Think of fearless English travel writers like Robert Byron and Bruce Chatwin before you tune in to the adventures of Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor on TV. They are like a pair of English travel writers on motorbikes who don’t mind a bit of swearing.
Viewers of Apple TV+ can now stream the fourth adventure of the biking duo in the series Long Way Home, which follows Long Way Round (2004), Long Way Down (2007) and Long Way Up (2020). The 10-episode journey rekindles the duo’s road-tripping spirit, bringing them a little closer to home this time.
In their previous adventure, they used electric bikes to undertake a journey from Ushuaia in Argentina through South and Central America to Los Angeles in the US. This time, they are riding two refurbished vintage motorbikes from McGregor’s home in Scotland to Boorman’s in England. Sounds like a short trip? Nope, they decided to take the long way to cover the distance.
They head across the North Sea to Scandinavia, all the way up to the Arctic Circle and then down to the Baltics and through continental Europe, before eventually hopping back over the English Channel two months later, taking them to more than 15 countries.
“Charley often says, when you are getting closer to the end of a trip, you start daydreaming about another trip because it makes it easier to stop the one you’re on, because there is part of you that never wants to stop being on the road. It’s such an escape and an adventure,” McGregor said over a video call.
Keeping him company was his biker friend. Boorman thought there was no point in taking the easy way out, so a loop appeared.
“We were looking at the kinds of things to do in different countries. We’d love to do this in Norway, we’d love to do that in Finland… we sort of created a route. For some reason, I had in my head that we would see these amazing northern lights (aurora borealis). I put this big spotlight on my motorcycle so we could light up the night skies, and I hadn’t even thought there’d be hardly any nighttime,” said Boorman.
McGregor and Boorman wind their way through Norway’s scenic roads and fjords, gobsmacked by Viking churches and ancient rock formations
Meeting people
The series also gives the two an opportunity to take a break from their usual film and TV careers.
From his breakthrough role as the heroin-addicted Mark Renton in Trainspotting to the legendary Obi-Wan Kenobi in the second released Star Wars trilogy, to starring as Christian in the Oscar and BAFTA Award-winning musical Moulin Rouge!, McGregor’s career has been highlighted by a continuous string of bold performances. Last September, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Boorman is now one of the best-known faces in TV adventuring. His love of motorcycles and racing led him in 2006 to take part in one of the most demanding and dangerous motor races on earth, the Dakar Rally, documented in the TV series and best-selling book Race to Dakar.
In the new series, McGregor chose a 1974 Moto Guzzi 850 Eldorado and Boorman is on a 1972 BMW R75/5. It brings in the question of reliability, which in turn, brings in the adventurous element.
“When we did Long Way Up, we used electric bikes. It was like cutting-edge technology and had all sorts of fantastic difficulties. It was hard when people said, you know, we’re not sure if you can make it. We did,” said Boorman. “When in Bolivia, when it was really bumpy and difficult, we started to laugh a lot because the harder it is, the more bizarre fun it becomes. You have just as many issues with old bikes as you do with cutting-edge ones. You always have an 80 per cent chance of getting to where you want to go. There are potential breakdowns that lead to some of the best parts of the trip because you’re meeting people for help.”
McGregor’s voice rolled in: “In a way, this trip was easier than some of the other trips we’ve done, just in terms of the terrain and stuff. We didn’t have weeks of gravel roads. It’s Europe, so we had to make it harder for ourselves!”
The adventure trip has allowed the pair to take ownership of the road ahead rather than following the regimented approach when they are on a film set.
“Making movies is like an exercise: There’s catering, there’s make-up, there are lights, there’s the set. When it has to move around, it’s a logistical feat, and, amazingly, it all comes together day after day. But that does filter down to us, the actors. Everything’s pretty regimented. You’re going to be picked up at this time, you’re going to do these scenes in the morning, you can have these things for lunch, and you can shoot these scenes in the afternoon. It’s pretty regimented,” said McGregor.
He got a grip of the metaphorical “road ahead” when he was working on the film Big Fish in 2003, just a year before he did Long Way Round.
“I bought a motorcycle; I was shooting in Alabama. And I didn’t even own a place in Los Angeles, but I decided I wanted to buy a bike in Alabama and ride it back to LA when I finished that movie. I got on my bike and four days later, I arrived in LA, and I loved it. I had no plans. I didn’t even know where I was staying. I just loved the rhythm of it. On a series like Long Way, you decide everything for yourself, and in our case, Charlie and I make (most of) the calls… where we need to stop and what we’re going to see.”
Esther Smith and Rafe Spall in Trying
Family time
Each time they shoot a Long Way show, they have to leave home for months. With age, it gets difficult to leave the family behind. Boorman said: “When Ewan and I left for the first one more than 20 years ago on Long Way Round, we were going out for about four-and-a-half months. We both had very young children, our children are of relatively similar age. Both of us have always travelled. I started off as an actor as well. When we did Long Way Round, we got involved with UNICEF, which helps children around the world. Ever since, we have done little projects of prioritising children’s needs around the world, and that has helped us a bit along the way. In Ewan’s case, he has this gorgeous little boy, Laurie (born in 2021; he also has four daughters). It was hard.”
McGregor said it helped to have a shorter trip this time around. “The older you get, you don’t want to be away from home for long. I can’t imagine how we were away from home for four-and-a-half months for Long Way Round. This trip was for 10 weeks, and we planned a week or a five-day gap in the middle when we got to Helsinki. We picked a place that looked like it was sort of halfway round. Our families all came out, so we got a chance to spend some time with our families.”
Lending cool vibes to the show is the soundtrack, which is varied and contains music you may not have heard before. “It is born out of things that we are actually listening to on the way. We have earpieces inside our helmets, we can listen to music. At times, you get a track by a new artiste, especially when you are in a new town,” said McGregor.
“The theme track for Long Way Round was sung by Kelly (Jones) from the Stereophonics. We were both big fans of the Stereophonics. We went backstage and struck a deal for him to write a song for us,” punched in Boorman’s voice.
On this trip, McGregor discovered the music of Chappell Roan while travelling through Norway. “My wife texted me a track that my son really likes. It was sung by Chappell Roan, whom I had never heard of. And she’s enormous now. I was listening to her on my headset.”
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