North Africa is tumultuous place where the past echoes [audio 30min]

Chris Stewart, once drummer in the band Genesis, now a sheep farmer and best-selling author -- travels from his home in Andalucía along the length of the North Africa shore -- the forgotten coastline of the Maghreb, which has become the focus of European attention once again. Chris begins his travels, crossing the Straits of Gibraltar to Tangier to visit the Pillars of Hercules, pay tribute at the tomb of a great traveller, hear stories of fish that speak and meet people who risk their lives to steal sand... In Part 2, Chris takes a Grand Taxi along the coast towards Algeria, passing unspoilt bays that remind him of Costa del Sol 30 years ago. He then heads for the Rif Mountains passing fields of North East Morocco's staple crop marijuana. Next Algiers, a city only recently extricated from bloody civil war and now gradually opening its doors to travellers. In Part 3, the great city of Carthage, now little more than a few stones, receives millions of visitors every year. But how do the tourists rub shoulders with Tunisians? Then from the most visited state on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, to the least visited, Libya. And who are the Libyan playboys who are 'young, free, single and ready to mingle'?