Today a special program at the end of an eventful year.

War in Syria, upheaval in Egypt, a new Pope, in America a government shutdown,

and here a royal baby.

In 2013, our correspondence have brought you dispatches from more than 120 countries.

Today, though, let's put to one side some of those big stories of the important work of politics,

commerce and conflict.

After all, the job of a foreign correspondent is to pay attention to so much more than that.

So in the next half hour I'll be taking something of a backseat as we turn the program over to our

correspondence for a rather different look at some of the other stories from the

last 12 months. Let's start with Nick Thorpe and a journey through the Sahara.

The Frenchman picked us up in Adra, an oasis town in the south of Algeria, where we'd been

waiting three days for a lift.

There was no road across the desert.

You followed the tracks of other vehicles in the sand.

At Biedon Sank, an abandoned supply point,

we fed migrating swallows and butterflies with water from

the lids of jars. Often we had to push the cars when they broke down. I remember there

raised bonnets in a line as though the cars were

prostrating themselves, worshipping the sun. The nights in the desert were the

best. The stars filled the whole sky right down to the horizon as though we were balanced precariously on the crust of a small planet. Flying into Legos at night you'd never know There's a city of 20 million people down there.

There's no orange glow as you see on approach

to smaller cities such as New York or London.

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