Miyazaki opens the
window to find out.
Miyazaki loves clouds.
They fired his imagination
when he was young.
There's Gibraltar.
I never thought
I'd see it from the air.
They've reached Gibraltar,
at the edge of Europe.
The Antonov is
making good progress.
Africa looms just
beyond the straits.
Africa.
I can see Africa.
Africa. It's so close.
It takes only ten minutes
to cross the straits.
Below them is the African
continent - Morocco.
Development here too.
Japan is developed,
Spain is developed.
So is Morocco.
Can the Earth survive this?
Tangier - the
gateway to Morocco.
In his search for
traces of Saint-Exupery…
…Miyazaki sets foot in
Africa for the first time.
This is the
realm of Islam.
Compared to Europe,
it's another world.
The Casbah.
The old market is a maze.
Miyazaki likes to stroll
in old quarters like this.
Different faces,
historic buildings…
…and exotic flavors.
Someday this will be
the raw material…
… for another of Miyazaki's works.
There's another place
Miyazaki longs to visit.
Cap Juby, in the Sahara.
It was a way station
for mail pilots.
For a year and a half
beginning in 1927…
…Saint-Exupery served
as the airfield manager.
I always wondered what
Cap Juby was like.
Probably there's nothing left.
There was a
little fishing village…
...a small fort
used as a prison…
...a barracks office
and some warehouses.
Saint-Exupery was the
manager in his late twenties.
He wrote that the desert
makes you strong.
I think the time
he spent there…
. ..really did
make him stronger.
There was little
to do but think.
Think, and meditate.
His friends were
thousands of miles away.
That’s what he experienced.
«The Little Prince»
was supposedly based…
...on an emergency landing
in the desert, later in his life.
But the real inspiration
was rooted…
…in his experiences
at Cap Juby.
The runway must be
covered with sand.
Maybe we can't land,
but I'd like to try.
Cap Juby is very isolated.
The nearest town is
500 kilometers away.
Saint-Exupery wrote…
… that he felt like an
insect trapped in amber.
Cap Juby's image has grown
in Miyazaki's mind…
… since reading about it
when he was 20.
Day three:
Tangier to Marrakesh.
You must be stiff.
Ah, that feels great.
That feels great.
You were right.
The flight to Cap Juby will take
another two days.
Sandstorms are always possible…
… and flying may be
more difficult than before.
Eventually the mail
flights stopped.
The airfield at Cap Juby
was abandoned.
Miyazaki is very anxious
about Cap Juby's condition.
He's torn between
the desire to see it…
…and the fear that there
will be nothing of interest.
Maybe it would be better
left in his imagination.
Miyazaki struggles
with this dilemma.
It's four hours from
Tangier to Marrakesh.
Day four: Marrakesh
to Cap Juby.
The river s totally dry.
The landscape is barren.
Now comes the biggest
hurdle of the flight -
- The Atlas Mountains.
If the winds are too strong,
they'll have to turn back.
It must've taken guts
to fly over these peaks.
Today the wind
is at their back.
They climb to 3, 200 meters…
… and fly right over
the mountains.
The heat hits them…
…as soon as they
reach the other side.
The Sahara Desert.
This is how
I imagined it.
Suddenly - desert!
300 kilometers to Cap Juby.
There's nowhere
to land on the way.
But the winds are mild.
Looks like smooth flying
to Cap Juby.
Four hours
out of Marrakesh.
Cap Juby is almost in sight.
There it is!
There's the fort!
That’s the fort.
There's a village
where the buildings were.
The village covers the
site of the warehouses.
The desert airfield
at Cap Juby.
The sands haven't
buried the runway.
The colonial fort.
All just as Saint-Exupery
described them.
I was afraid
it would be boring.
But it's more beautiful
than I imagined.
This is very moving.
It’s affecting me more
than I expected.
I'm so glad I came.
He influenced me
more than anyone.