01x02 - Pole to Pole

[bunniefuu]

MICHAEL: Now, let's have a look.

Let's see what we've got here.

Oh, yes.

MICHAEL (VO): When I was growing
up, I dreamed of travel and adventure.

CROWD CHATTERS

Bye. Thank you!

MICHAEL (VO): Then one
day, that dream came true.

This is it.

I'm standing on
the top of the world!

For three decades, I've been
lucky enough to travel the world

making documentaries
and sharing my adventures

With millions of viewers.

Michael Palin set the tone
for, I think, all travel TV today.

Ooh! Ah...

It's a bit like a very
friendly steamroller.

He came at the right time, he
had the right daring qualities.

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH:
He has huge warmth.

And it's a warmth that spreads
across all kinds of people.

Bye—bye, Suleiman Two.

Bye—bye, Yousef. Bye, Mohammed.

It expanded my little horizons
to the rest of the planet.

MICHAEL (VO): All through
my travels, I kept a diary.

MICHAEL: I've always
felt, when I've travelled

it's really, really
important to keep a record.

I mean, every day is precious.

You're seeing things you'll probably
never, ever see again in your life.

Now, for the first
time, I'm looking back

re visiting my most
memorable journeys

and opening my diaries to find
forgotten moments from my travels.

My way of looking at each
journey as something different

new, special, exciting

dramatic and challenging

as not really knowing exactly
how it was going to turn out.

"POLE TO POLE" THEME MUSIC PLAYS

MICHAEL (VO): My first travel
series, Around the World in 80 Days

had proved that viewers enjoyed my
adventures almost as much as I did.

So it wasn't long before we
started to think about doing another

even more demanding journey.

You've clearly forgotten the horrors
of Around the World in 80 days

because you're about to
go off from Pole to Pole.

Someone suggested doing this
route which is North Pole to South Pole

down 30 degrees, east longitude

which goes right down
through Finland, Russia, Turkey

and right down through Africa,
down the Nile, the Rift Valley, all that

through South
Africa to Antarctica

and it just sounded, you
know, too good to miss.

So, I signed up.

MICHAEL: Well, 80 Days,
we didn't pit ourselves against

great physical obstacles at all.

It was all well—settled ground.

Here, straight away,
you're going to one...

you know, literally
an end of the Earth.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Where are we now?

We're three miles from the
Pole. We'll be there in one minute.

MICHAEL: What are the
chances of getting down?

PILOT: I'd say
they're pretty good.

MICHAEL: By the Pole?

Yeah, we'll be... Probably
land within at least...

Probably right at the Pole.

MICHAEL: They said to
me, the guys who were flying

"We can't land till
the sun comes out"

and I remember saying, "Oh, it
doesn't matter about the weather!

Let's just get this over with."

They said, "No, it does
matter about the weather

because the sun
will be shining down

and it will reveal any ridges."

A lot of these ice
flows have ridges

which can just flip a
plane over just like that.

I can remember sitting up in that
plane and thinking this was stupid.

This was stupid.

This is it.

I'm standing on
the top of the world

at the North Pole

where the time is... Well, the time's
anything you want it to be, up here!

The temperature's about
—25 degrees centigrade

so there's no point in hanging around,
what I'm gonna do is make a journey

from here to the
South Pole, which is...

oh, in every direction!

It's gonna be a hell of
a long journey, but, uh...

Well, let's go!

SNOW CRUNCHES

KARI HERBERT: They're
standing on the top of the world.

There's this incredible sense

of being enormously privileged

because the world is literally
falling away at your feet, every...

every direction is south.

And you're...

You're in a place where very, very few
human beings have ever been before, so...

so, I mean, that's just... What
a way to start a programme.

MOTOR STARTS

MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
South Pole, here we come.

JOANNA LUMLEY: Pole to
Pole was just exciting, real travel.

Beginning to stretch into the
kind of Ran Fiennes territory

and all these great... Robin
Knox—Johnstons, the big travellers.

ED BYRNE: There's such
a constant threat of peril

it's actually, it's a bit like
watching a James Bond film.

It's got that thing of, you
know he's going to be fine

but you still find yourself
slightly worried at times

going, "Oh, how's he
gonna get out of this one?"

ENGINES ROAR

The idea was deliberately sort
of engineered to try and get us

from North Pole to South Pole,
going through land most of the way.

"Epic", I suppose is a
good word for Pole to Pole.

I thought if you really want to look
hard at the world and places that...

you know, countries that
I'd never been to, for instance

then this was a
greater challenge.

The challenge was important.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: We
drive on through the night

though at this time of
year, the sun never sets.

It's still there at three in the morning,
and at last, we glimpse the first sign

of human habitation
since leaving Ny—Alesund.

MICHAEL (VO): My three
weeks traveling across the Arctic

was like nothing
I'd done before.

But ahead of us was an even more fascinating
and in some ways more mysterious destination.

Russia, and the other states
that then formed the USSR.

Following the line
that we'd chosen

we didn't know quite what was
going to be happening along that line

but it would take us through
some very different places.

But...

what happened with the
timing was quite extraordinary

because that period in 1991

when the world was
changing incredibly rapidly.

SHIP HORN BLARES

MICHAEL SPEAKS RUSSIAN

"I'm called Michael."

MICHAEL: "For me, the first
half of this Pole to Pole journey

is dominated by Russia.

It's Russia I want to know about,
read about, experience, see.

It is so strange, magnificent,
mysterious, and flawed.

I feel that I may have an
uncomfortable time there

but somehow,
that's what I expect.

That's what makes it so
unusual and unfamiliar."

Going into the USSR
was a real change of gear

mentally and indeed, physically.

I just knew this was going to be
the most difficult of all the countries

we went into, because it
was a communist country.

Michael going to Russia
at that very interesting time

where they had
been our enemy for...

for, you know, in literal terms

I mean, it's very weird
talking about that now.

Don't even understand it anymore

but, like, that was how I thought back
then and so Michael going to these places

was curious, you know,
it was curious to watch

and somehow he
managed to keep it light

and yet the gravitas was
there, you know, it was...

it was an interesting...

mix, and... and skilfully done,

MICHAEL: It was difficult to
get permission to film there

you weren't quite sure

whether you were going to be able
to complete the journey through there.

They weren't particularly
welcoming to a British film crew.

So there's a frisson, as
soon as you got to the USSR.

Everything meant something
different, on different levels.

"The roads are in terrible
condition, holed and pitted.

The chronic shortage of petrol

means that, to
be sure of supplies

our regular drivers have to fill
up at three o'clock in the morning

and the chronic
shortage of glass

is why every other windscreen
in the city is cracked."

Michael was very
good at conveying facts

in an utterly informal way.

So at the end of it, you find that you
really know quite a lot about that place.

ADE ADEPITAN: He's like a
really cool, chilled—out teacher.

You know, that gave you
information when you needed to

made you chuckle and laugh

at the right points as well

and then, you know, guided you.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: I have the money
but it doesn't seem to be that simple.

Vodka by coupon.

No? Coupons?

Maybe I could buy
a coupon off you?

HE LAUGHS

Yes? How much?

I not sell.

Oh, no? — No sale.

MICHAEL: There was something
really engaging about the way of life

of the people in the
USSR. For them...

Russia meant something more
than the communist regime.

It was a place where you...

made your own way.

You could be as independent
as you want, which surprised me.

It didn't seem as cowed and as
oppressive as I thought it would be.

We kept meeting these jolly people,
and they'd all drink a lot of vodka

and there'd be
toasts and all that

and everyone seemed
very pleased to see us.

Here we go.

Mmm!

By my count, that's number 23.

It's the first time I'd really
seen a presenter get stuck in...

with the people that he's...

he's going to meet, you know.

It always felt, before, like the
presenter was just observing

from a distance, you know?

But he was in there, and I...

and that, for me, is
really special, you know.

The fact that he's having a
few drinks with the people.

He's getting drunk.

It's like the
camera isn't there.

A lot of telly
presenters want...

They want a script, they want...

they wanna know what
they should be saying

and where they should
be standing and...

There's, it...

There's something wonderfully
natural about Michael

in that he wasn't
dominated by a colossal ego

that required that, and he was
confident and clever enough just to say

"Let's go for it."

Well, just as I was having lovely
dreams of breaking my day's fast

um, we've had a bit
of bad luck with the...

with the train, and we're gonna be
stopped here in the middle of the forest.

MICHAEL: This is a
piece of Russian life

that I think sort of sums up
what I like about the place.

For some reason, there
was a problem with the engine

and people are
straight off the train

and going to the village

and getting water
and vodka and tea.

Suddenly, they
found a pond nearby

and so it's an impromptu
sort of afternoon off.

HE SHOUTS

People all sort of
swimming, jumping

throwing themselves
in the water.

You couldn't imagine this
happening, you know, in...

outside Didcot!

"After a swim, I
returned to the train.

I search the map
and locate the spot

in case I should not believe
all this ever happened.

As I do so, I notice that less
than 100 miles to the south west

the name of the small
town of Chernobyl."

The Soviet Union admitted this
evening that there's been an accident

at one of its nuclear
power stations.

The accident happened
at Chernobyl in the Ukraine.

It sent a wave of radiation
across Scandinavia

which was recorded several
hours before the Soviets

admitted that something
had happened.

REPORTER: Now there's an
exodus of children going on from Kiev.

Parents have been
sending their children away

as their level of
anxiety mounts.

MICHAEL (VO): It was now
five years since the accident.

I was curious to see
where it happened

and what was left behind.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
This plant is wormwood.

The Ukrainian word for
wormwood is "Chernobyl".

It grows abundantly
here in Narodychi

only 40 miles from the scene of
the world's worst nuclear accident.

Michael, you carry this
one. If it omits a loud wail...

just get out of the area,
cos it means it's a hotspot.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: No one
knows quite how dangerous this area is.

But none of our Russian guides would
come with us, only Vadim would join me.

This is something which, I
look back on now and I think

this was a fairly audacious

and possibly
risky bit of filming.

I'm sure he must have
been afraid at some points

but he didn't show the fear, and I
think not showing that fear as well

and not...

not putting judgement on things,
letting the viewer just take it in

and go, "OK, this is
how it is here, alright."

Yeah, it's a much better...

It was a much better
way to do things, I think.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: The poison that
infects these ghost villages is invisible

but, as happened outside
this old village shop

it can be heard.

DEVICE WAILS

"There is still confusion and
debate over the effects of the disaster.

Flowers are in bloom

yet scientists say it
could be 700 years

before this place
comes back to life.

Whatever curse lies
over these villages

is more frightening
from being invisible.

It's how one has heard the
countryside would be after a nuclear w*r.

Benign, smiling...

deadly."

This lady here, who
decided to stay...

everyone else moved out.

She just wasn't gonna
move, and it's that...

that spirit.

You tend to think of Russia as very
conformist and everybody just toeing the line

but in fact, when you look more
clearly, it's a number of very eccentric

and independent
spirits throughout Russia.

ED ba*ls: These
are not documentaries

which have a view or a thesis.

This is not Michael
Palin's version of history.

He doesn't need to say, "I'm
here at a historic moment."

What he's doing is he's capturing
the reality of history as it unfolds.

When I start thinking about
the land, it would be so rich

if it were not for
Bolsheviks first...

for Chernobyl.

MICHAEL (VO): As I
continued south across Ukraine

which was then still
part of the Soviet Union

a chance encounter with a
young Ukrainian Nationalist

reinforced my sense
that change was in the air.

I see Ukrainian history being revived,
I see Ukrainian culture, you know

the culture which many
people thought is no...

is gone forever.

Now, we're getting back to some of
our roots, there is so much to do here.

And he said, you know, it may
seem crazy but I think Ukraine will be

a free, independent country

and it was free and independent
within the next, sort of, three months.

He just seemed to be right next to
these incredibly historic moments

in geopolitics, and it does
add a poignancy to the journey

especially after he goes through Russia
and just after he gets out the other side

there's a coup.

The Soviet Union is back under the
control of hard—line communists tonight.

They took over the country
with the help of the Army

and the KGB before
dawn this morning.

They said the country had become
ungovernable and was in mortal danger.

We could hear the radio going

and our interpreter said that is
saying that Gorbachev has gone

that, uh, the Communist Party
is going to be declared ill*gal.

Extraordinary.

MICHAEL (VO): We had spent
78 days crossing the Soviet Union

followed by a few
days in Turkey.

Then after a short hop to Cyprus,
we docked at Port Said, Egypt.

For our journey south down the
Nile, we swapped Egyptian trains

for something a bit more
sedate, the tourist trail.

At this time in the early'90s, the world
was becoming more open to travel.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Cultural cruises
down the Nile have become big business

in the last ten years.

But the Gulf w*r has
scared customers away

and there are only 30
passengers aboard the !sis

as we move at a leisurely
pace towards Aswan.

To see Michael, who didn't
feel so different from me

travelling country
to country in this way

not with some
massively expensive...

kind of...

package, but finding
a boat, finding a train...

I mean...

That was the first time I realised
that people like me could do that.

GREG JAMES: It feels like Michael
Palin comes from a better time

where you felt lucky to
go and do a big adventure

and you weren't just doing
it to put it on Instagram.

And unfortunately, that's how
a lot of travel is these days.

Michael never did any of
those things to say he did it.

He always went for a reason

and to find something interesting
out about a person or the place.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

MICHAEL: When we got to
Aswan, the cruises all go back north

because they can't go south

cos there's a huge
dam, Lake Nasser.

We went south on
Lake Nasser into Sudan.

Totally different
group of people.

INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENT

All migrant workers from Egypt
crammed on the deck of a very small ferry

chugging its way across
to a town in Northern Sudan

that no one really
had ever heard of

and probably never had a
film crew ever going there.

"We're on our way
out of Egypt, at last.

From tomorrow, we shall
cease for a while to be tourists

and become travellers

in a country which my
guidebook describes as

quotes, 'fraught with political
turmoil, economic chaos, civil w*r

drought, famine, disease,
and a refugee crisis'."

We didn't know really anything
about what happened in Sudan

who populated this
enormous great country.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

It was a mystery.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Sudan,
the biggest country in Africa

is an overnight
ferry ride from Egypt

but life here is very different.

Sudan does not
encourage visitors.

MICHAEL: As soon as you
landed off the ship at Wadi Halfa

which is the Northern Sudan

British had been stationed there in
the w*r and called it "bloody hellfire"

and it wasn't a place with
schedules and timings and all that.

For our journey across Sudan

we had reservations
on a legendary service

that looked like it
had seen better days.

The Nile Valley Express.

The train didn't leave on time.

The train left when there were
enough people to make it worth leaving.

No one was rioting because
the train left two days late.

Can you imagine that, you know, sort
of Paddington, somewhere like that?

"Excuse me, we've been
two days on this train.

Haven't even
reached Reading yet!"

Bye. Thank you!

HE SPEAKS ARABIC —
INDISTINCT CHATTER

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: There
are 3,000 to 4,000 passengers

on the Nile Valley Express.

It's like a small
town on the move.

The rate of progress is
governed less by timetables

than by the needs
of the townsfolk.

TRAIN HORN BLARES

MICHAEL: Every now and
then, the train would have to halt

because it was a desert line

and the wind would
blow sand over the track.

So people would have
to get out and dig it out.

No complaints.

People would get off and there'd be a
lot of people do their prayers to Mecca

and all that sort of thing,
people would have food

everyone was prepared
for delay. HE CHUCKLES

And would then get back
on again and off we'd go.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

Tea? Tea?

Chai? Thank you.

Cucumber sandwiches, please.

There's something really
romantic about train travel

and the shows he did,
I think, capture that.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Roof
class have their own catering.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

Everyone up here travels free,
and there are plenty of punters

willing to risk sun, sand
and sliding off into the desert.

Sleep well?

MICHAEL: There were students going
to university in Khartoum and all that.

Bright, intelligent, sort of...

Interested, the fact that we
didn't travel on the roof in the UK.

So I had to sort of tell them
about bridges and things like that.

There's no way they'd let
a presenter do that now.

Climb up onto
the roof of a train

unless they were strapped on.

You know, unless
you were put in a...

like Hannibal Lecter—style...

handcart, and
strapped to the roof.

This is what's special

because they just did
get the cameras and just...

just do it, you know, like...

that's what the local people are
doing and I think it's important to try

you know, what the locals do.

If you start worrying
about health and safety

then you'd... you'd
miss out all of Africa.

Do you always travel like
this, on top of the train?

Yes, sometimes.

It's better than first class, you
know, you've got a better view.

MICHAEL: And I
thought, this is all new.

This is what's so wonderful
about that kind of travelling

you are learning
things all the time.

I think our job is...

is all the time, to be
bringing you things that

quite a section of the
audience has never seen before.

Michael brings in...

He takes you to places you've
never heard of before and takes risks.

MICHAEL: Some of the most
magical moments of any of my travels

were sitting just watching
the Sudanese Dessert go by.

Just the smell of...

of sand, and it was
just wonderfully soothing

and it's on a train which is two days late
with an engine which keeps breaking down.

You know, that
can be a good thing.

MICHAEL (VO): We'd now
been travelling for 67 days

more than 5, 000 miles

with roughly 74,
000 miles still to go

to the South Pole.

Africa was living up
to all my expectations.

This was what I'd hoped for.

"Day 69.

After a weekend of recovery
from the journey into Sudan

it's now time to investigate
how we're going to get out.

This necessitates a visit to
the Ministry of Information.

The threat of violence
is more real here

than in any of
the other countries

through which we've travelled."

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Here in the capital
are the first signs of trouble ahead.

For the last eight years, the mainly
Christian South has been at w*r

with the hard—line Muslim
government in Khartoum.

Unfortunately for us, the warzone
lies straight across our path.

Ayusha Travel, a transport
company run by Eritreans

from Northern Ethiopia could solve
our problem of leaving the Sudan.

So which route
would you take us?

From Khartoum direct to Madani.

Through Madani
to Gedaref. — Yeah.

From Gedaref to
Metema is ruffles.

Rocky road? — Yeah.

MICHAEL (VO): This new
route to the Ethiopian border

over 300 miles away

took us around
the current warzone

but it was still risky

as the conflict had left defeated
soldiers wandering the countryside

looking for trouble.

JOANNA: A lot
of travelling is...

seeing which way
the wind is blowing.

You go, "Well,
let's take that path."

You've got to have
that feeling to it.

I think Michael keeps
the feeling of it like that.

There's always something,
a slight element of danger

that he would go off the beaten
track. He doesn't seem biddable.

He doesn't seem to toe the line.

I can see risk, but for some strange
reason, I've always been a complete optimist

and felt we're going to be OK.

I'm glad I feel like that

because it's...

I've been in some very,
very dodgy situations

and if I'd known they
were going to be dodgy

that dodgy, I would
have never gone.

"Day 76.

At about midday, the scenery
is becoming more picturesque

and we stop to allow Nigel the cameraman
to climb a low hill and get some shots.

The soldiers become very
agitated and order him back.

Apparently both these
hills are full of armed men

who will not hesitate
to sh**t on sight.

He is the sort of person
you want to travel with

because he wouldn't ever panic.

He never panics, no
matter how hairy it might get

he's always like, "Right!

OK, let's... we can work
through this," type thing.

MICHAEL: It constantly makes you sort of
question how you live at home and all that.

There are five—star
hotels in Africa

but to get the feel of Africa

I suppose something like that journey
across the border from Khartoum

sort of, really... don't get more
basic, you get close to people.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: In the
busy little town of Shashamene

a moody walk through the
streets becomes a major event.

As far as the locals are concerned,
the circus has come to town.

LOUD CHATTER

Behave normally, just carry on!

Do whatever you're doing.

I'll try and behave
normally as well.

There's really nothing else to do
but enjoy it as much as they are.

Where did you get that?

Oh! There they are!

He's great at improvising

so none of that stuff when he's
just meeting people on the street

or even if there's a set—up

I would be very
surprised if there was

a talking through of
how they're gonna script it

or how the
conversation is gonna go.

In his head, he'll have
some things to ask the person

but because he's
so instinctively funny

and intelligent and
really likes people

and that is crucial, you can't do these
sorts of jobs if you don't like people

then he just goes with stuff,
and he's an amazing improviser.

LOUD CHATTER
— I'll continue my...

gentle walk...

CROWD CHATTERS

Now...

h*, h*, hum!

Mmm, lots to do here!

CHILDREN LAUGH

MUFFLED SPEECH — CROWD CHATTERS

Oh, that's very good.

SIMON: It's the people
that you meet on journeys

that really make travel special

hearing their all—too—human
stories and experiences

but just knowing that out
there on this enormous planet

with this ridiculous
number of people on it

fundamentally, human beings are
warm and welcoming and friendly.

I think that can never be
said too much or too often.

It's one of the key discoveries,
I think, for anybody who

starts travelling properly
around this planet

but it is something
you have to learn.

You have to get out there
and try it and experience

and you have to stumble as well.

There will be a few stumbles along
the way, but you trust your instincts

you avoid the dodgy
salad at the hotel buffet

you always wear a seatbelt
and basically, you'll be OK.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Journey's
end, 27 hours after leaving Dodoma.

A little bit late,
but not late enough

to miss the boat which,
er, leaves very soon.

That will take me down on the
next stage of the journey south at last

a long way south, down
Lake Tanganyika to Mpulungu!

MICHAEL (VO): We'd now been travelling
and filming for 703 days straight

and that night in the hotel,
the strain was starting to show.

Oh... MICHAEL GIGGLES

MICHAEL GIGGLES

Oh, dear!

Oh, dear. Well, it's
my wedding day!

There we are, right. Hey!

I did it!

HE LAUGHS

Gone, I'm cracked...

HE LAUGHS

HE GIGGLES

MICHAEL: "If all goes well, we
should be in Lusaka by tonight

then Victoria Falls

then Zimbabwe and South Africa.

I feel a pain of sadness at
the prospect of leaving behind

all I've been through
these past months."

I think, during Pole to Pole, seeing
him go through Africa in that way

and spending time in all the countries,
what we see on the news of Africa

is often just the
tragic side of it

and these people need
help, and then it's...

it can be a very patronising
view that we have

and then just seeing
people's actual lives

and seeing the joy in
them, and what they do

and even the hardships
they have to go through

but how they overcome them

he really facilitated
in showing that

and again, didn't impose
these Western views upon it

going, "This is just their lifestyle,"
and lived the way they lived

rather than saying, "I'm
this British TV reporter

I'm gonna do this."

He was just in it, which is a way
more interesting way to view the world

than through our own lens.

MICHAEL: And then
we went into South Africa

and although apartheid had
just been sort of voted out

there was still the attitudes

that sustained
apartheid was still there

and I can remember
the swagger of the police

at the border, and the
sort of sticks they had

and the confidence of these sort
of pale, red—headed young men

um, in a country of
black people, you know

just made me feel,
"God, this is not good."

South Africa seemed to be...
Well, was the most like the West.

Was the most organised,
the most orderly

the richest, you just felt that as
you were going into the country.

And then we found out
that's a very superficial thing

and in fact, underneath it all

there's great levels of
poverty in South Africa.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Soweto was set
up in 1933 to house a cheap labour force.

Shanty settlements like this
one, known as Mandela Village

are the legacy of that decision.

These are the families of
people who are not wanted

and probably never will be.

MAN: These are the haircuts,
the barbers, street barbers.

Money making, of
course. — MICHAEL: Yes.

MAN: As you can see, it's
connected electrically from the battery.

JOANNA: He put
down a sort of blueprint

of how to behave
in foreign countries

which is his great courtesy,
but familiarity and friendliness.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

Usually, people behave
pretty disastrously

because they feel
uncomfortable, strangely enough.

And he's at ease with himself

and he's got
no... he holds no...

bad thoughts, so he's not...

he's not starting off with a sneer
in his heart, you know what I mean?

Or trying to make a point.

He goes in, just open
enquiry, you know?

MICHAEL (VO): But it was clear that
South Africa's road to true racial equality

would be a long one.

As for me...

my epic journey across
the continent was over.

I'd finally reached Cape Town.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: From the top of
Table Mountain, you can see the point

where the Indian and
Atlantic Oceans meet.

Beyond that, 2,500 miles
over the horizon is Antarctica.

But the most poignant site
of all is down in the harbour

a red hull supply ship we've
chased through Africa to reach.

In the end, we made it

but our appeal for space
onboard the Agulhas has failed

and when she sails tomorrow
on the only voyage of the year

between Cape Town
and the Antarctic

we will still be here.

The journey, it seems...

is over.

MICHAEL (VO): Except it wasn't.

I was determined not
to fall at the final hurdle.

So, after making some calls, we
found another route to the South Pole

not via South Africa
but South America.

MICHAEL: I was apprehensive to
say the least about flying into Antarctica.

Day by day, we were made aware
that there were weather conditions

changed very, very
fast around there

and we could not
get from Punto Arenas

on our plane into Antarctica

unless all the weather conditions
were right for about 48 hours

cos the plane had to go into
there and be able to come back.

So when we took off,
I suppose that was...

one of the zones of fear

in all the journeys.

I began to feel, "Why
are we doing this bit?

Why can't we just end here
where we're safe and go back now?"

MICHAEL (VO): The
trip was in two stages.

First, this plane would take me
and a few other intrepid travellers

to a base called Patriot
Hills, 600 miles from the Pole.

There, we were to be
picked up by a smaller plane

to take us to the
South Pole itself

There's no airfield as such on
Antarctica, where we were going

it's just blue ice, and
the pilot will have to land.

It's quite difficult to land on this ice
without skidding off into the, you know...

Tipping over or anything like
that, so everything was hairy.

INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER

The next thing I remember
was getting out of the plane

and finding that... HE LAUGHS

Antarctica was really slippery.

CREW CHATTERS

The bit we've all
been warned about!

I know why. Jesus.

Absolutely like glass.

Oh, dear. Too late
to go back. Woo!

There's something
about the immensity of it

of the ice and the cold

and just, you feel so...

sort of small and insignificant
in many places in the Antarctic.

It is so spectacularly
beautiful.

But there's also just a
sense of the greatness of it

and also the possibility of
danger at pretty much every step.

So for me, I find that
incredibly irresistible.

For Michael, he didn't look like he
was particularly at his most comfortable

in that environment, but I
think that's also because he's...

he loves being around people

and the Antarctic is a
very wide open space

and it is a very, very
challenging place to be.

MICHAEL ON VIDEO: The first thing
I learn is that here in this ice desert

even the most mundane human
tasks take on an epic quality.

HE SIGHS

That is the most extraordinary view
from any lavatory anywhere in the world.

MICHAEL: "Day 141

1:10am.

We can see the South Pole ahead.

It's somewhere in the middle
of a complex of buildings

dominated by a 150—foot
wide geodesic dome."

The disappointing thing about
it was it was very sort of, um...

functional.

Underneath the South Pole
itself, there's this great base.

And you open a door and there
are people having blackberry muffins

and listening to Chicago
on the sound system.

And this is at the South Pole

and it's awful, it's
just awful, you know.

Where's my ideas of heroism and
the great Greek travellers and all that?

The Argonauts have come to this

you know, sort of ordering
cheeseburgers underneath the South Pole.

"Some 50 yards from the
main pole is a ceremonial pole.

The pole itself, a
small brass tube

which looks like something should
be about to be plumbed into it.

Poor old South Pole!

But I stand on it at 3:05 in
the morning of December 4th

and thought of Mum
and Angela and Dad

and what they
would think of me."

HE TUTS

Yeah.

It is the end of the world.

It's also the end of our hare—brain
migration from North to South.

I think the omens
are telling us to stop.

Just a while ago, the camera
packed up because of the cold

and as you can tell, I'm beginning
to pack up because of the cold too.

I think it's just that after five
and a half months on the road

the body is finally
saying, "Pack it in!"

MICHAEL: It's much less
settled, much less comfortable

much less predictable than
Around the World in 80 Days

and I think that, to me

I felt a real, much
more of a sense of...

of adventure, that'd we'd
actually gone into places

that I probably would never
have ever gone in my life otherwise

and come out the other
side. HE CHUCKLES

Full Circle had
to be as stunning

if not more so than the
others. — CROWD ROARS

CANE CRACKS

This was a very,
very long journey

much, much longer, in fact

I think it was in the end
50,000 miles, something like that

which was longer than Pole to
Pole and 80 Days put together.