Sahara with Michael Palin

Season 12002

In this four-part BBC documentary, former Monty Python funnyman and renowned globe-trotter Michael Palin sets off from Gibraltar to travel across the Sahara, his witty humor downplaying the hardships he faces along the arduous journey. He travels to Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and beyond, across some of the harshest terrain on the planet.

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4 Episodes

E01 A Line in the Sand

Michael lands at Tangier in Morocco after crossing the Straits of Gibraltar, and passes through the High Atlas mountains after brief stops in Fez and Marrakesh. From here, the Sahawari people help him to negotiate the harsh, rugged terrain and guide him south to the Mauritanian border.

October 13, 2002

E02 Destination Timbuktu

After a brief stopover in cosmopolitan Senegal, Michael endures two nights aboard the train to Bamako, where he meets up with the renowned kora player Toumani Diabete. Meanwhile, the Dogon people of West Africa introduce Michael to some of their origin myths, and a trip down the River Niger turns out to be far from plain sailing.

October 20, 2002

E03 Absolute Desert

Michael reaches Timbuktu along with a camel train carrying the giant salt blocks that made the city one of the greatest centres of Islamic learning up until the 16th century. He wanders through the rubble that is 21st century Timbuktu to find the Imam who shows him original astronomical textbooks that predate Galileo's discoveries by 200 years.

October 27, 2002

E04 Dire Straits

Michael arrives at the border of Niger and Algeria, the most desolate crossing, and then turning north Michael passes through the mountains of the Hoggar massif before pausing in the oil and gas fields of central Algeria. Then onto Libya to attend the very last reunion of the Desert Rats of Tobruk, before turning west along the North Coast past deserted classical sites at Apollonia, Cyrene and Leptis Magna.

November 3, 2002

Sahara with Michael Palin

E01 A Line in the Sand

E02 Destination Timbuktu

E03 Absolute Desert

E04 Dire Straits

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E01 A Line in the Sand

E02 Destination Timbuktu

E03 Absolute Desert

E04 Dire Straits