Thought you might want a quick review for Bikernet of Ewan MacGregor and Charley Boorman's new adventure, just realeased in book and DVD format around the world.
Following the (claimed) succsess of their previous effort in Long Way Round Ewan Macgregor and Charley Boorman have again embarked on a (to their mind) adventure ride from John O'Groats in Scotland to the most southerly tip of South Africa.
Along the way they manage to ride through some interesting countries without actually learning much about them or exploring anything but the tar or dirt road in front of their tires.
Even Ewan comments that they are missing out on a lot of local culture along the way.But they are obviously on some 'must be kept to' schedule so those viewers who want to learn about North and south African culture are best advised to look elsewhere for information.
Now I'm only reviewing the DVD here, not the book…It's a two DVD package. Don't ask me what happens in the first two episodes because after five minutes of listening to Ewan and Charley and the rest of their travelling circus, I fast forwarded it until they reached Cairo and the Pyramids.I do know that almost as soon as the roads got rough two of the three BMW GS 1200's (yes Cladio is back as their cameraman on his own bike) busted their rear shocks.BMW should have their asses kicked for that. The real journey has only just begun and two of the rear shocks units went tits-up almost straight away. Not good BMW!
The good news is Charley's guttermouth style of talking has been pared to the bone, so yes, you can let your young kids watch this series.I'm not adverse to swearing myself, but Charley was way overboard in his bad language in the original Long Way Round DVD series.
I can forgive the obvious geekiness of these two for a couple of reasons…
One: They obviously love motorcyces and motorcycling.
Two: They are out there in Africa living the dream of some many other riders. And whilst George Clooney may be dropping his Harley on a street in LA, at least Ewan and Charley are dropping their bikes in the fesh fesh (local term for the talcum powder like sand) in the unforgiving terrain of the sands of Africa.
Three: Judging by bike magazines, bike webzines and internet bike forums the world over these two semi-famous Brit actors have got a lot of armchair adventuring couch potatoes off their asses and into motorcycles and in many cases, adventure riding.
Four: They have made even the dullest citizen in the world aware of the fact that motorcycles are a legitimate form of transport and recreation.
So like I say…while I'm not exactly a huge fan of the pair…at least they're doing something for the lifestyle we all love.
And even in it's worse moments Long Way Down is a hell of a lot better than watching a couple of blokes build a mega-expensive motorcycle in a shed in New York!Once they reached Africa, Ewan and Charley do begin to put in a lot of effort into their riding.A BMW GS 1200 is not a bike I'd choose to tackle the fesh fesh covered, corrugated excuse for roads and tracks that the locals use for their daily traveling needs.
There's less whining in this series also, which can only be a good thing. There's less complaining about missing the wives back home. And indeed Ewan's wife even flies out to ride some of the way with them on a BMW 650. More power to her for that!
It's not in any sense an edge of your seat adventure. The back-up vehicles are in almost constant proximity to the bike riding pair. They have signed up local fixers for border crossings and sourcing of places to stay and even the odd breakdown.
It's not like say, Ted Simon, doing it tough back in the ‘70s on his Triumph. Or Merritt and Pierre, from www.photobiker.com, doing almost the same route by themselves a few years ago, or Dave Barr riding around the world on his Harley.
But hey…if you want to watch something about motorcycling; there's a whole lot of stuff out there that's worse than Long Way Down. And there's plenty of riders in the world who will never transverse the African continent either.
I'll give it 7 out of 10. Simply because they are on bikes and they are riding from the top to the bottom of Africa!
Cheers,
–Jaqhama.
