Excess Baggage - 03/07/2010

Sandi Toksvig hears from the travel writer Anthony Sattin about Florence Nightingale's trip up the river Nile in 1849 and saw all the sights we are familiar with today from the Pyramids to the temple of Abu Simbel. The adventure was a formative influence as she underwent spiritual experiences in the ancient temples and was shocked by the poverty she witnessed. On the same boat from Alexandria was a young Gustav Flaubert and he too found Egypt a life changing experience, although of a much more sensual nature. Sandi also meets journalist Gail Simmons who had her own spiritual experience when she fasted for three days while staying with the Bedouin of the Sinai desert. And Joe Senior had a different kind of sensual experience in North Western Australia. He is blind and encountered the landscape and aboriginal people there through senses other than sight when he won a competition to travel the area in a taxi. Producer: Harry Parker.