Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime (2020) s01e04 Episode Script
Sahara
MICHAEL:
Now, let's have a look.
Let's see what we've got here.
Oh, yes.
MICHAEL (VO): When I was growing up,
I dreamed of travel and adventure.
CROWD CHATTERS
Bye. Thank you!
MICHAEL (VO):
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.
Ooh! Ah
It's a bit like a very friendly steamroller.
He came at the right time,
he had the right daring qualities.
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH:
He has huge warmth.
And it's a warmth that spreads across
all kinds of people.
Bye—bye, Kazmir. Oh!
HE CHUCKLES
Oh! Look at that!
MICHAEL (VO):
Now, for the first time, I'm looking back.
MICHAEL ON TAPE: Laying her down
in What must've been my old bed
Oh, God.
tucking her up, making her comfortable.
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.
MICHAEL (VO):
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 trio 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, in Kenya
and 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, um, 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
the Sahara Desert.
I remember looking at it and thinking,
"Now, that would be a challenge."
It just looks totally empty,
yet it's a vast area
and it can't be empty.
There must be things there.
I said, there's gonna 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, "Oh, I wonder
what's down there?"
"I'll come back and explore there".
Isn't that brilliant?
What a lucky man he is,
but totally deserved.
I'd 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
um, journey to do,
but that was one of the advantages.
If it had been easy to do,
lots of people would've done it.
I really wanted to show that the
the Sahara had a fascination,
had a historical background.
It had a modern life there
which, just people never saw.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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?
KARI HERBERT: I think, as travellers,
we all have these places
that you 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.
MICHAEL IN VIDEO:
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, 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, um
I hadn't really expected,
and found fascinating.
Ah, good heavens!
That is amazing!
MAN: It's exactly how it looked
in the Medieval times.
MICHAEL:
It's extraordinary, first of all it
From these narrow passageways
— Yeah.
you've suddenly got so much space here.
— Yeah.
But also this
I mean, I've never seen anything
like that anywhere.
That is incredible.
MICHAEL: I was really reassured
once we got into the desert
that this was not going to be empty.
There was not going to be somewhere
where there was no activity at all.
All the way 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.
NICOLA COUGHLAN:
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.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: From Marrakesh,
it's all uphill to the Sahara
CAR HORN BEEPS
passing first of all, through the land
of the Berber people
one of whom is my companion, Amina.
Are we already in the Berber villages?
— Yes, we are.
Yes, we are in the Berber villages.
They were the original
inhabitants of Morocco
before the Arabs came through.
Is that right?
— Yes, absolutely.
We don't quite know the origin side.
— Hmm.
But, um, they sure were here
before the, the Arabs, yeah.
PEOPLE SING
— DRUMS SOUND OU
METAL CLANGS RHYTHMICALLY
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: 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.
MICHAEL:
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, um
you know, how people were
and what they were doing.
When you watch some travel shows
it feels like the people who are there
already know what
they're talking about.
Um, and everything when
on Michael's journeys,
felt like a new experience.
As he's traveling, you know,
you see the unedited version of his travels.
You know, it feels like,
it feels really accessible
You feel, "Yes," you know,
he is the kind of guy
that I'd go on holiday with
and, you know,
and that place is accessible.
I know it's far flung but I could do it.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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.
BUS HORN HONKS
The last river sinks into the sand.
The last salesmen make their pitch.
Quinze, quinze.
There we have a vingt,
we have a quinze.
Yes, yes. Tiens!
— Quinze?
Oui, oui, tiens.
— How about dix?
dix
HE LAUGHS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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."
MICHAEL (VO):
Now, all those years later
I was actually about to visit
that imaginary world.
MICHAEL (VO): 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.
MICHAEL ON TAPE: 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.
MICHAEL:
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
um, in
in Algeria for, for many years
and they were kept going by this dream
that they would eventually be
allowed back to their own land.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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.
MICHAEL:
How many people are there in this camp?
BASHIR:
In this camp, it's, er
it's the second largest camp of refugees
and we have here
something like 40,000 people.
Forty thousand? Do people have to pay
for their houses here?
Do they have to pay any rent or anything?
— No, no. Absolutely nothing.
But education is free?
Education is free.
— Yeah.
Health is free.
Water?
— Water, transportation.
Yeah.
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.
Um, and you have to talk about that
and I think Michael must have learnt that.
That must have been his progression
um, along the way,
and he did it beautifully.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Before my next camel dinner
I retire to the bathroom
for a quick shower
whilst Bashir's wife, Krikiba,
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, um, er
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.
I suppose we're all quite sceptical now of
when we're watching things like this,
did he actually stay with them
or did he have a Winnebago sort of trailer
bought around the back?
I think we trust Michael, don't we?
If Michael says he stayed with them,
he did stay with them.
MICHAEL:
"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."
SIMON REEVE: 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.
MICHAEL (VO):
Leaving our new friends behind
we headed west,
across the desert into Mauritania
land of the Moors.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Zouerat is a company town.
Rich iron ore deposits have turned
this corner of the Sahara
into a multi—million—dollar asset.
Iron ore makes up almost half
of Mauritania's foreign earnings
and production goes on round the clock
to fill the huge trains that carry it away.
TRAIN HORN BLARES
Despite the presence of the mine,
Zouerat has pockets of great poverty.
METAL CLANGS
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.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
MICHAEL:
Qu'est—ce que, que, er
Que faites—vous
le plus le plus heureux?
Quelles sont tes célébrations?
"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?
ED BYRNE:
To 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
it's like, this is their lives,
this is the reality, and this woman
actually, is trying to look
on the bright side of it.
So, it's more humanising.
We start to recognise that, yeah,
they live a different life
but there's a beauty to it
even amongst the difference and the poverty.
Yeah, there's still
there's still an existence and a joy to it.
And I think that is the case,
I don't want to romanticise poverty
that's a terrible thing to do,
but don't just demean and diminish
other people's lives,
Michael doesn't do that.
Often when you're traveling,
you encounter people who are really
um, 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.
TRAIN HORN BLARES
MICHAEL (VO):
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.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: I've got a ticket,
but I'm not quite sure what for.
CROWD CHATTERS
INDISTINCT CHATTER
The railway officials aren't over—helpful.
Their primary role seems to be
to stop anyone getting on.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
Don't think he's very keen
to let us on there.
SIMON: Ah, it's the famous Palin
boarding the train sequence!
He doesn't know what the hell he's doing,
the crew have just stood back.
The railway officials aren't over—helpful.
— How has he got such an ironed shirt there?
CROWD CHATTERS ON VIDEO
— Oh, I've been in that situation.
Come on, quickly, Michael,
the train's gonna go!
Fight your way through.
Oh, it's chaos, I love it.
MICHAEL: 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.
CROWD CHATTERS
INDISTINCT CHATTER
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
There's one last hope.
The recycling bin at the back of the train.
Premiere classe?
Cette voiture?
I'm very confused,
but I'm told this is First Class.
Even though you might be forgiven
for thinking it was
rubbish class.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
— Uh—huh?
Here we go.
OK.
— Allez—y, allez—y.
BELL DINGS
INDISTINCT CHATTER
BELL DINGS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: The Iron Ore Express
may take a while to get going
but then it is the longest train
in the world.
Probably.
MICHAEL (VO):
The train was carrying me west
to wards 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.
Down here, it's like a huge department store.
You've got handbags, ladies' underwear
— CROWD CHATTERS
Hello!
Here we are, look, fantastic!
MICHAEL (VO): There really is no better way
to get the feel of a country than on a train.
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.
Our progress is a matter of considerable
chance at the moment
whether we'll get there in ten hours or
fifteen or 20 hours,
we just don't know, it's
in the lap of the gods.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: The ancient town of Djenné,
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.
The most striking thing about Mali
indeed about most of West Africa
is that it's, you know
that maybe it's sandy, a bit drab
but the colours of the costumes
are extraordinary.
Everyone is dressed to kill.
Just 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.
Oh, right, half Fulani.
What's the other half?
My father, the other half
Pigmy.
Er, was my guide. Very cheery.
Can you tell a Fulani woman
here in the crowd?
Yeah, yeah, example.
She's a Fulani woman.
Yeah?
— OK, she's a Fulani girl.
She is one She's the cousin of my wife.
Oh, right!
— You can see
She's a cousin of your
We just happened to find her here!
You can see him learning
as he's going on his journey
which is crucial
because if he's not learning, then he can't
pass anything on to the viewers.
So, it was always great to see his
genuine excitement about something
and a discovery,
or just chatting to someone
and getting some information out of them
and him being genuinely interested
in their lives.
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 a future potential
even though a lot of these countries
were quite poor.
MICHAEL (VO):
Enthralling as Djenné was
it was time to move on,
deeper into the desert
not by train this time, but boat
up the River Niger itself
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 have been sewn 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, er
sand dunes, and that kind of world
and date palms and camels
was never far from my mind.
ROOSTER CROWS
Well, here I am in Timbuktu.
I 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.
ROOSTER CROWS
Great trading city
of the Middle Ages in Africa.
Now, quite run down
but still rather a thrill to be there.
DISTANT CALL TO PRAYER SOUNDS OU
NICOLA: Something nice about Sahara
is the pace of it.
They took more time at each individual place
and 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.
Quinzième ou quatrième?
Quatorzième siècle.
— Quatorzième.
Quatorzième siècle.
— Quatorzième siècle.
BRUCE PARRY: 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.
HE CHANTS
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
that adds its own magic.
The reason to travel is for people, and
as a result, there'll always be an almost
infinite number of stories to hear
because we, as a species,
are always changing and developing
and shifting and moving
and being born and dying
so, you can never hear enough
stories out there
you can never meet enough people,
I think.
MICHAEL: 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, looking at fewer people,
but much more intensely.
ROOSTER CROWS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: 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.
BELLS TINKLE
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.
COW MOOS
INDISTINCT CHATTER
ANIMALS BLEAT AND BRAY
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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.
ANIMALS BLEAT AND BRAY
The fattening of the animals
on the salt grass
is celebrated at an annual festival
called Cure Salée
the "salt cure".
This great gathering of the Nomadic clans
is now only days away.
THEY SING IN TRADITIONAL STYLE
MICHAEL (VO): And as I discovered,
a key part of these celebrations
is a remarkable courting ritual
the Guérewol.
THEY SING IN TRADITIONAL STYLE
NICOLA: When you get 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 that, you know, the Western world
doesn't impose and try and change them.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
And do the girls
Do they choose They choose one
One boy?
— Yes, yes.
They go up and they put their hand on them?
— Yes, maybe one woman, maybe two.
Ah, oh, right.
— If it's supposed to be.
Ah.
— Yes.
THEY SING IN TRADITIONAL STYLE
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Guided by the mistress of ceremonies
each girl walks the line
until contact is made
and the choice announced
in the traditional way.
MAN HOWLS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: 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.
COWS MOO
MICHAEL (VO): 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 Grande Mosquée
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
six thousand miles away, in New York."
We're in Niger
which I think is the sort of
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
Well, were encouraged
by what had happened.
MICHAEL (VO):
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.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
— MICHAEL: 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.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
It's getting now to midday.
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 pace
the camels sort of dictate the pace
but also the mood
it's the it's the sort of, um
continuous sort of unchanging rhythm.
I mean, trekking with camels across
the Sahara sounds like a fun thing to do
for half a day
but to keep doing it
for, like, the best part of a week
I think the novelty'd wear off
after a while, wouldn't it?
CAMEL GRUNTS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: 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.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
It's all very thick and coarse
and heavy and
Looks rather appetising.
— MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
MICHAEL REPEATS
— MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
MICHAEL REPEATS
— MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
THEY LAUGH
— MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
— MICHAEL REPEATS
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
— MICHAEL REPEATS
Mmm. Nice, yeah.
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
It's more like cake, really.
Like a chunk of cake
you used to have at school.
Mmm.
Nice, hard, crispy outside. Mmm.
Very good.
— MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
MICHAEL REPEATS
— HE CHUCKLES
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 all thought I was kind of quite
a character.
I think his persona
is such a huge part
of why people enjoy
these documentaries so much.
He just seems like such a lovely person.
He's the type of person I feel like
you'd be happy to be stuck on a freight ship
in the Pacific with.
SHE LAUGHS
You have to get the emphasis right.
HE ATTEMPTS TAMASHEK
It probably means, y'know
buttock.
HE REPEATS TAMASHEK
Humour is a very dangerous
and yet potent, um
tool, and, er
and it all depends on
where the humour lies.
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
— MICHAEL REPEATS
THEY LAUGH
You're a great audience though.
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 TAMASHEK
— MEN CHATTER IN TAMASHEK
MICHAEL:
Oh. For me?
Ah, thank you.
MEN LAUGH
MEN CHATTER IN TAMASHEK
THEY LAUGH
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
— MICHAEL REPEATS
Is hot. Is very hot. It's good.
He's always very respectful.
That's always the thing.
If the joke is on you,
cos the joke is on him there
and that's what he's very clever at,
is the joke is always on him.
It's never about,
"Ooh, look at that funny person.
Ooh, look at that funny food.
This food's horrible."
It's not that.
It's a very it's a subtle difference,
but he nails it.
GOAT BLEATS
MICHAEL (VO):
Finally, the scorching sun sets
and we made camp
a tiny, comforting haven
in the immense emptiness that surrounded us.
This indeed was the desert of my imagination.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
KARI: Documentaries, up to that point,
had seemed very arm's length.
It was like you observed everything,
you didn't get involved
in the people or really that involved
in the place.
You know,
it was just a very British thing to do.
Very kind of stiff upper lip,
and a bit starched.
He was just so funny and so warm
and lovely and just open
really open to anything that happened.
It was a real adventure to him
and you sort of shared
that adventure with him.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Cheers.
En anglais.
MAN: Cheers.
— Cheers.
Cheers.
— Cheers.
Down the hatch.
Bottoms up, bottoms up.
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
Bottoms up?
Bottoms
— Bottom.
Bottom.
— Bottom.
Bottoms.
— Bottoms.
Up.
— Up.
Yeah! Great.
— THEY LAUGH
Bottoms up.
Bottoms up.
— Bottoms up!
MICHAEL LAUGHS
— Bottoms up!
Wow.
Genius.
I mean, that's such a lovely scene.
MICHAEL:
God bless Her Majesty.
BRUCE: 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.
CAM EL G RU NTS
Merci, merci
Yeah. Bon voyage, and
Hey! Goodbye.
Merci, merci, merci.
Merci.
— Merci, merci, merci pour tout.
Merci pour tout.
Hey, hey, hey!
You like that shirt, don't you?
You always liked the shirt.
Oh!
— THEY LAUGH
OK.
— THEY CHATTER
Bon voyage, merci.
THEY CHATTER
MAN WAILS PLAYFULLY
— Ah!
Bottoms up!
NICOLA: One of the nicest things to see
is that people were always
really sad to see him go,
and were always hugging him
and everyone was coming out of the woodwork,
he wanted to say goodbye to everybody
and I think that's so nice to see that,
but that he had such time for everybody
but that people made such a connection
with him.
You can see, you can feel
how genuine a person he is
and that was just so lovely, I think,
to see all of that.
MICHAEL (VO):
My journey was nearly at an end.
From the heart of Niger,
we made our way back to wards Europe
across Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia.
This kasbah sounds as though
it's coming to life.
Things are happening.
MICHAEL (VO):
As I finally cross 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.
GREG:
There is certainly a pre—9/11 world
and a post—9/11 world.
Michael wanted to
bring us as much of the world as possible
the lightness of touch, like he can
to try and make sense of things.
It's vital that these sorts of shows exist.
You need people like Michael Palin to
to calm everything down
and to bring you those magical stories
from places you'd never heard of
or you would never ever
get the chance to go to.
It's not bonkers beyond Calais.
It's often
You often get a warmer welcome there
than you do here.
So I think that comes across
in Michael's programmes
but it is something you have to learn.
MICHAEL (VO):
I was 45 when I started traveling.
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 learnt from them,
and I'll still be curious.
But what this has done is enabled 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.
HE LAUGHS
And climbing up and finding,
"Oh, here's another bit!"
Which I suppose, some people will say,
"Oh, yeah, gawd!
I hope he doesn't find any more."
HE LAUGHS
Well, I've enjoyed it.
Now, let's have a look.
Let's see what we've got here.
Oh, yes.
MICHAEL (VO): When I was growing up,
I dreamed of travel and adventure.
CROWD CHATTERS
Bye. Thank you!
MICHAEL (VO):
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.
Ooh! Ah
It's a bit like a very friendly steamroller.
He came at the right time,
he had the right daring qualities.
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH:
He has huge warmth.
And it's a warmth that spreads across
all kinds of people.
Bye—bye, Kazmir. Oh!
HE CHUCKLES
Oh! Look at that!
MICHAEL (VO):
Now, for the first time, I'm looking back.
MICHAEL ON TAPE: Laying her down
in What must've been my old bed
Oh, God.
tucking her up, making her comfortable.
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.
MICHAEL (VO):
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 trio 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, in Kenya
and 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, um, 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
the Sahara Desert.
I remember looking at it and thinking,
"Now, that would be a challenge."
It just looks totally empty,
yet it's a vast area
and it can't be empty.
There must be things there.
I said, there's gonna 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, "Oh, I wonder
what's down there?"
"I'll come back and explore there".
Isn't that brilliant?
What a lucky man he is,
but totally deserved.
I'd 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
um, journey to do,
but that was one of the advantages.
If it had been easy to do,
lots of people would've done it.
I really wanted to show that the
the Sahara had a fascination,
had a historical background.
It had a modern life there
which, just people never saw.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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?
KARI HERBERT: I think, as travellers,
we all have these places
that you 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.
MICHAEL IN VIDEO:
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, 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, um
I hadn't really expected,
and found fascinating.
Ah, good heavens!
That is amazing!
MAN: It's exactly how it looked
in the Medieval times.
MICHAEL:
It's extraordinary, first of all it
From these narrow passageways
— Yeah.
you've suddenly got so much space here.
— Yeah.
But also this
I mean, I've never seen anything
like that anywhere.
That is incredible.
MICHAEL: I was really reassured
once we got into the desert
that this was not going to be empty.
There was not going to be somewhere
where there was no activity at all.
All the way 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.
NICOLA COUGHLAN:
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.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: From Marrakesh,
it's all uphill to the Sahara
CAR HORN BEEPS
passing first of all, through the land
of the Berber people
one of whom is my companion, Amina.
Are we already in the Berber villages?
— Yes, we are.
Yes, we are in the Berber villages.
They were the original
inhabitants of Morocco
before the Arabs came through.
Is that right?
— Yes, absolutely.
We don't quite know the origin side.
— Hmm.
But, um, they sure were here
before the, the Arabs, yeah.
PEOPLE SING
— DRUMS SOUND OU
METAL CLANGS RHYTHMICALLY
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: 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.
MICHAEL:
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, um
you know, how people were
and what they were doing.
When you watch some travel shows
it feels like the people who are there
already know what
they're talking about.
Um, and everything when
on Michael's journeys,
felt like a new experience.
As he's traveling, you know,
you see the unedited version of his travels.
You know, it feels like,
it feels really accessible
You feel, "Yes," you know,
he is the kind of guy
that I'd go on holiday with
and, you know,
and that place is accessible.
I know it's far flung but I could do it.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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.
BUS HORN HONKS
The last river sinks into the sand.
The last salesmen make their pitch.
Quinze, quinze.
There we have a vingt,
we have a quinze.
Yes, yes. Tiens!
— Quinze?
Oui, oui, tiens.
— How about dix?
dix
HE LAUGHS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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."
MICHAEL (VO):
Now, all those years later
I was actually about to visit
that imaginary world.
MICHAEL (VO): 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.
MICHAEL ON TAPE: 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.
MICHAEL:
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
um, in
in Algeria for, for many years
and they were kept going by this dream
that they would eventually be
allowed back to their own land.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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.
MICHAEL:
How many people are there in this camp?
BASHIR:
In this camp, it's, er
it's the second largest camp of refugees
and we have here
something like 40,000 people.
Forty thousand? Do people have to pay
for their houses here?
Do they have to pay any rent or anything?
— No, no. Absolutely nothing.
But education is free?
Education is free.
— Yeah.
Health is free.
Water?
— Water, transportation.
Yeah.
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.
Um, and you have to talk about that
and I think Michael must have learnt that.
That must have been his progression
um, along the way,
and he did it beautifully.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Before my next camel dinner
I retire to the bathroom
for a quick shower
whilst Bashir's wife, Krikiba,
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, um, er
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.
I suppose we're all quite sceptical now of
when we're watching things like this,
did he actually stay with them
or did he have a Winnebago sort of trailer
bought around the back?
I think we trust Michael, don't we?
If Michael says he stayed with them,
he did stay with them.
MICHAEL:
"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."
SIMON REEVE: 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.
MICHAEL (VO):
Leaving our new friends behind
we headed west,
across the desert into Mauritania
land of the Moors.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Zouerat is a company town.
Rich iron ore deposits have turned
this corner of the Sahara
into a multi—million—dollar asset.
Iron ore makes up almost half
of Mauritania's foreign earnings
and production goes on round the clock
to fill the huge trains that carry it away.
TRAIN HORN BLARES
Despite the presence of the mine,
Zouerat has pockets of great poverty.
METAL CLANGS
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.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
MICHAEL:
Qu'est—ce que, que, er
Que faites—vous
le plus le plus heureux?
Quelles sont tes célébrations?
"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?
ED BYRNE:
To 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
it's like, this is their lives,
this is the reality, and this woman
actually, is trying to look
on the bright side of it.
So, it's more humanising.
We start to recognise that, yeah,
they live a different life
but there's a beauty to it
even amongst the difference and the poverty.
Yeah, there's still
there's still an existence and a joy to it.
And I think that is the case,
I don't want to romanticise poverty
that's a terrible thing to do,
but don't just demean and diminish
other people's lives,
Michael doesn't do that.
Often when you're traveling,
you encounter people who are really
um, 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.
TRAIN HORN BLARES
MICHAEL (VO):
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.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: I've got a ticket,
but I'm not quite sure what for.
CROWD CHATTERS
INDISTINCT CHATTER
The railway officials aren't over—helpful.
Their primary role seems to be
to stop anyone getting on.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
Don't think he's very keen
to let us on there.
SIMON: Ah, it's the famous Palin
boarding the train sequence!
He doesn't know what the hell he's doing,
the crew have just stood back.
The railway officials aren't over—helpful.
— How has he got such an ironed shirt there?
CROWD CHATTERS ON VIDEO
— Oh, I've been in that situation.
Come on, quickly, Michael,
the train's gonna go!
Fight your way through.
Oh, it's chaos, I love it.
MICHAEL: 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.
CROWD CHATTERS
INDISTINCT CHATTER
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
There's one last hope.
The recycling bin at the back of the train.
Premiere classe?
Cette voiture?
I'm very confused,
but I'm told this is First Class.
Even though you might be forgiven
for thinking it was
rubbish class.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
— Uh—huh?
Here we go.
OK.
— Allez—y, allez—y.
BELL DINGS
INDISTINCT CHATTER
BELL DINGS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: The Iron Ore Express
may take a while to get going
but then it is the longest train
in the world.
Probably.
MICHAEL (VO):
The train was carrying me west
to wards 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.
Down here, it's like a huge department store.
You've got handbags, ladies' underwear
— CROWD CHATTERS
Hello!
Here we are, look, fantastic!
MICHAEL (VO): There really is no better way
to get the feel of a country than on a train.
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.
Our progress is a matter of considerable
chance at the moment
whether we'll get there in ten hours or
fifteen or 20 hours,
we just don't know, it's
in the lap of the gods.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: The ancient town of Djenné,
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.
The most striking thing about Mali
indeed about most of West Africa
is that it's, you know
that maybe it's sandy, a bit drab
but the colours of the costumes
are extraordinary.
Everyone is dressed to kill.
Just 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.
Oh, right, half Fulani.
What's the other half?
My father, the other half
Pigmy.
Er, was my guide. Very cheery.
Can you tell a Fulani woman
here in the crowd?
Yeah, yeah, example.
She's a Fulani woman.
Yeah?
— OK, she's a Fulani girl.
She is one She's the cousin of my wife.
Oh, right!
— You can see
She's a cousin of your
We just happened to find her here!
You can see him learning
as he's going on his journey
which is crucial
because if he's not learning, then he can't
pass anything on to the viewers.
So, it was always great to see his
genuine excitement about something
and a discovery,
or just chatting to someone
and getting some information out of them
and him being genuinely interested
in their lives.
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 a future potential
even though a lot of these countries
were quite poor.
MICHAEL (VO):
Enthralling as Djenné was
it was time to move on,
deeper into the desert
not by train this time, but boat
up the River Niger itself
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 have been sewn 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, er
sand dunes, and that kind of world
and date palms and camels
was never far from my mind.
ROOSTER CROWS
Well, here I am in Timbuktu.
I 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.
ROOSTER CROWS
Great trading city
of the Middle Ages in Africa.
Now, quite run down
but still rather a thrill to be there.
DISTANT CALL TO PRAYER SOUNDS OU
NICOLA: Something nice about Sahara
is the pace of it.
They took more time at each individual place
and 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.
Quinzième ou quatrième?
Quatorzième siècle.
— Quatorzième.
Quatorzième siècle.
— Quatorzième siècle.
BRUCE PARRY: 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.
HE CHANTS
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
that adds its own magic.
The reason to travel is for people, and
as a result, there'll always be an almost
infinite number of stories to hear
because we, as a species,
are always changing and developing
and shifting and moving
and being born and dying
so, you can never hear enough
stories out there
you can never meet enough people,
I think.
MICHAEL: 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, looking at fewer people,
but much more intensely.
ROOSTER CROWS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: 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.
BELLS TINKLE
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.
COW MOOS
INDISTINCT CHATTER
ANIMALS BLEAT AND BRAY
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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.
ANIMALS BLEAT AND BRAY
The fattening of the animals
on the salt grass
is celebrated at an annual festival
called Cure Salée
the "salt cure".
This great gathering of the Nomadic clans
is now only days away.
THEY SING IN TRADITIONAL STYLE
MICHAEL (VO): And as I discovered,
a key part of these celebrations
is a remarkable courting ritual
the Guérewol.
THEY SING IN TRADITIONAL STYLE
NICOLA: When you get 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 that, you know, the Western world
doesn't impose and try and change them.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
And do the girls
Do they choose They choose one
One boy?
— Yes, yes.
They go up and they put their hand on them?
— Yes, maybe one woman, maybe two.
Ah, oh, right.
— If it's supposed to be.
Ah.
— Yes.
THEY SING IN TRADITIONAL STYLE
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Guided by the mistress of ceremonies
each girl walks the line
until contact is made
and the choice announced
in the traditional way.
MAN HOWLS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: 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.
COWS MOO
MICHAEL (VO): 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 Grande Mosquée
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
six thousand miles away, in New York."
We're in Niger
which I think is the sort of
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
Well, were encouraged
by what had happened.
MICHAEL (VO):
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.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
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.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
— MICHAEL: 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.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
It's getting now to midday.
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 pace
the camels sort of dictate the pace
but also the mood
it's the it's the sort of, um
continuous sort of unchanging rhythm.
I mean, trekking with camels across
the Sahara sounds like a fun thing to do
for half a day
but to keep doing it
for, like, the best part of a week
I think the novelty'd wear off
after a while, wouldn't it?
CAMEL GRUNTS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: 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.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
It's all very thick and coarse
and heavy and
Looks rather appetising.
— MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
MICHAEL REPEATS
— MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
MICHAEL REPEATS
— MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
THEY LAUGH
— MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
— MICHAEL REPEATS
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
— MICHAEL REPEATS
Mmm. Nice, yeah.
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
It's more like cake, really.
Like a chunk of cake
you used to have at school.
Mmm.
Nice, hard, crispy outside. Mmm.
Very good.
— MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
MICHAEL REPEATS
— HE CHUCKLES
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 all thought I was kind of quite
a character.
I think his persona
is such a huge part
of why people enjoy
these documentaries so much.
He just seems like such a lovely person.
He's the type of person I feel like
you'd be happy to be stuck on a freight ship
in the Pacific with.
SHE LAUGHS
You have to get the emphasis right.
HE ATTEMPTS TAMASHEK
It probably means, y'know
buttock.
HE REPEATS TAMASHEK
Humour is a very dangerous
and yet potent, um
tool, and, er
and it all depends on
where the humour lies.
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
— MICHAEL REPEATS
THEY LAUGH
You're a great audience though.
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 TAMASHEK
— MEN CHATTER IN TAMASHEK
MICHAEL:
Oh. For me?
Ah, thank you.
MEN LAUGH
MEN CHATTER IN TAMASHEK
THEY LAUGH
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
— MICHAEL REPEATS
Is hot. Is very hot. It's good.
He's always very respectful.
That's always the thing.
If the joke is on you,
cos the joke is on him there
and that's what he's very clever at,
is the joke is always on him.
It's never about,
"Ooh, look at that funny person.
Ooh, look at that funny food.
This food's horrible."
It's not that.
It's a very it's a subtle difference,
but he nails it.
GOAT BLEATS
MICHAEL (VO):
Finally, the scorching sun sets
and we made camp
a tiny, comforting haven
in the immense emptiness that surrounded us.
This indeed was the desert of my imagination.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
KARI: Documentaries, up to that point,
had seemed very arm's length.
It was like you observed everything,
you didn't get involved
in the people or really that involved
in the place.
You know,
it was just a very British thing to do.
Very kind of stiff upper lip,
and a bit starched.
He was just so funny and so warm
and lovely and just open
really open to anything that happened.
It was a real adventure to him
and you sort of shared
that adventure with him.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Cheers.
En anglais.
MAN: Cheers.
— Cheers.
Cheers.
— Cheers.
Down the hatch.
Bottoms up, bottoms up.
MAN SPEAKS TAMASHEK
Bottoms up?
Bottoms
— Bottom.
Bottom.
— Bottom.
Bottoms.
— Bottoms.
Up.
— Up.
Yeah! Great.
— THEY LAUGH
Bottoms up.
Bottoms up.
— Bottoms up!
MICHAEL LAUGHS
— Bottoms up!
Wow.
Genius.
I mean, that's such a lovely scene.
MICHAEL:
God bless Her Majesty.
BRUCE: 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.
CAM EL G RU NTS
Merci, merci
Yeah. Bon voyage, and
Hey! Goodbye.
Merci, merci, merci.
Merci.
— Merci, merci, merci pour tout.
Merci pour tout.
Hey, hey, hey!
You like that shirt, don't you?
You always liked the shirt.
Oh!
— THEY LAUGH
OK.
— THEY CHATTER
Bon voyage, merci.
THEY CHATTER
MAN WAILS PLAYFULLY
— Ah!
Bottoms up!
NICOLA: One of the nicest things to see
is that people were always
really sad to see him go,
and were always hugging him
and everyone was coming out of the woodwork,
he wanted to say goodbye to everybody
and I think that's so nice to see that,
but that he had such time for everybody
but that people made such a connection
with him.
You can see, you can feel
how genuine a person he is
and that was just so lovely, I think,
to see all of that.
MICHAEL (VO):
My journey was nearly at an end.
From the heart of Niger,
we made our way back to wards Europe
across Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia.
This kasbah sounds as though
it's coming to life.
Things are happening.
MICHAEL (VO):
As I finally cross 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.
GREG:
There is certainly a pre—9/11 world
and a post—9/11 world.
Michael wanted to
bring us as much of the world as possible
the lightness of touch, like he can
to try and make sense of things.
It's vital that these sorts of shows exist.
You need people like Michael Palin to
to calm everything down
and to bring you those magical stories
from places you'd never heard of
or you would never ever
get the chance to go to.
It's not bonkers beyond Calais.
It's often
You often get a warmer welcome there
than you do here.
So I think that comes across
in Michael's programmes
but it is something you have to learn.
MICHAEL (VO):
I was 45 when I started traveling.
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 learnt from them,
and I'll still be curious.
But what this has done is enabled 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.
HE LAUGHS
And climbing up and finding,
"Oh, here's another bit!"
Which I suppose, some people will say,
"Oh, yeah, gawd!
I hope he doesn't find any more."
HE LAUGHS
Well, I've enjoyed it.