Michael Palin, Lewis Hamilton

Michael Palin in his TV series Himalaya (and top ilght)

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Mr adventure.

"Next morning I wake to a re-run from The Godfather, the bed and my T-shirt are soaked in blood and I look around for the horse's head that thankfully is not there. I rip off Lyudmilla military grade bandages to an ear-splitting noise and the promised 300 mls of blood sprays around the bathroom. Now it's like a scene fror M-A.S-H. I tidy up, check out and am well on

Michael Palin, that icon of independent travel, actor, comedian and grandfather made his seventh visit to Australia recetTtly to promote his latest book and TV series, New Euroie. B^y Roderick Eime. lmost 1000 expectant guests crammed the auditorium, a record-breaking sellout f or the .!)'rllt, )',1 I o n t i t t 14 ll e ru I d Dymocks Literary Lunch. The mainly grey-haired, bespectacied audience sat entranced, their veal fillets a mere side dish for the main course; English adventurer and raconteur, Michael Palin.

With New Europe, Michael claims to fiIl what has been a void in his own experience and that of manv of his own generation. In all he visits 20 countriesl starting high in theJulian Alps on the border between Slovenia and Italy where the Iron Curtain once ran, he travelled through the Balkans and the countries bordering the Black Sea before

turning

northwards through the heart of o1d East Europe to the Baltic States, almost

as

far north

as St Petersburg.

I sit diligently listening and making notes, preparing for the scant fifteen minutes I will get to ask him my own questions, when he answers one, unprompted, from the podium.

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It's day 86, Estonia, and Michael has an appointment with a hirudotherapist. "After a small striptease, Ms Agajeva, a woman in her fifties and buxom in a generous, motherly sort of way is applying leeches to my torso. Why? Because Roger the cameraman thought it would be painful and unpleasant - and therefore mandatory.

Apparently the application of leeches is an ancient and proven way of treating impotence, high blood pressure and a myriad of other complaints.

"After 15 minutes the little buggers are swollen and satisfied and have supplied sufficient discomfort to delight Roger. Lyudmilla, we're on

first name terms

by now, dresses m-v wounds

with

a thick, industrial sticking plaster warning me that further blood loss is likely until the anticoagulant is absorbed. Back in Tallinn I feel a celebration is in order and I end having more than

of wine or two at the excellent restaurant in Tallinn's Hotel St Petersburq.

a glass

the way to Latvia before someone discovers the frightening scene I've left behind. It was

a

charming hotel though."

The lunch continues amid intermittent waves of laughter and applause, andyes, someone urges Micl

to sing the lumberjack song, which he obligingly dt

only in German, to a rapturous ovation.

After the 200 metre queue for book signings disperses, I prepare for my introduction. "Hellc Michael, I'm Roderick" to which he looks at mt with the hint of annoyance reserved for such

attempt at humour. "No, really" I say, handing him my card. He looks at it and then a a feeble

with a revised, apologetic gaze, "Oh, you po man." My copy of New Europe is duly signed w an official apolory from Pontius Pilate. But I'n forgiving, after all I have him to thank for my freedom. (If you haven't seen Life of Brian, the the joke is lost and you're probably not reading me

this anyway).

Palin Trivia Palin became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to television in 2000. . Along with each member of Monty Python, Palin has an asteroid named after him. His is Asteroid 9621 Michaelpalin. .In recognition of his many rail journeys, Palin has two British trains named after him. In 2002, Virgin's new â‚Ź5m high speed Super Voyager train number 22ll3o was named "Michael Palin" . Michael Palin is president of Campaign for Better Transport whose motto is "transport that improves our quality of life and reduces our environmental impact."

.

.ln

1993,

following his award winning

performance in A F i s l.t C u I I e d tiltr t t tl tr, Michael agreed to (well, he had to) the naming of the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children.

VIy

turn. Michael, your experience at the Hotel

Petersburg had us

in stitches, was that your fair it was me

rst hotel experience? "Well, to be

spoilt it, the hotel was excellent. But several ces in China were pretty strange and one comes nind: the Rongbuk Guest House was a stand o

:," he says.

lhis is how Michael describes it. Day 60, malaya. "From the filthy, littered courtyard to rsoulless concrete rooms with broken windows 1 the foul, doorless lavatories, Rongbuk Guest use is pretty much a hell hole." r{ichael adds some flavour that was missing rhe book. "It's run by a bunch of monks whose nds are clearly eisewhere. The toilet was down reezing corridor andjust a slit in the floor. So .ny people had used it over the years that there this stalactite of frozen excrement protruding : of it. A shame, such a spectacular location ht next to Mount Everest." lis favourite hotel? "Our lodge in the Torres del ne National Park overlooking the glaciers was s

magnificent location," Palin says. )ay 161 from Full Circle: "Few souls have rtured far into the park at this time of year t the most

1we have the hosteria almost to ourselves. Sit the wood-burning stove, playing dominoes 1

drinking seven-year-old scotch with seven

rusand-year-old glacier ice. Sometimes work is rost bearable."

)n

a

more serious note. I ask Michael

- with all

his experience in branded city hotels - what is the thing a hotel needs to get rightl "Well I think that, just like in good restaurants, a manager or person in authority should be around at all times. When a manager says,'Call me anytime if you need something'they should mean it, not just between ten and 12 or after nine.

one

It's service after

a11," he says.

"Hiltons, I find are particularly good. The name certainly stands for something and they have a standard of service I can trust."

Day 80 Pole to Pole: Addis Ababa. "Culture shock as we arrive at the Addis Hilton, into a

world of white faces, blond hair, thick legs, full bellies. Curfew from la.m. to 6 a.m, but telephones and mini-bars. Gorgeous, sensational and wonderful shower. The dust runs off in muddy channels. My eyes are red-rimmed and sore, and I have picked up a cluster of flea bites from somewhere but I suppose that's a small price to pay for what we've just been through."

At 65, Michael Paiin seems as bright and

spritely as a man half his age, or just a bit older than me. For a bloke who has circled the Earth on both the horizontal and vertical perimeters, ctirnbed mountains, crossed deserts and stood in front of a camera (for two takes) at minus 50 degrees at the South Pole, he's in pretty fair nick.

I don't need to ask him the next question because it's written all over him. Travel is obviously a great @ tonic. Drinkyour fill!

I\ew Europe

LY

T'r

,llicbael Pulitt

in a1l his series, Palin's NEW EUROPE takes the form of a journey through countries with rich and As

complex cultures. Few have survived intact, as the ebb and flow of warring armies have continually changed the map of Europe.

RRP AUD $49,95

23

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When Lewis Hamilton stumbled in his last race of the 2007 season and ultimately lost his chance for a debut Fl World Championship, the critics were ready. But what the detractors overlook is the incredible triumph it was just to be there. Roderick Eime reports. he presumption

with Formula

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drivers is that they are the children of privilege; precocious, pernicious brats

born into sporting royalty. Certainly some do all they can to confirm that prejudice. Michael Schumacher, for all his undeniable talent, had a mean streak a mile wide. Nigel Mansell, one of the most entertaining drivers you'll ever see, was a legendary dummy-spitter and double world champion, Fernando Alonso, Hamilton's teamnate and b.y default his greatest rival, would step over the line in his quest to retain the title.

Yet throughout that tumultuous season, my greatest menlory u.ill be the unqualified

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sportsmanship and dignity shown by the newest kid on the block. Despite some dirty tricks and

stinging barbs, he stayed above it all, focused on his ultimate prize. "l don't know if I particularly believe that

'win at all costs'is the way forward," Hamilton is quoted as saying.

It

is no surprises then that some of the largest

in the world belong to Formula One drivers, and when a young black kid fron-r the wrong side egos

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of town to turns up and starts whipping them, there are bound to be sparks.

Perhaps the most obvious example was the furor created during the so-called "trial by YouTube" when a spectator posted amateur footage of the controversial Japanese GP safety car incident that took out Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

Webber, with an appalling finishing record and relentlessly dogged by bad luck, blamed Hamilton for erratic driving, but the rookie was later cleared

after an FIA inquiry.

Asked, in 2006, whether he thought his colour would create a sort of "Tiger Woods" effect, replied "It's more a thing for the media to talk about. Being the first black man doesn't matter much to me personally, but for the sport itself it probably means quite a lot."

But let's step away from the issue of ethnicity and look dispassionately at Hamilton's arrival.

He came from a broken home in a rough council estate and went to a school where he was picked on.

Author Timothy Collings, who assisted Lewis

with the writing of his autobiography'My Story', observes: "Lewis developed his inner steel, belief and determination out of a disciplined response to

life's worst setbacks. Hamilton was a British kart champion at ten. Yet at primary school, he was bullied. He was small, lacked confidence and felt immature. But he had great inner determination and, with support from his father. he began karate lessons. By the time he was twelve, he had a black belt.

"Yet Lewis lacked confidence and it took him years to find it. The discovery of karts, on a family holiday to Ibiza in 1988, when he was only three,

followed at home by remote-control car racing, in which he excelled, revealed a talent and fired an obsession."

Murray Walker, the almost retired FI commentator and intensely parochial Pom, almost sheds a tear when asked about Hamilton.

"I have people coming up to me all the time in my local village of Ringwood, in Hampshire, saying: "Murray, is this Lewis Hamilton as good as people say he is?" and I say: "No. He is better."

"You are supposed to be neutral, but in the end you are British. Nigel was one of us, and my mate.

So, too, Damon (Hi11) and James (Hunt). I make no apologr for getting behind them. And now we have Lewis, a boy's own hero come to life."

After winning that now famous I995 British

karting title at age ten, Hamilton approached Mclaren FI team boss Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards evening that December for an autograph, and boldly proclaimed he intended to drive for him one day.

Taken a little aback, Dennis apparently wrote

in his autograph book, "Phone me in nine years, we'll sort something out then." But ciearly Dennis, his interest piqued, could not wait and signed the cheeky ladjust threeyears larer. making Hamilton (at 13) the youngest driver ever

recruited by an FI team.

"I was amazed by his self-confidence, and thought to myself that this boy can really go places." said Dennis recalling the moment.

Under Dennis's remote guidance and tutelage, Hamilton went on to dominate very race series he entered prior to 2007.

"To finish second at the end of mv first season,

rookie, in Formula One was certainly no failure, but I could not deny I felt a sense of disappointment to have gone so close to taking as a

the

title," said Hamilton, "but I had to take positives from it and look ahead to 2008. Who knows what will happen in the years to come?"

With the tribulations of that defining debut behind him, his otherwise flawless reputation slightly chipped, but his dignity firmly intact, how will Hamilton fare in 2008?

Mark Blundell, former Fl driver and Hilton Racing Ambassador, says, "The next part of the journey will be fascinating. If things pan out as we think now that Alonso has left Mclaren, then Hamilton becomes their number one. That is a new dimension again. This year he had the element of surprise. He won't have that in 2008.

Expectations are now sky high. He has to deliver in new circumstances. We are all in new territory season

with him." ',lI.t' I

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