN OWN LANGUAGE

Well, this is it. It's not quite
what I expected

when I'd, er... Camel rides on the
beach or once around the pyramids.

This is the real thing.
Start of the train.

I've failed already.

I got him a few yards anyway!

If you really want to get
to the heart of the Sahara Desert

and the people who live in the heart
of the desert,

you have to really go with
the Tuareg.

They're the main nomads who take
the camel trains with salt,

going across the desert. The old way
of life. And we were very lucky

to find a group who were happy
to take us across the desert -

the hottest, most difficult
part of the desert.

The camel, or dromedary,

as these single-humped animals are
sometimes called,

is a marvellous desert machine.

Their weight is so finely
distributed that they leave barely

a mark in the sand. Provided
they have somewhere to graze,

they can last two weeks
without water, and they can carry

loads of up to 500lbs
over enormous distances.

Camels changed the history
of the Sahara.

Without them, 2,000 years of trade,
war, expansion and exploration

would never have happened.

They're quite brilliant,
although they look, you know,

an animal designed by committee
is just about right, really.

This is camel land.

Heart of the Sahara.

It's getting now to midday, the
peak of heat. We're seeking a tree.

We just have to keep drinking lots
and lots of water, that's obvious.

The other thing which is nice about
it is just you go at the...

The camels sort of dictate the pace
but also the mood.

It's the sort of continuous,
sort of unchanging rhythm.

I mean, you know, there are good
things about it. There are no flies!

Not getting bitten by anything.

There's no undergrowth to catch
your clothing on or get jabbed by

or anything like that. But, erm...

There's very little scope
for action.

A lot of scope for imagination,
so you think a lot.

Like why do they even suggest doing
this in the first place?

Just a joke.

Oh, a tree!

THEY SPEAK IN OWN LANGUAGE

Hey!

HE CHUCKLES

The main social event of the day
is the evening meal.

Usually bread, dates and cheese.

But tonight, in my honour,
there'll be a stew as well.

Everyone has a job to do.

Omar and Isambar slaughter
the sheep.

Osman bakes bread in a sand oven,

and Musa plaits some fresh twine
to secure the camel loads.

I'm still recovering.

Thick and coarse and heavy.

THEY TALK IN OWN LANGUAGE

It's more like cake, really.

Chunk of cake you used to
have at school.

Mm!

Nice hard crispy outside.

Mm. Tastes good.

HE SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

You see, you can have a joke
with them.

They're absolutely... A good sense
of humour.

They laughed at me a lot.

Whether they laughed with me, I
don't know,

but they thought I was kind
of quite...

..a character.

You have to get the emphasis right.

Probably means, you know...

ATTEMPTS DIFFERENT LANGUAGE

Humour is a very dangerous and
yet potent tool.

And it all depends
on where the humour lies.

THEY ALL LAUGH

I think Michael by and large walks
that path really well,

because you can see in his heart
he's a humanist,

he loves people,
and so it's soft, it's gentle.

It's not... It's not pointed
in any way.

HE SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

For me? Ah, thank you.

THEY LAUGH

Is hot?

It's hot.

It's hot. It's very hot.

It's good. Mm.

We're now into what my French
guidebook calls desert absolu.

Absolute desert.

The Earth stripped clean,
as bare as a glacier,

as featureless as the sea.

The outside world is so far away
as to be almost irrelevant.

I can understand why so many
religions were born in the desert.

The outside is so hostile,
you have to look inside.

Finally, the scorching sun set
and we made camp.

A tiny, comforting haven

in the immense emptiness that
surrounded us.

This indeed was
the desert of my imagination.

INDISTINCT BACKGROUND CHATTER

Oh, pour moi? Merci. Merci.

Oh, this is a bit of the
cheese, yeah.

Mm.

Mm.

Goma. Tacoma.

You're going teach me
another word, aren't you? Tacoma.

Tacoma. Tacoma?

Olivuto.

Mm? Olivuto.

Olivuto.

THEY LAUGH

You're teaching me rude words!

These little Tuareg soirees!

Mm. Cheese is nice. Very nice.

Cheers.

En Anglais.

Cheers. Cheers.

Down the hatch!

Bottoms up. Bottoms up.

Bottoms up?

Bottoms... Bottom.

Bottom. Bottom.

Bottoms. Bottoms.

Up. Up.

Yeah, great.

THEY LAUGH

Bottoms up! Bottoms up.

Bottoms up. Bottoms up.

Well...

..genius.

I mean, that's such a lovely scene.

God bless Her Majesty.

Yeah, you really feel it there.

You feel the rapport,
the connection.

And that's what you get
when you put the time in.

You know, he did the walking,
he was there on the ground,

and that's the reward.

It's like a warmth, a real
warmth of friendship,

and it's really beautiful to see.

Merci. Merci.

Bon voyage.

Merci, merci. Merci.

Merci, merci, merci.

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

Bottoms up!

My walk with the Tuareg had taken me
as far into the deep

Sahara as anyone could go.

OK.

Now, then, which way? Yes.

And they'd shown me once again
that bridges can be built

across barriers of language or
culture, if we just take the time

and keep our minds and hearts open.

My journey was nearly at an end.

From the heart of Niger,

we made our way back towards Europe,

across Algeria, Libya and Tunisia.

This Kasbah sounds as
though it's coming to life.

Things are happening.

As I finally crossed back
to Gibraltar, I felt a sense

of regret that the friends I'd made
in the Sahara would be seen by some

Europeans as a threat.

There is a danger in becoming
obsessed with our own security.

There may be enemies at the gate,
but locking them out

may only create more enemies.

When I set out, I always thought
of Gibraltar as the bridge

between Europe and Africa,
but now I've finished the journey,

I think what's more important
for the future is that the Sahara

is the bridge from Africa
into Europe.

And that, for me, gets
to the essence of why I travel.

I think travel does help to keep
your mind open. It's questioning,

discovering...never finding
the exact answer to anything.

And I've often said travelling
is more about asking questions

than finding answers.

I was 45 when I started travelling.

I've lost count of the countries
I've visited

and the people I've met.

But at the heart of it all has been
the satisfaction of seeing

others as we see ourselves,

not as strangers, but as partners
living,

working and hopefully protecting
the world we all share.

Physically, I probably couldn't do
all those things now.

I don't particularly mind that.
I'll still travel, I'll still read,

I'll still think

about my own journeys and what
I've learned from them,

and I'll still be curious, but
what this has done is enable me

to explore and remember things that
I've not yet expressed before.

So it's really like looking into a
very, very nice, busy,

old, you know, storeroom.

Climbing up and finding,
"Oh, here's another bit!"

Which I suppose to some people
who will say, "Oh, yeah,

"God, I hope he doesn't find
any more."

HE CHUCKLES

But I've enjoyed it.