(Charley crashed on a Triumph launch in Spain a couple of years ago.). During the trip, the pair visited three UNICEF facilities to promote the work done by the organisation. Traversing through cities, mountains, deserts, and snow, they documented their trips using special helmet cameras whilst riding their bikes, had a cameraman ride on his own bike accompany them, and had a production crew that provided them with additional support and rendezvoused with them at border crossings. See our review policies for more information. WebCharley Boorman has been riding motorcycles since he was seven years old. A Mercedes clipped the Triumph he was riding in Portugal. The bikes had a 1,130cc engine and a six-speed gearbox that was good for 85 horsepower and 75 pound-feet of torque. They had pretty much changed their whole fleet and they wanted to show me. I have a crash there. Theyre already talking about making it harder. Or if you live in Europe, pop over to Morocco for some of the best off-road riding. Charley Boorman's South African Adventure (TV Series 2013-2013) The Movie Database (TMDB) Join Adventurer Charley Boorman as he sets off once more on an epic motorbike adventure, this time making his way through the stunning, rugged and often unknown South Africa. However, although delays of a few hours were common, there were few significant problems at crossing points as they travelled further south. It was six months before I could walk on one leg. Will update U., The funny man followed up with:@charleyboorman is now in surgery but was in good spirits before going in. But once they start to put real mileage between themselves and Ushuaia, a relatively predictable rhythm sets in that propels the journey forward with fewer headaches and anxieties. Youre sort of ready for it to end. Portions of Boormans recovery from the horrific accident are shown in the first episode of Long Way Down. These snippets show how dedicated Boorman was to getting back on the bike and how important it was for him to do this third trip. Scottish star Mr McGregor, 49, first rose to prominence in Danny Boyles cult classic Trainspotting and subsequently starred in blockbusters including Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker and DC The truth is you just have to have a go. Riding a prototype electric Harley-Davidson LiveWire through the Calchaqu Valley in northwest Argentina, the actor and avid motorcyclist Ewan McGregor waxes poetic into a microphone inside his helmet. With equity release you could access a lump-sum of tax-free cash which can be used to enhance your retirement income, make home improvements, or even enjoy a memorable holiday. The team took four days to ride from John o' Groats back to London, via the McGregor family home in Crieff and the Silverstone racetrack, where they camped in the middle of the circuit. Overview: For his first big project as state vet, Danny oversees the relocation of an animal. Im self-employed so getting a job is my biggest challenge. In Tunisia, McGregor and Boorman visited the set of Star Wars and then rode into Libya. Re-watching By Any Means for the 20th time at the moment. But it was fun and everyone was very fun and very respectful and it was nice. In the DVD extras, while preparing the bikes for cargo, Ewan McGregor refers to a possible future trip in South America, perhaps called Long Way Up. It was a surprise though, it's not an everyday occurrence for me! Can you raise it? Would be great to see more of this top female motorcycle adventurer. I love Africa and returned last year to guide a tour, but I felt quite vulnerable dabbing my feet off road in case I broke my legs again. Its something that you cant help. He has a deep passion for and vast knowledge about JDM cars. I don't want to give anything away, but one of the funniest moments of the trip as a viewer was that time in Ecuador when you basically couldn't leave a restaurant because of how many people wanted to see you. Let me just say that this trip exceeded every one of my expectations. When it's extremely cold, you know, the batteries don't perform as well. But the LiveWire wasn't even being sold yet, so we were so lucky that they built us these two beautiful bikes. Having ridden with Ewan McGregor all the way round the world, and on an extraordinary trip through Africa, he is now taking on Canada, South Africa and the USA. They rode the BMW R1200GS Adventure, the successor to the R1150GS Adventure bikes in Long Way Round.[2]. The first one (Long Way Down) because it was all new. It was sort of like a dream come true., Boorman recalls riding by a solar farm in Costa Rica and knocking on the fence to ask to check it out. Salta in northwest Argentina to take the Tren a las Nubes (Train to the Clouds) one of the highest in the world at almost 14,000 feet. You can plug the bike in and it's going to give you more than 100 miles in town and you just have a go. We'd sort of slightly drifted apart just because Id moved to America, Charley was very busy and whenever I was in Britain, he seemed to be away on one of his bike trips and making another show and I kept missing him. His motorcycle was substantially damaged, and the footage of the rest of the journey to Cape Agulhas appears only to include support vehicle and helmet cam footage, suggesting that Von Planta's motorcycle was no longer used. Then I was in a wheelchair for ages. WebInspired by their UNICEF visits to Africa, they knew they had to go back and experience this extraordinary continent in more depth. Charley (50), the son of acclaimed film director, John Boorman, is on the mend and back on the bikes, but here the journeyman recalls some of the scariest moments in his life. After many years as a BMW ambassador, I was approached about five years ago by Triumph Motorcycles. JAG: The crazy part was it wasnt only the bikes, you guys had the Rivian pickups too. (Photo by Michelly Rall/WireImage), How A Finicky Fiat Helped Lead To The Creation Of The Leatherman Multitool, Five Great Motorcycles Rolling Our Way For 2023, Formula Ones New Medical Car Is The Aston Martin DBX707, Garmin DriveCam 76 Review: Finally, A GPS Device With A Built-In Dash Camera, UVEye Provides Automotive MRI For Car Service Customers, Dealers, Review: 2023 Nissan Leaf Remains A Great Inexpensive Electric, Look! The television series began broadcast on BBC Two on 28 October 2007,[3] with clips also shown online. And then I obviously had to have the second one, the second accident, where I really smashed myself up in South Africa. As the only spare had been fitted to McGregor's bike, von Planta rode in a support vehicle while his bike was sent ahead for repair. Ive ordered a nurses uniform always wanted one. Im amazed when Charley Boorman walks to the door of his west London home. I didnt do very well in school, but I got As in daydreaming, so I would spend a lot of time daydreaming about Machu Picchu, like it was this mythical place that Id never see. 1:41 PM EDT, Thu September 17, 2020, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman take on a 13,000-mile e-bike journey in the Apple TV+ series, "Long Way Up.". The Long Way motorcycle adventurer (Photo by Michelly Rall/WireImage). I remember having the door open and contemplating whether I'd have to jump. The visuals satisfy an increasingly unbearable wanderlust that has become more acute during this year of coronavirus lockdown. The two friends will travel through such places as Siberia, Holiday? British adventurer Charley Boorman treks across Canada and discovers what makes the country amazing. He also has a penchant for all things F1, occasionally catching up on WRC. It's the longest trip ever attempted on an electric motorcycle, one that required Rivian to install a new string of fast-chargers along the planned routea rural charging network that will now serve the people of the region, as McGregor pointed out to me. "I did the Dakar Rally (10,000km from Lisbon to Dakar, Senegal) in 2006, which is one of the most dangerous off-road races in the world and broke both my hands. Id love to the do Simpson Desert. I realized we share something that I dont share with anyone else. And those beginning few weeks were super cold. The book abounds with bikes trashed and accidents endured, including the time Boorman rode 400km in the Dakar Rally with broken hands. Well also do one on Scramblers in Morocco on light gravel and tar. Somehow, we slid into a ditch and the car stopped. Ewan McGregor and his wingman, Brit TV personality Charley Boorman, have reportedly begun production of the third entry in their popular Long Way motorcycle road This form collects your contact information. Then we got Russ and Dave our two producers and partners and then Russ floated the idea of maybe going electric and that was it really. You can watch a snippet of my interview with Charley below, and you can read it in full in issue 59 ofAdventure Bike Rider magazine, out now and available to buy from our online store with free UK shipping. They put in these charges all the way down our route with our partners at Enel. News updates will happen by Twitter, through, Custom Eye Candy: An Electric Zero SR-X Concept, 10 Electric Skateboard Brands That Are Killing It, Start typing to see results or hit ESC to close, Fast Figures: Piaggio Groups 2022 Sales Were Best Results Ever, Industry Insider: EU Ignores Licensing Revamp Pleas, UK Is Next, Luck of the Irish: Insurance Costs Cause Country-Wide Racing Closures, Powersports Podcasts: Ricky Carmichael & Ryan Villopotos Title 24, Harley-Davidson Screamin Eagle Engine Sets New Record, Husqvarna Releases Up-Specd Norden 901 Expedition, Armor, Airbag, Base Layer, & Underwear Reviews, The Fight to Save the Davidson Ancestral Home, Indian Motorcycles Publishes Recall over Non-Compliant Lights, BMW Recalls K1600 Models over Suspension Failure. When one of the crew gets an awful bout of altitude sickness, near Salta in Argentina on their way to ride Tren a las Nubes (Train to the Clouds), McGregors concern is visceral. Couldnt think dont do it. Within the first three episodes of this series, the duo visit: Parque Pingino Rey in Tierra del Fuego, Chile, at the tip of South America. Then this big truck came round the corner and it put them off. That was the case for Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, who ended their last biking adventure 13 years ago at the end of the Long Way Downtelevision series. Electric bikes are brilliant. Their daughters - Doone and Kinvara, 21 and 20 are both at university, but Doone also had to be flown home last year after breaking her jaw on a skiing trip. The TV journeyman and professional biker tells Hannah Stephenson about some of his most hair-raising moments, Horror crash: Charley is back on his bike after a horror smash last year. In the case of Mr McGregor and Mr Boorman, it was a freak accident during a European trip that acted as the trigger for a long-overdue reunion. As I approached I heard him say, So, Olivia, youre a beautiful girl, do you want to come to Australia with me?. Discovery Company. Its been more than a decade since Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman rode triumphantly into Cape Town at the end of a journey that saw them travel the length of Africa on their BMW R 1200 GS Adventure motorcycles. He also did a follow-up to the show in 2009 called 'Right To The Edge: By Any Means' where he traveled from Sydney to Tokyo following the Pacific Rim. Co-director of photography Jimmy Simak also acted as music supervisor and soundtrack producer for the series. And after a bike trip in south England, we have to visit Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire. Id love to ride with (princes) Harry and William. Im not a big fan of regrets. He is still close to his father, who is 84 and walks with sticks: when Charley was on crutches, they looked like twins, he says. The second installment in the series, 'Long Way Down' was shot in the year 2007. Every 20 minutes, you were just about to crash. He had shattered his left tibia and fibula and broken his right ankle and wrist. Hope Charley is doing OK. Id love to see Tiffany Coates standing in for him rather than his engagements having to be cancelled. It took 10 operations over two years and a year and a half to start walking again. (One quick note: this interview has been edited for clarity, and it's also a lot better when you read McGregors copy in his Scottish burr.). The Mayor of London is not doing bikes any favours. Horror crash: Charley is back on his bike after a horror smash last year Wed 19 Jul 2017 at 01:41 TV presenter and adventurer Charley Boorman, who motorbiked Id also have loved to have ridden with Barry. All these vehicles are all frontier tech and you both seemed pretty damn worried during the first couple of episodes. Technology, performance and design delivered to your inbox. Three bikes were used in Long Way Down with Ewan, Charley and cameraman Claudio Von Plata each riding one, Long Way Up took about 100 days to complete as they rode from Ushuaia to Los Angeles, The crew traveled from their base in Shepherd's Bush, London to John o'Groats at the northern tip of Scotland to begin their journey. They rode their BMWs through Belgium, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, a large portion of Mongolia and Russia, the Road of Bones, Alaska, Canada and finally, the U.S.A. South Africa. I fell off that as well. And because the Long Way Up route terminates in Los Angeles, where McGregor lives, his 13,000 mile journey ended on his own driveway. Poring over a map of the world at home one quiet Saturday afternoon, Ewan McGregor - actor and self-confessed bike nut - noticed that it was possible to ride all the way round the world, with just one short hop across the Bering Strait from Russia to Alaska. Related: 2021 BMW R1250 GS & GS Adventure. Drifting apart from your mates can be a sad fact of life as you get older. In 2004, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman embarked on a journey to bike across 12 countries and 19 time zones in 115 days. If Ewan hadnt been involved, it wouldnt have had a chance to be successful, says Boorman, frankly. WebBoorman hit a wall and then bounced along the pavement three times. And thats when the real magic begins. In Malawi, they visited care centres for children orphaned by AIDS. Believe me, thats raelly great. Boorman hit a wall and then bounced along the pavement three times. With the right planning, of course. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, reading fiction books, watching movies, and spending time with his pet cats and dogs. [7][8], On 27 May 2020, it was announced that the series Long Way Up would premiere on Apple TV+.[9]. It really is close now. We've sort of lost touch with each other a little bit. WATCH: Ewan McGregor in action on the Moto Guzzi V85 TT, but will he take it on the Long Way Up? This documentary series follows actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on a motorcycle trip around the world. 2. Moped narrowly avoids 70mph train at level crossing, Tom Sizemore: The Hollywood hardman who fell from grace, Calm weekend will turn to freezing as snow and ice warnings issued, Hong Kong activists convicted over failure to comply with security law, Actor Tom Sizemore dies after career tarnished by scandals.