Review - The Long Way Round DVD - Ewan McGregor

If you enjoy motorcycles, or you like watching others roughing it, The Long Way Round is the travel show for you.

In this two disc series, Ewan McGregor and his friend, Charlie Boorman, ride motorcycles from England, across Europe, up into the remotest parts of Russia, and then through Alaska, Canada, and finally end up in New York City.  If it sounds exhausting, then you have a small sense of the scope of this adventure.  It's a bold, dangerous, and often muddy trek around the world.

I loved these two DVD's.  They demonstrate all the nuances of travel, the expectations, the glitches, the wonder and much more.  The first hour shows Ewan and Charlie preparing for the trip, from a rigorous exercise routine, to choosing a brand of bike, to receiving their required bloody inoculations. Their months of preparation foreshadow just  how difficult the journey will be.

Then they're off.  Europe is like a jaunt in the park, and the filmmakers gloss over it quickly.  Charlie and Ewan want to get to the off-road biking in Mongolia and Russia.

During parts of this documentary, I kept thinking, why are they making themselves suffer so hard?  I can tell you that you will rarely see me without roads and buses and plumbing.  I'm a safe traveler.  I want to get back home with all my fingers and toes and my stomach full of lovely food.  So while watching these guys motoring through mud up to their knees, knowing they could have been seriously injured, my emotions were torn.  I'm glad I wasn't the one making the trip.  But I have to admit, it was interesting to watch them risk everything.

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Comments

[Briony]

I was so exhausted after watching Long Way Round. Theri ride through Mongolia and then the Road of Bones through the mud just wore me out. Everytime something went wrong I felt so sorry for them!

Have you seen Long Way Down? They rode from the very north of Scotland through to South Africa...up until I watched it I never really had any ambition to travel to central Africa, but I do now!

[Melody Platz]

Hi Briony,

I didn't know about Long Way Down. I will definitely have to find it and see it.

I know what you mean about feeling sorry for them. Do you remember the mosquitos the size of a half dollar? Sheesh!