The Michael Palin Collection

Michael Palin and his crew set off on a five month, 23,000 mile land and sea journey from the North to South Pole with everything going wrong. The Twin-Otter aeroplane which lands him perilously at the Pole is out of fuel by the time the team reaches Spitsbergen 700 miles south. There they are blizzard-bound for several days at a remote research station before breaking out on snow-scooters in a 30-hour dash across the Island to the main settlement and port.

Russia that is still officially the Soviet Union, and in a Leningrad that is not yet St Petersburg. Heading south, Michael travels through the ancient town of Novgorod and visits the 'ghost' villages around Chernobyl before going down the mighty Dnieper River to the Black Sea, where Michael must reach Odessa in time to catch the last connection to Istanbul.

Day 42 of this epic journey sees Michael Palin and his team landing in Istanbul, their Russian ship leaving Odessa a matter of hours before the port is closed by the Russian generals' coup against Gorbachev. A narrow escape, since it is the last sailing of the season. With some deft island hopping Michael must then make it across Western Turkey and the Mediterranean to reach the mouth of the Nile and the city of Cairo.

Michael is heading for the Equator, the mid-point of his epic journey, and now he faces the toughest challenge since the Arctic. The Sudan, Africa’s largest country, is like no other place on earth. Drought, poverty, famine and civil war have reduced it to a state where a journey from North to South could take weeks or months, or not be manageable at all.

Michael and team have survived desert and drought. In skirting a civil war, their progress through eastern Sudan has been literally bogged down. Now, bedraggled and exhausted, the caravan limps on to one of the world’s remotest border crossings – Gallabat. They are alarmingly off-course, and late.

After a rugged bout of hard travelling, Day 97 finds Michael past the Equator, relaxing on the Ernest Hemingway, a traditional tented safari in one of Kenya's top game parks. But the rest is short since he is up at the crack of dawn for game drives in the Masai Mara, for balloon flights over the Serengeti, and for the special Out of Africa breakfast at the very spot where Robert Redford was 'buried'.

After 108 days on the road, an evil shadow hangs over Michael. That is the diagnosis of Baela, a Zairean witch doctor, practising in Mpulungu in North Zambia. Undaunted he continues his journey south where he has a go at white water rafting at the Victoria Falls before crossing the border into Zimbabwe enroute to South Africa. Visits to the world's deepest mine and to Soweto in search of an old friend are very quickly overshadowed by some shattering news.

Having made it to the SA Agulhas in Cape Town Harbour only to discover that were no berths available on the supply ship sailing to the Antarctic, Michael's strategy is in tatters. With an Antarctic summer so brief and only one sailing each year, he and his team must desperately seek another way to reach the South Pole. Will his five-month 23,000 mile journey be rewarded with success or capped with final failure?

It's a sandy landmass the size of the US, with the population of Norfolk - a formidable challenge for the peripatetic Python as he embarks on a four-part odyssey. Starting from Gibraltar, Palin crosses the Straits to Tangier in Morocco, where he enters inhospitable desert terrain, softened by the warmth of the Sahawari people who guide him south towards the Mauritanian border.

Leaving the desert behind, Michael Palin briefly savours the delights of cosmopolitan Senengal, in the second of his four-part expedition across the Sahara. Moving on to Barnako, he meets renowned kora player Toumani Diabate, before heading off to Dogon country. The remainder of the journey down the Niger River to Timbuktu seems plain sailing - until the cargo boat runs aground.

Having finally made it to the legendary city of Timbuktu in the penultimate episode of his desert odyssey, Michael Palin heads east to join the Wodaabe herders at one of their famous male beauty pageants. But its only when he travels with a Tuareg camel train across the ultra-remote Ténéré desert that he finally gets to grips with the soul of the Sahara.

Having arrived at the desolate border crossing of Niger and Algeria, in the concluding episode of his desert odyssey, Michael Palin runs the gauntlet of bandits before heading north towards his journey's end - Gibraltar. On the way he discovers the terrible fate of many Saharan people who have attempted to cross the eight miles of trecherous sea between Africa and Europe in search of a better life.

Intrepid adventurer Michael Palin embarks on an epic journey. He travels through the North West Frontier province of Pakistan, starting on the Khyber Pass and ending five miles from K2 on the Pakistan/China border. He passes through Darra, visits a street dentist in Peshwar, goes bull racing with a Pakistani aristocrat and is almost trampled to death, and finally crosses over the Lowari Pass into the buffer state of Chitral.

Michael Palin continues his Himalayan trek by travelling from K2 in Pakistan to Ladakh in India - a short distance as the crow flies, but, due to politics, a huge loop. He passes through the Sikh city of Amritsar, with its Golden Temple, and through Shimla with its Vice Regal Lodge, Gaiety Theatre and cosy half-timbered tea-houses. He then meets the 14th Dalai Lama in Dharamsala where the Tibetan government is in exile.

During a Gurkha recruitment Palin is disturbed by Maoist insurgents, but survives to suffer as he climbs to 15,000 feet and sees the majesty of Annapurna Sanctuary. In Kathmandu he is blessed by the Nepalese king before meeting some holy men. Crossing into Tibet he meets his first yaks at the highest monastery in the world before heading up the Rongbuk glacier towards the summit of Everest.

Michael Palin continues his Himalayan trek, leaving Everest base camp to take the high road to Lhasa to see what the Chinese have done to Tibet. He sees that religion is once again tolerated, while the old Tibetan centre of the city is being replaced with modern Chinese shopping malls and nightclubs. Following the pilgrims to the holy Namtso Lake, he gets warm in a hot spring before learning how to milk a yak with a nomad family.

Michael Palin continues his Himalayan trek. Following the Yangtze along Tiger Leaping Gorge into Yunnan in China, Palin reaches the easternmost end of the Himalayas. He gets a medical check-up before exploring medieval Lijiang with the director of the local orchestra. Heading over Myanmar to Nagaland in India he rides the steam train to Tipong Coalmine. In Assam he rides an elephant and then stays in a strange monastery.

Michael Palin concludes his Himalayan trek. In Bhutan, Palin has a last look at the high Himalaya. Trekking to Chomolhari Base Camp he meets a nomad with a penchant for yak songs before reaching Paro to witness the Buddhist festival of Tsechu. En route to Bangladesh he sees rare black-neck cranes. In Bangladesh he visits the beaches of Chittagong and grid-locked Dhaka and completes his journey on a fishing boat in the Bay of Bengal.

Countries visited: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania. In Medjugoree Michael encounters a visionary who first started having visitations from the Virgin Mary 25 years ago. In Dubrovnik he meets with lute maestro Edin Karamazov who made the recent 'Songs from the Labyrinth' album with Sting. Michael ends this visit with a sheep sacrifice which heralds an afternoon of music and hospitality typically Balkan.

Countries visited: Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey. Michael makes a remarkable visit to Göreme, where the rocks have been carved to form homes and some of the most remarkable churches of the early Christian era. Leaving the Cappodocia region by balloon, he sails east towards the borders of the New Europe, which if Turkey were to join the European Union would include Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Countries visited: Trans-Dniester, Romania. Michael travels from Transdniester, a breakaway state from the Republic of Moldova, to the Vaser Valley in Romania, where he joins 80 lumberjacks as they board a wood-fired steam train. He finally ends up at Bran Castle in Transylvania, the ancestral home of Vlad the Impaler and alleged home of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Countries visited: Hungary, Ukraine. Michael travels by road, rail and river through Hungary and the Ukraine, ending in the Black Sea resort of Yalta. Along the way he visits Budapest's 'House of Terror', a National Park in Hortobagy, an area which Attila the Hun was reputed to have rampaged across, and ends up meeting a Leeds market trader who married the Ukranian prime minister's daughter.

Countries visited: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia. Michael travels from Tallinn in the north, through Latvia, to Lithuania in the south, sailing into the Baltic from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, formerly East Prussia. In Estonia he visits a pyramid house and samples the medicinal properties of leeches. In Latvia he visits one of the most secretive places of the Communist-era, the astronomical telescope.

Country visited: Poland. Arriving in Gdansk via canal, Michael meets former electrician Lech Walesa who formed 'Solidarity', Poland's first independent trade union, which led to the demise of communism in that country. Heading to Warsaw he visits the Palace of Culture, Stalin's controversial gift to Varsovians. Michael then makes his own personal pilgrimage to Auschwitz.

Countries visited: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany. High in the Tatra mountains of Slovakia, Michael skins a pig, and learns how to make sausages. He then departs to Brno to visit Tibor Turba's famous mime school, where he is asked to mime a cockerel. Travelling in a DC3, used during the Berlin airlift, he visits the island of Rugen, built by Hitler for his KDF ('Strength through Joy') programme.

Michael Palin’s Brazilian odyssey begins in the North East, where modern Brazil was born. He starts in the city of Sao Luis before travelling down the coast to Recife and Salvador, dropping in on the vaqueros – Brazilian Cowboys – who work on vast cattle ranches. His travels also take him south to the stunning coastal lagoons of the Lencois Maranhenses national park. In Salvador he learns to drum with the famous Olodum school and has a lesson in how to cook Bahian-style, before finding out what lies behind the beguiling moves of Capoeria dancers.

Michael travels on several rivers through the very heart of Amazonia. He meets the Yanomami tribe, and talks to their spokesperson about the threats to their way of life. He visits the magnificent Manaus Opera House, and samples some exotic Amazonian foods in Belem at the mouth of the Amazon. Travelling ever southwards to the upper reaches of the Xingu river he is welcomed to the Wauja tribe, one of the most colourful of all the Brazilian indigenous peoples. This leg of his journey ends in the capital Brasilia, where Michael meets up with rock star and political activist Dinho Ouro Preto.

On the road to Rio, Michael visits the source of Brazil's great mineral wealth - the state of Minas Gerais and its giant mines. Here, he meets some ordinary Brazilians dedicated to preserving the natural beauty of the state. On to Rio De Janeiro, host to the next Olympics and World Cup. Rio has always been a party town, but it’s also blighted by drugs and gang violence. Michael learns how the authorities are hoping to bring the favelas back into the city. He also learns how to celebrate a goal like a Brazilian radio commentator, and books a room in one of the city’s famous ‘love hotels’!

On his final leg of his journey, Michael starts in the picture perfect town of Parati where he meets up with Prince João de Bragança, heir to the defunct throne of Brazil. In Embraer and Sao Paolo Michael meets some of Brazil's successful politicians, heads of business and TV soap stars, who all have mixed opinions on Brazil's future. After experiencing the beauty and serenity of the vast wetlands of The Pantanal, Michael comes to his journey’s end at the magnificent Iguazu falls where he concludes that Brazil has much to offer the world as it takes its place as a new potential superpower.