Pole to Pole - Season 1

Michael begins his journey with a perilous landing at the North Pole, continuing southwards with voyages across Scandinavia as he makes his way to Estonia and the Soviet Union.

Michael experiences life in the latter days of the Soviet Union as he travels from Leningrad to the port of Odessa, mere days before the 1991 coup in Moscow.

Arriving by ferry in Istanbul, Michael takes a Turkish bath before visiting Greece and Cyprus as he crosses the Mediterranean en route to Egypt, where he takes a boat up the Nile.

Civil war and poor conditions bring Michael to a near halt as he crosses Sudan, and it takes him over 24 hours to travel just 60 miles as he draws near the Ethiopian border.

Running badly behind schedule and far off-course, Michael travels from Ethiopia to Kenya. En route, he meets a lion, turns to hitchhiking and meets a hippo colony while on safari.

Michael flies a hot air balloon over one of Kenya's top game parks before heading on to Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater and taking the world's oldest ferry to Zambia.

A Zambian witch doctor tells Michael that an "evil shadow" is over him. As bad fortune and tragedy dogs his journey to South Africa via Zimbabwe, Michael suspects it may be true.

Having missed his deadline to reach Antarctica, Michael abandons his original plan. Luckily a travel adventure company swoops in to save the expedition with a route through Chile.