Sahara

Michael Palin, who did such a marvelous job with his Hemingway and Himalayan travel adventures in both TV and book forms, brings similar success to a less palatable subject: Sahara. This lovely book, filled with colorful and excellent photography, is Palin's very personal story of his 9 country/10,000 mile odyssey. He is a wonderful raconteur and guide. The Sahara, as beautiful and vibrant as it is dangerous and deadly is exquisitely revealed...warts and all.

I listened to this book on CD while I wallpapered my bathroom and it made the time go so fast! It is beautifully written and so easy to listen to. Palin is a master story teller and brings Africa to life with this book. Wonderful!!

I had low expectations on reading this book and was surprised that it turned out to be so good. The photos are excellent; Palin is amusing and informative. He is self effacing and likeable rather than being a movie star on tour. Palin and a film crew spent 99 days -- in several trips -- to travel nearly 10,000 miles in the Sahara. Their trip starts in Gibraltar and continues in a big circle through Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Libya, Algeria, and back to Morocco. The Sahara countries they missed are Egypt, Chad, and Sudan. The book is in the form of a daily diary and Palin reports hilariously on the status of his bowels as well as the more touristic daily events. Ninety-nine days of travel in an area as large as the United States doesn't permit profound insights -- and Palin doesn't overreach. Examples of the highlights of the book include a section on Niger where for a few days Palin and his crew live in the desert by taking a camel caravan into the formidable Tenere region. In Algeria he travels to the mountain refuge of a French missionary in the Hoggar, about where one would say is the exact center of the Sahara, and follows it with a visit to an oil field and its modern technology, green lawns, and technicians, Arab and foreign. He gives a good description of obscure and unknown Western Sahara where reigns a tense cease fire between Morocco and the Polisario. His attitude throughout is good-natured. If you would like a quick tour of the Sahara, including the landscape, the people, the problems, the politics, and the economy, this is a good book. The high-quality color photos enhance the text. Smallchief

In 2001, Michael Palin travelled by camel, truck, boat, and train through Gibraltar, Morocco, the disputed territory of the Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia. Because his main purpose was to film a documentary, he typically was assigned a government "minder" in each country, although this did not stop Palin from writing about his candid impressions. For example, although he has enormous respect for the Polisario (Western Sahara) guerillas, Palin pokes fun at their military capabilities, and although he praises his Algerian government guides, he minces no words in saying that Algeria has deteriorated into anarchy. Although it's unlikely that this book will become a classic of travel literature, it's well-written and an easy read. The book has one map and 135 color photos.

I just had a few miscelleneous comments on this book. Not being familiar with Palin's previous travel adventures I had no expectations about this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. If it's possible to write a witty, funny, and entertaining travelogue about perhaps the most forbidding and unforgiving place on the planet, Palin does it here in this very well done book. Palin's descriptions of the Sahara are interesting, informative, and sometimes funny as well. The photos are superb and really complement the text. Being a biologist by education, I knew that the Sahara wasn't a single unremitting expanse of sand waiting to trap hapless travellers or anyone foolish enough to try to cross it unaided, but I was surprised at the diversity of habitats, plants, and animals that can be be found there, not to mention the many tribes and cultures who live in and around the Sahara itself. Palin also gives you a feel for some of these cultures and their history and I enjoyed that too. Also I enjoy architecture and the photos of the mosque at Djenna are really stunning, truly an architectural flower of the desert if there ever was one. Overall, a fine book on this vast but still misunderstood area of the world.