'POLE TO POLE' by MICHAEL PALIN
'Travel, at its best, is a process of continually conquering disbelief, and to be in a Finnish hotel on the Arctic Highway, with a sign outside my window reading 'Murmansk 313 kilometres,' and the sound of a plaintive violin accompanying daylight that refuses to disappear is, I feel, after a beer or two, the sort of thing that makes life worth living.'
In his second epic travel series for the BBC, Michael undertook the challenge of travelling from the North Pole to the South Pole by way of as much land-&-sea travel as opportunities would gaily permit. While his previous 'Around The World in 80 Days' was fraught with danger and a damning deadline to meet, this 'Pole To Pole' adventure proved to be an entirely different ball game, and seemingly a far more dangerous jaunt - given the types of countries he was travelling through.
Sticking as close to the 30-degree East line of longitude for the journey as Michael and his trusty camera-crew could, the bulk of the journey first saw them head through the USSR and, later, Africa� with huge tracts of both mighty landmasses suffering from political instability to varying degrees.
Michael, just as renowned for his travel presenting as his good humour, recounts the trip in its entirety with a witty grace, making light of even the most worrying scenarios. Palin has patience with every place and every person he comes into contact with, or so it seems, and even when he's ill he never seems to get too down about it� at least not to camera or on paper!
Every possible trial and tribulation is documented, from the nightmare of losing some camera equipment in the harbour of Port Said - in Egypt - after crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Cyprus ('As the porters unload our gear the camera tripod rolls unnoticed into the Mediterranean. Could this be Mercury in retrograde? Should we have made other plans? I think it's just Egypt, where confusion seems an essential part of everyday life. There is no feeling here that life is a serious of problems to be solved, rather that there is a human state, which is chaos, and that peace, calm and order is a heavenly state to which we wretched mortals may one day aspire'), to the complications of customs and immigration farther into deepest, darkest Africa.
Through Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and into South Africa they go - where few white TV crews have gone before, if any at all.
Above all else, this travel journey is an intoxicatingly insightful sign of the times and a grand reflection of the events that were happening at Michael's time of travel through the countries that he does. For instance, in 1991 when he arrived in South Africa, 'although apartheid is being rapidly dismantled, the thousands of yards of copper wire, the ten-foot-high steel mesh fences, the guard-posts and the searchlight towers at 20-yard intervals remain to guard the Republic of South Africa against the world.'
Miraculously arriving in Cape Town with little more than a few upset stomachs in his wake, Michael had hoped to catch a sea vessel bound for Antarctica and the home straight. However, he winds up catching a plane West to Chile (leaving the 30-degree East line of longitude far, far behind), before flying out to Antarctica and heading for the South Pole. Sadly, there are few welcoming embraces at the Pole and Michael and crew aren't made to feel very welcome there in any respect (which mirrors the fact that the doors of London's 'Reform Club' were closed on his valiant return from having travelled 'Around The World in 80 Days' with such enthused zest), as troupes of high-ranking scientists go about their research there with little time for a man who has just gallantly travelled right from North Pole to South Pole with barely one chip on his shoulder or one word of complaint.
Sure, Michael would have got well paid by the BBC for such workmanship (and deservedly so), but that's beside the point. Michael Palin, when all money made has been counted and re-counted, has inspired countless hordes of people to set out into the world. Few presenters before or after him have presented such epic journeys-of-discovery, and 'Pole To Pole' honestly remains one of the most exhilarating books I have ever read.
So, get out there and see the world for yourself� and take a good Palin book such as this one 'for the road.'
(Steve Rudd)
ISBN 0-563-36283-9 (BBC BOOKS)
www.palinstravels.co.uk