In a time when the earth was believed to be flat and there was much to discover, young Marco Polo sets off to find his missing father, who vanished while exploring the Road to China. Accompanied by his strong, good-natured friend Luigi, the "Chinese princess" Shi La Won, and their tame bat Fu Fu, the brash Marco is ready to take on the world with his great curiosity, his burning thirst for knowledge...and his gift for getting into trouble. With Marco's father's journal as a guide, their wild adventure takes them through distant lands and mystical times.

In 1925, Desmond Jordan, an American archaeologist, tries to find the mysterious Speaking Mountain that is supposed to be in the middle of the Sahara desert, where he meets a bunch of deserters from the French Foreign Legion, who are pursued by the ruthless Lieutenant Ryker.

In this four-part BBC documentary, former Monty Python funnyman and renowned globe-trotter Michael Palin sets off from Gibraltar to travel across the Sahara, his witty humor downplaying the hardships he faces along the arduous journey. He travels to Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and beyond, across some of the harshest terrain on the planet.