"Then they came in sight. Eight bulls galloping along,
"full tilt, heavy set, black, glistening, sinister,
"their horns bare, tossing their heads,
"and ahead of them sprinted, tore, ran and bolted
"the rear guard of the men and boys of Pamplona."
When I first read Hemingway, I was a teenager living in Sheffield
and the furthest I'd travelled was here to Suffolk for the annual holiday.
Something about Hemingway struck a chord in me.
I think it's because he brought places to life - places I'd never been to before.
He managed to create a world which, if you were bold enough, could be your world too.
Not that I was bold. After two weeks I went back to Sheffield.
But he'd sown the seed and I just couldn't get him out of my mind.
(LOWING)
Aagh!
(FAINT CROWD NOISE)
This is Pamplona in July and it's wilder than any dream.
The festival of San Fermiín used to be an intimate, local affair.
Now, every July, a vast army of pleasure seekers
invades this modest north Spanish city to join the celebrations.
There's the man who started it all. Ernest.
It was a Hemingway novel that first alerted the world to the festival.
And Pamplona has cleaned up ever since.
30 tonnes of glass on the first day alone.
That's a lot of glass!
The invading army is now a multinational force.
Oh, God! We're Australian.
- (PALIN) Are you going to run with the bulls? - Yeah.
We ran last year, so we know what's going on.
- Were you frightened? - Yeah, I was.
- He was pissing himself. - But I was very drunk.
- And to prove our masculinity to women. - Yeah.
- Prove what? - Masculinity.
- I'm sure you don't need to prove that. - He does. He's got a serious problem.
In "The Sun Also Rises", Hemingway wrote:
"The things that happened could only have happened during a fiesta.
"It seemed as though nothing could have any consequences."
There are three reasons people run - the passage to manhood, an aphrodisiac...
An aphrodisiac?
- Oh, yes. Oh, yes. - Gives a new meaning to "horny".
Not with me.
The tone of the fiesta is set by the spectacle of the running of the bulls.
(SPANISH COMMENTARY ON TV)
Every day for eight days, they run from the edge of town to the bullring,
bringing the city to the edge of hysteria.
The bulls are taken to their pens, leaving the ring to hundreds of amateur bullfighters.
Bulls would be too dangerous,
so frisky cows - their horns taped to avoid inflicting lethal injury - are let loose.
The cows survive the mock bullfight. Harming them is heavily frowned upon.
But I can't survive much more myself. Maybe it's an age thing.
After all, Hemingway was only 24 when he first came here.
And I've got people to meet, places to see.
Spain is the perfect place to set out on the journey I want to make -
to explore those places which Hemingway brought to life for me.
But not just to look at them. To experience the physical side.
To do some of the things that Hemingway liked to do.
Which could be dangerous.
But I'm game... if you are.
Hemingway was 27 when "The Sun Also Rises" became his first best-seller.
He started writing it on a trip to the Mediterranean city of Valencia.
Hemingway, brought up like me in sheltered suburbs,
found something in Spain which he lacked - a hard, passionate way of life.
Nothing embodied this more than the bullfight, which is what he was going to Valencia to see.
- The bullring is... - Michael? Michael Palin?
- Yeah. - How are you?
I'm just doing a bit of film. OK?
The bullring's behind me. In order to understand more about bullfight...
...bullfighting, I want to try and meet a bullfighter.
- But bullfighting is a very conservative... - But, Michael...
...very traditional world. - I know a bullfighter.
- You want me to introduce you to a bullfighter? - Oh, that's great.
There's a place over there and he's one of the guys from here.
- Is he going to be fighting here? - He is.
My friend may have known me from a show I did 30 years ago,
but he also knows Vicente Barrera -
a local boy and one of Spain's top ten matadors
who's fighting here in two days' time.
- Vicente. - Robert.
Quiero presentarte a un amigo mio.
Michael Palin. We're doing a programme about Hemingway.
- We want to know about bullfighting. - OK.
Why did you decide to become a bullfighter?
It was evident because I think it's...
I think, for me, it's the most important thing that you can do in your life.
I think that after to be Pope,
I think it's the most important thing you can be.
To be with that animal, so big, so brave...
so strong.
Huge.
And to be there and ha! To be able to see the bull behind you, so near from you.
When you're in the ring with the bull, do you respect the bull?
Of course. I think we, the Spanish people,
are the people in the world who more respect the bull.
For us it's like... the sacred animal is the brave bull.
But people who find bullfighting cruel would say,
"How can you have something that is sacred and that you respect and yet you kill it?"
How would you reply to people who say that?
It's very long to explain that.
We are feeding the bull, we are living all the day with the bull,
we are all the day speaking about the bull.
What can say a person in New York in an office about the bull? Eh?
He loves the bull and I don't?
I love the bull, not him. All in Spain you'll find that.
Yes, I understand.
So the moment when your sword goes in and you kill the bull,
do you feel sort of sad for that?
It's not sad. When you eat fish, are you sad?
You know what is to die?
And the fish brought out of the water and aagh! That is horrible.
Do you feel sad when you eat fish, for example, or when you eat this?
- No. - OK.
- Have you ever been hurt? - Sure. Many times.
- And you still carry on fighting. - That's my life.
- And now I'm sorry, but I must go. - I know. Thank you.
- Appreciate you talking to us. - Glad to meet you.
(SPEAK SPANISH)
OK. Bye.
- He's a nice guy. - Yes.
- Not at all violent. - Is he supposed to be violent?
No. I think there's an archetypal image of bullfighters
These are good. What are they?
- What you're eating now? - Yeah.
- Those are bull's testicles. - Bull's testicles?
- Yes, sir. - Hm.
Hemingway made sure he knew all about bullfighting. I decided to start at the beginning.
My tutor at this school for bullfighters is Fabian, a Mexican.
He's 18 and has seen off 20 bulls already.
What was it like when it wasn't a bicycle but an actual bull the first time?
- Were you very frightened? - Yes.
You have fear and you are nervous.
I have fear of the bicycle. That is very serious.
With your hand you put it here, like this.
- That's important? - Very important.
- Why is that? - So people can see that you are strong.
(PALIN) Not helplessly scared.
It's a sign of confidence. I don't care if this bull's coming straight at me. OK.
The horn is passing fairly close to my... vital bits there.
- Then put it like this... - And bring it back.
- Like that. - Is that the aim of a skilful fighter?
To bring the bull's head up to make it look active, to make it look strong.
Bullfighting is a young man's game.
Even then, Fabian reckons only one of these 30 apprentices will ever make it.
(FAINT CROWD NOISE)
In Valencia, as in Pamplona, the bullfight is only one part of a grand fiesta.
Here they have a firework display unlike any other.
It takes place at two o'clock in the afternoon.
(LOUD EXPLOSIONS)
This is a phenomenon peculiar to Valencia...
(EXPLOSIONS CONTINUE)
This is a phenomenon... Shut up!
This is a phenomenon peculiar to Valencia and it's a celebration of noise.
Each firework company... Oh, just film it.
In case you didn't catch all of that, this is what they call "mascletá".
A symphony for explosives, a competition between firework families
to make a bigger, more beautiful din than anyone else.
If you like noise, this is the place to be.
Michael Palin, the world eardrum-splitting finals, Valencia, Spain.
As the pyrotechnic team are hailed as heroes,
I see if there's anything as unfashionable as peace and quiet
to be found in this city.
I'm in luck. An art-movie house. That should be empty.
- Uno, por favor. - Doscientas.
- ¿Doscientas? Gracias. - De nada.
(EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE)
It's almost as noisy as it is outside.
This is quite a historic film. It's called "Spanish Earth".
It was written by Hemingway for the anti-Fascist cause
in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.
Hemingway speaks the commentary.
(HEMINGWAY) The counter-attack is successful. The road is free.
Six men were five, then four were three.
These three stayed, dug in and held the ground,
along with all the other fours and threes and twos that started out as sixes.
Orson Welles suggested some cuts.
Hemingway didn't like that. He called Welles an "effeminate theatrical".
Welles called Hemingway "so big, so strong".
- They set to on the screening room floor... - Sshh!
...whilst the real fighting took place on the screen.
It's the day of the bullfight.
I take in some of the street life.
Huge papier mâché figures called "fallas" rise on every corner.
A rich, satirical mixture of fact and fantasy.
(PIPE AND DRUMS PLAY)
Each neighbourhood has spent up to a year designing and building their fallas.
There are 700 of them all over the city.
In accordance with ancient tradition, they will all be burnt down at midnight tonight.
(EXPLOSION)
And this being Spain, any extra noise is encouraged.
(EXPLOSIONS)
The summer days are hot, so bullfights don't begin until five in the afternoon.
The fights last 2.5 hours and the seats are concrete,
so cushions are indispensable.
The spectators seem a complete cross section of the public.
This is Hemingway's classic work on bullfighting, "Death in the Afternoon".
And he doesn't absolutely defend it at all costs.
He says, "Whoever reads this can make such a judgment
"when he has seen these things and knows what their reaction to them would be."
Which is what I'm doing here.
It has some pictures of Vicente Barreras' grandfather.
Hemingway was critical of his fighting. We'll see what his grandson can do today.
Three matadors each have to fight two bulls.
Vicente's first bull weighs in at 1,300 pounds.
The bull is weakened by picadors on horseback
and the harpoon-like sticks of the banderilleros before the matador takes over.
Every move in the ring is dangerous,
but for me this is the least acceptable part of the fight.
Now it's a contest between one man and one bull.
Vicente goes close enough to risk his life out there,
and the closer he goes, the more his home crowd urges him on.
(CROWD) Olé! Olé!
Olé!
If Vicente survives this bull,
he has another to fight this afternoon, two more tomorrow - 200 in a season.
For him, facing death is a job.
However much I dislike the early stages of the fight,
I find it impossible not to be affected by the atmosphere
as the contest enters its last and most dangerous stage.
(CROWD) Olé!
Olé!
I know better now what drew Hemingway to the bullfight.
For him, to confront death was to experience life at its most intense.
For me, well, it's a Spanish thing.
I shall never feel about it the way they do, and that alone intrigues me.
Midnight on the festival of San José,
and all the effigies so painstakingly constructed
must now be painstakingly destroyed.
It's another way of facing up to death and decay.
If you can't beat it, join it.
The cycle goes on - dust to dust, ashes to ashes.
Tomorrow morning, all over Valencia, they'll sit down to plan next year's festival.
Hemingway's passion for bullfighting was equalled only by a passion for hunting.
In 1933, this led him almost inevitably to Africa.
These are Hemingway's "green hills of Africa" - the Chyulu Hills in Kenya.
- Nice climate. Is this as hot as it gets? - Yeah. This is the hottest time of year.
For Hemingway, to whom knowing about things was so important,
the expertise and knowledge of a local guide was vital.
He had a great white hunter called Philip Percival.
I have Richard Bonham.
- Have you lived here all your life? - I'm Kenya born. I've been here 13 years.
Richard Bonham is concerned not with hunting animals but saving them.
I assume it is safe to go in. What should I do?
Fine. Lovely coat.
Look at that.
We started with four and lost two very quickly
because they were so far down the road in malnourishment, having been abandoned.
When the female was with him, you wouldn't be able to get close,
but now she's gone, he's a bit lonely and you can actually go up and talk to him.
We've gone out of our way not to let them get too familiar.
- Oh, dear. - Come on, bad boy.
You can tame them, but as we want them to go back to the wild... Come on.
Not sure what to do with a half-tame cheetah.
He hates his hindquarters being touched
because when we handle him, you grab him by the tail.
If you come round to the front.
There we go.
Once you get him by the ear then he mellows right down.
- Can I just? - Make gentle movements.
He's not sure about this.
- (GROWL) - Oh!
- Did he get you? - Just a flesh wound.
He just patted my leg, really.
But I could see that he wasn't happy with me. Happy with you.
What will be his fate? What's going to happen now?
We're waiting for some radio collars. They'll come in the next couple of weeks.
Hopefully, one day he just won't come back, spend the night out, make a kill.
- Your achievement is not to see him again? - Yeah.
Hemingway got very excited when he caught his first view of Mount Kilimanjaro.
It's not surprising. It's the biggest single, free-standing mountain in the world.
20,000 feet high, shaped like that, and it's somewhere in the cloud.
He got excited because you hardly ever see it.
I hope we'll have the Hemingway experience eventually.
It's there beyond the trees. Beautiful, beautiful mountain.
Shaped like that.
To equip myself for seeing Africa, I've actually invested in the Hemingway jacket,
which is produced by the company that actually produced the jackets he used.
They have a bit about Hemingway.
"He didn't just taste life, he bit off big chunks and gnawed on it."
The jacket or life? Anyway...
"We started with our 340 bush poplin, then added a shell pocket.
"Recoil pad.
"Working epaulettes with box stitching.
"Two expandable chest pockets.
"Two huge bellowed cargo pockets for shells.
"And a sleeve pocket for shooting glasses.
"The back has a generous inverted pleat for extra movement
"and the sleeves roll up and secure for warmer weather.
"The elastic bands above each cargo pocket
"keep the jacket from interfering with your mount and swing.
"Roll it up and take it anywhere. Papa did."
Hemingway may have been a walking munitions dump, but at least he did walk.
60 years on, it's unusual for anyone on safari to be allowed out of their vehicles.
Is it quite safe to walk out in the open?
I've been afforded a rare chance to roam,
provided I stay close to my expert guides, Ali and Jackson - a local Masai.
(JACKSON) Some of them don't know how to run away from any wild animals.
How close is it safe to get to these elephants?
Normally you're supposed to walk about 30 metres apart.
This group of elephants is a very peaceful group
because we are walking very close to them and they don't run towards us.
- (PALIN) Can they smell? - Yeah, they smell.
(JACKSON) The wind is blowing towards them. (PALIN) Yes. One's had a look at us now.
- Is that a female or the male? - That's a female.
(PALIN) So they've smelt that we're here, they don't like our smell...
(JACKSON) See how they have their trunks up? That's how they smell.
Not all animals are potentially threatening. I've a soft spot for wildebeest.
What's so special about this hill?
(ALl) It's the highest point in the park. It's an observation hill.
(JACKSON) When you climb up this hill, you make a lot of exercise.
Hemingway was very keen to get out of the cars and walk and keep fit.
He said he had to be like the animals and be able to outwit them by your own physical skill.
- Beautiful view. Look at the elephants. - Elephant over there.
Yeah. I can see them.
Everything looks very safe in this park at the moment - the animals.
What I remember from reading "The Green Hills of Africa"
and these photos here, when he came here,
the animals weren't safe because of the white hunters.
There's Hemingway with his collection of trophies.
- What year was this? - He was quite young. Probably 19...
- 1980s? - No. 1930s. About 1933.
There he is with a fine beast he's just killed. What are those?
- Those are oryx. - Oryx. Yeah.
Do people come to hunt like this now?
Is there any licensed hunting of the animals?
In the national parks, it's not allowed,
but some people will do it in the game ranches.
There are some people who own private ranches. They still allow it.
I see. You pay your money, you kill the animals.
But he wouldn't be able to do this now,
just walk across the plains with a gun and shoot anything that's going.
And here's Ernest having disposed of a lion. Looking suitably dead.
Hunting continued long after Hemingway left,
and the plains are much emptier now than in his day.
So I've been lulled into a dangerously false sense of security,
when Ali spots a stroppy-looking herd of buffalo.
(ALl) Buffalo have taken a lot of lives because they don't give you a warning.
Once they see you coming towards them, they just look at you.
You can see them looking at us. They are not happy.
What will they do? There's one on the end - will he charge us?
He's, er... Yeah.
He's running away. When they run in a big herd like that, they're afraid of people.
But if it's only one - only one bull or two bulls...
Those are very dangerous when they come straight to you.
- This one seems to be coming. - This one is not happy about us.
That's why he keeps on standing behind, ready to fight.
- He's very, very annoyed. - He's a bull.
- He's now trying to get more nervous. - He's certainly making me nervous!
When Hemingway came back to Africa in the 1950s,
he became honorary game warden
in an area disputed between the Masai and the Wakamba tribes.
Richard Bonham is now an honorary game warden in the same area.
He's been told about a group of cattle rustlers
and we're setting out to track them down with armed rangers.
- Watch out. - Look out. Head down.
A long way from anywhere, the truck suddenly pulls to a halt.
- What have they seen? - We've got a report of a snare line here.
We're gonna go down and see if it's still there.
See how these trails are coming up through these hills?
(PALIN) Yes. This is where the animal would normally come anyway?
(BONHAM) You're funnelled into this.
- He's got something there. - What's he found?
There's a snare line up there.
- Do the rangers normally carry rifles? - Out on patrol, all the time.
The game would be coming up or going down and they're blocked by this fence.
The game moving pretty swiftly?
Sometimes, but they don't have to be moving fast to get caught.
- What happens? - It would just come through like this.
- Then it would get caught. - Oh, God. Yeah.
- Then it would just pull. - And it tightens up.
That's not a particularly good example. The more it struggles, the tighter it becomes.
- The poachers finish them off? - That's the horrible thing.
- Sometimes they leave it for 24 hours. - So it's a long?
If it's round the neck, it's quite quick, but if it's the leg...
- Are the poachers around now? - I wouldn't be surprised.
Are they armed? Your rangers, as I say, have rifles. What do the poachers?
They're not armed with firearms, but they've got bows and poisoned arrows.
And one of their poisoned arrows, would that be fatal?
Curtains. Minutes, literally.
Have you ever had a close encounter with a poacher?
I haven't, but these guys have had arrows shot at them.
Luckily no hits.
OK. Shall we get this thing knocked down? They get a bonus for every snare they get.
A group of Masai coming down from the hills has information.
Masai cattle have been taken - probably by Wakamba raiders.
- Have they seen anyone? - Yeah. Poachers.
Between 12 and one, they crossed this valley and went over the hills.
- So we just missed them. - Right.
- They weren't carrying any meat. - No. Bows and arrows?
No. They were carrying miraa - a natural stimulant that grows here,
which they also sell.
- Are you going to follow these guys? - Yeah. We'll go and see what's going on.
(SPEAKS MASAl)
How does the poison work?
Some poisons are a blood coagulant
and then you've got Adenium which is a heart attack.
Now we've got to go quietly
because there's a cave over this hill and there might be people in there.
OK.
- There are some drying racks and a fire. - That's their fire?
Not waiting for us, are they, with a warm cup of tea?
If only.
0ut in the open I felt reasonably safe.
Scrambling down into this dark hole, much less so.
I feel my voice getting higher.
- This their fire? - Yes. It's reasonably fresh.
How many of them would be here, do you reckon?
Normally they're in gangs of five to ten.
They need people to carry the meat. See these racks? That's where they dry the meat.
- And bones of... What's that? - Probably a hartebeest.
- What does this mean? Are they near? - They're a long way ahead of us.
Really? What a relief.
I'm not surprised cattle go missing.
Even large herds are often only guarded by young boys.
Meanwhile, their teenage brothers prepare to go through painful rites of passage.
In this village - or "boma" as the Masai call it - a special festival is being held
to celebrate a circumcision which has just been carried out on a 13-year-old boy.
Was he circumcised by someone within the village?
- Somebody come from outside. - Yeah. Was it painful?
Yes. Extremely painful because they put a knife straight on his body.
Are you supposed to bear this without making any noise?
You're not supposed to move.
You're not supposed to wipe your eyes. You just stay still.
- Absolutely still. - Yeah.
How long is he going to be in there?
He's going to be in pain about two weeks,
but within five days he'll start walking around the village.
Through his pain, the boy is nursed by his mother and grandmother,
who feed him a special mixture of milk and cow's blood.
Then he will be a warrior, like his friends who have already gone through the ceremony.
I asked them what being a warrior involves.
If somebody come in our land without any permission or any reason,
these people are about to... kill.
- Kill? Really? - To kill.
- We asked permission. Don't kill us. - Yeah.
Do you also go out and hunt animals with your spears?
Yeah. If a lion come in this boma to catch us, we are subject to kill them.
What is this made of, this paint?
This can be used only to show the beautifulness
on the ceremony like this now.
It's to make you look beautiful? Who is the most beautiful here?
- We are all beautiful, except you. - That's not fair!
(CHANTING)
That was a great party, and their settlement looks out over Kilimanjaro, so you have a...
...a wonderful view of the clouds that almost permanently shroud Kilimanjaro.
The great thing about Africa is that you can't hurry anything,
so I might as well go back to the lodge and settle down with a good book.
"Now, being in Africa, I was hungry for more of it.
"The changes of the seasons, the rains with no need to travel, the discomforts,
"the names of the trees, the animals and the birds.
"To know the language and have time to be in it."
It's the discomforts I find the worst.
0h, well. Grin and bear it.
Welcome to my facilities. As you can see, the sense of place is everywhere.
The elephant's-trunk toilet-roll holder.
The Masai lavatory brush.
The zebra toilet mat.
And the hand-carved turtle toilet seat.
All adds up to the total "Out of Africa" lavatory experience.
Ah, peace, perfect peace.
Oi! You! Clear off!
Then, at first light next morning, the unexpected suddenly happened.
That is quite a rare sight. That's the summit of Kilimanjaro.
You can see the snow where the carcass of a leopard was found,
which gave Hemingway the idea for "The Snows of Kilimanjaro".
So feast on that. The real Kilimanjaro, not a prop.
I'll leave you with it for a moment.
"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" ends with the dream of a dying man
flying out of a storm towards the mountain.
"There ahead, all he could see, as wide as all the world,
"great, high and white in the sun,
"was the square top of Kilimanjaro.
"And then he knew that there was where he was going."