Episode
One: 13 October
Michael's
journey begins in Gibraltar, and with a 21-gun salute in honour
of the Queen's birthday ringing in his ears, Michael crosses the
Straits to Tangier in Morocco.
It
is only after pausing in Fez and Marrakech, and scaling the High
Atlas, that Michael's "Line in the Sand" enters real desert.
This
is hard, hot country, controlled by the Polisario Front who have
been in confrontation with the Moroccans for over 25 years.
But
this inhospitable land is softened by the warmth shown by the Sahawari
people, who guide Michael south to the Mauritanian border.
Here
he climbs aboard the "longest train in the world", breaking
his journey at Chinguetti.
There
is just time for Michael to defeat the local champion at a game
of desert draughts, played with stalks and camel droppings, before
he gets literally taken over by the 24th Paris-Dakar Rally and its
sole surviving British entrant, Dave Hammond from Cirencester.
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