Long Way Round

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman decided to bike across the world, from London to NYC by way of places like Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Siberia. Lucky for us, they also decided to keep a record of the trip with film.

Long Way Round is the name of the television series (now available on DVD) and book that brings Charley and Ewan's adventure to the rest of us. I rented the DVD last week and enjoyed it so much more than any movie I have seen for a long time.

Make no mistake, this is not about a couple of pampered actors who ride 1 out of every 100 miles while a faceless crew shuttles them to the easy spots via helicopter. Ewan and Charley (plus Claudio von Planta, the cameraman) generally meet with the production crew at borders only, to swap tapes and batteries and make sure papers are in order. The film follows the three riders on their BMW R1150 GS adventure tourers and what the riders see and experience. These guys have balls of solid steel, and I was constantly amazed at the trials they went through in very remote places of the world. How would you deal with a broken motorcycle frame in the middle of Siberia? How about hour upon hour of horrible road conditions (I use the term road very loosely here)? There were places where they'd be covered in mud, and you could tell they were tired and probably just wanted to stop and get dry; suddenly, half-way through a giant mud-filled pit in the road the bike would tip. They always pick the bike back up. The accomplishments acheived on this ride are outstanding.

They visited a couple of Unicef organizations to see the kids and give Unicef some exposure. This included some touching scenes of Russian children living in steam tunnels under the streets and Chernobyl victims in Ukraine.

I am inspired by this film. I'm inspired by the friendly willingness of strangers over the world to lend a helping hand to the travelers. I'm inspired by Charley and Ewan for following through with this dream. I'm inspired to ride longer and harder, and to keep better records of my travels.