As the cabin fever continues, I had a few hours of escape Saturday night.
Kellie and Mark were able to get "Long Way Round" from Netflix.
It is a BBC show following the adventures of Ewan McGregor of "Trainspotting" and "Moulin Rouge" and his unknown actor pal Charley Boorman.
They plan a bike trip around the World from London, across Mongolia and North America.
The first few episodes are slow. The planning somewhat boring. You and I could plan the trip from our garage with a fridge full of beer, but these guys have a fully staffed office.
Charley digs KTM and is negotiating to ride the twin Adventure model on the trip. KTM gets a major fail as they bail out of sponsoring the ride at the last minute. The factory rep claimed they thought the two riders would fail on their quest. I think KTM didn't want a network program showing their bikes broken down in Mongolia and no parts available anywhere in Asia.
They end up with BMW GS1150 Adventures and become the best advertising for BMW since the Paris-Dakar Rally.
Once in the saddle and on the road, the two riders, and two 4WD support vehicles head East. Europe is easy and they meet the unpredictable characters that you usually meet on a true road trip.
Border crossings are sometimes a hassle as the group is somewhat disorganised, even with 3 full time secretaries back home.
Kazakstan is actually a real country, not just made up by Borat. The trip gets hard there and it is not easy, even with the support fleet.
We watched the dvd until after midnight and the party ended before the trip did. I went home a burned my eyes for more hours on youtube finishing the journey.
Although it was not a 100% pure trip due to the support crew, you still can feel the desperation and hopelessness of the bleakest parts of the trip. Impossible to continue forward and no way to turn back.
Using charm, teamwork and good thinking, they make it to the end of Russia. The North American half of the trip is almost boring, even including the non riding faggotry of Orange County Choppers.
Over 100 days in and the trip is winding down. Ewan and Charley are having that strange twisted battle in your soul of how much one can love the road versus the deep longing to be with your family and children. I have had such feelings from road trips and it is a difficult gig to explain.
After close brushes with 4 wheeled assassins, they embrace their families and return victorious to London.
I know the show has been around for 7 years, but it was hard to find. The two have since taken another long trip down to Africa and up the Americas. I will try to find that one next.
Last Winter we met two guys doing an even longer trip riding 1930's Nimbus bikes with sidecars. They just escaped Egypt this week. Check out their unsupported journey at
The King Croesus Contempt for Death trip
