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Sahara with Michael Palin Season 1 Episodes

  • 2002-2002
  • 1 Season
  • BBC Video
  • Documentary
  • Watchlist
    Where to Watch

In this four part BBC television series presented by British comedian and travel presenter Michael Palin, and broadcast in 2002. In it, Palin traveled around the Sahara Desert in Northern and Western Africa in four episodes: 1° Line in the Sand - from Gibraltar (British crown colony enclaved in Spain) to amazingly varied Morocco, Western Sahara (disputed by morocco and the Polisaro liberation movement) and Mauritania (another ultra-poor Sahel country, yet plagued by extreme obesity, even as a result of forced feeding of women as a status symbol); 2° Destination Timbuktu - Senegal and Mali; 3° Absolute Desert - Mali and Niger; 4° Dire Straits - Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Ceuta (a Spanish enclave in Morocco where refugees hope to enter Europe) and back to Gibraltar.

Season 1 Episode Guide

Season 1

4 Episodes 2002 - 2002

Episode 1

A Line in the Sand

60 mins

Michael Palin travels Gibraltar; Morocco; Algeria/Western Sahara; then Mauritania: Gibraltar; Tangier (Euro-Arabic city), Fez (perfect Islamic City, 1200 yr old garment/skin dye industry), Marrakech, Aran (Berber village in Atlas Mts.), Ait Benhaddou (Town as movie set); Smara refugee camp in Tindouf; Zouerat (iron ore mining), Chinguetti (French Legion fort).

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Episode 2

Destination Timbuktu

60 mins

Michael Palin crosses the Sénégal River from Rosso, Mauritania to Saint-Louis "French port", Gorée Island "Slavery port", to Dakar "capital" in Senegal. He takes the Bamako Express train to Bamako "capital", then along Niger River to Tirelli "Bandiagara Escarpment for Dogons", Djenne, Mopti, to Timbuktu.

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Episode 3

Absolute Desert

60 mins

Michael Palin continues in Mali to Timbuktu visiting the ancient Mosque of mud. He follows a camel caravan of Wodaabe nomads to Ingal in Niger for the annual Sahara Cure Salée festival, to an oasis at Tabelot, then across the Tenere Desert to the border of Algeria.

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Episode 4

Dire Straits

60 mins

He travels Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, coastal Algeria, Morocco, then Gibraltar: In-Guezzam (border) and Hassi Messauoud (Oil town) in Algeria; Tobruk, Benghazi, and the ruins of Apollonia (Greek) and Leptis Magna (Roman) in Libya; Djerba island, Caves at El Haddej, Sousse, Tunis (Carthage) in Tunisia; along Algeria-Morocco coast to Algiers, Oran, Ceuta; then Gibraltar.

Where to Watch