Michael Palin: Sahara [DVD]

Michael Palin continues his travel series, this time taking an exacting journey a thousand miles across the Sahara Desert. Starting at Gibraltar, Palin travels from Maraksesh, Morocco, to Mauritania, Fez, Mali, Zouerat, Timbuktu, Senegal, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia. Palin makes for an amusing guide as he witnesses an array of exotic and fascinating cultural mores, some dating back many centuries. Traversing desert, sand dunes, rivers and oases, Palin and his crew survey some amazing and incredible sights where ancient cultures clash with modern concerns of trade and post-Colonial life. Documenting some quite spectacular scenery, Palin meets many hospitable and intriguing people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Amidst other adventures he travels on the world’s longest train - an iron ore express in Mauritania, interviews a competitor in the Paris-Dakar rally, visits Goree Island where the black slaves from Africa were taken, meets the unique Dogong people, goes to Timbuktu and even visits the place where “The Life of Brian” was filmed. Part of Palin’s appeal is his obvious genuine interest in people from different cultures and his ability to ingratiate himself with locals, share dinner or a drink and discuss their way of life, which makes for an interesting, enlightening and entertaining series.