Episode
Four: 3 November
Michael
arrives at the border of Niger and Algeria, the most desolate crossing
in the world, where banditry is a way of life in the absence of
law and order.
This
was where Mark Thatcher famously got lost; but the country has a
harsh beauty.
Turning
north Michael passes through the dramatic mountains of the Hoggar
massif before he pauses in the oil and gas fields of central Algeria.
At
this point he makes a brief diversion into Colonel Gadaffi's Libya
to attend the very last reunion of the Desert Rats of Tobruk, before
turning west along the North Coast past stunning and deserted classical
sites at Apollonia, Cyrene and Leptis Magna.
Crossing
into Tunis Michael re-lives the filming of The Life of Brian in
Monastir, before taking the Maghreb Express to the dangerous city
of Algiers.
Just
along the coast is Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on Morocco's coast,
a little chunk of Fortress Europe in Africa, and so a magnet for
Africans.
Michael
talks to would-be immigrants before returning to his original starting
point, Gibraltar.
En-route
he learns of the terrible fate that has engulfed so many Saharan
men, women and children who attempt the eight mile crossing in search
of a better life.
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