POLE TO POLE WITH MICHAEL PALIN: North...

POLE TO POLE WITH MICHAEL PALIN: North to South by Camel, River Raft, and Balloon by Michael Palin, photographs by Basil Pao (KCET Books: $18.95; 321 pp.). As a follow-up to his popular PBS series and book retracing Phileas Fogg’s journey “Around the World in 80 Days,” Michael Palin went from the North Pole to the South Pole, trying to follow the 30th east latitude, a route that took him through 17 countries. Palin once again serves as a bemused narrator, commenting on the hospitality in Norway, Finland and the disintegrating Soviet Union; the inefficiency of Sudanese officials; the chaotic traffic in Cairo and the natural wonders of Kenya and Zimbabwe. The former Monty Python performer makes a agreeable armchair travel companion.