Two men enjoying a good-hair day decided to set out on their third adventure of a lifetime. After Long Way Round in 2004, Long Way Down in 2007, it’s time for Long Way Up. Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman travel across South and Central America on the backs of prototype electric Harley-Davidsons with the roads throwing enough challenges at them. This time they cover 13,000 miles over 100 days through 16 border crossings and 13 countries, starting from the city of Ushuaia at the tip of South America. Here’s what the two men told t2 over a video call.
The two of you have travelled thousands of kilometres over the years. What has the journey taught you about friendship?
Ewan McGregor: We have always talked about being honest with each other and straightforward with each other, and I think before we did the first trip we read somewhere that you have to have the courage to be honest and if something is not right, say it’s not right, and sometimes it’s difficult to do that, of course. But I think we have learned that there’s no point in sitting around, being annoyed with each other. It’s best to just get it out in the open and say something and we both do that. I think we have our ups and downs, but more than anything, we are just there for each other.
I think there are times when we can read each other. It’s a good friendship; I think we just read each other very well. During a motorbike trip of three months or four months, you’re with each other all the time; you’re riding next to each other, you are checking into a hotel together and you’re putting up tents together. Whatever it is, you’re together all the time. You’re making all the decisions together, like ‘where does it go next’. So, of course, there are going to be moments when you just need to be on your own and you can. We can sense each other… when it’s tough and we’re riding and it’s cold and wet or when riding in the dark… it’s those more difficult times, we support each other; we just keep each other going. It’s a very unique friendship.
Charley Boorman: I miss you man. We met around 25 years ago on a film set. We were both acting in a movie… we both just had our first children. I remember our first conversation... about motorcycles and 25 years later, we’re still sending each other notes like: “Wouldn’t you like to buy this motorbike?” And we’ve just come up with three months of riding together on motorbikes and we’re still sending each other photos of motorbikes that we want.
I think it’s really important for people to have a passion… a hobby… riding horses or climbing or riding motorcycles or whatever it is. It’s very good for the soul. And if you can find a soulmate with whom you can share similar experiences with… one who enjoys them as much as you do, then it’s kind of a match made in heaven really. And then to be able to go off and do a third big trip together and experience countries, people and cultures through food and languages…. Like I said, it’s quite wonderful; it’s a very unique and special relationship. I think we’re both very lucky.
Was there a point when you were hesitant about electric Harleys, a point when you wanted to change the format?
Ewan McGregor: It was a long process to decide to go on electric bikes. It took us a while to think about it. Russ Malkin, our producer, floated the idea. I think very early on when we decided to do the trip it was like maybe we could go on electric bikes. You know that’s the future, and that might be because Russ is very interested in things that haven’t been done before … he is sort of driven enough. So he floated the idea and we just sort of mulled it over and started looking into it. Charley is a very good friend who did a lot of motorcycle touring on an electric bike in Australia. But yeah, he became quite useful to us in terms of talking about how you do it and that you have to think differently. It’s a different mindset… about charging the bike…. But as we talked about it, it became like fait accompli… we just had to do it on electric bikes.
Once we decided to go electric, then we had to find out the bikes we would ride. We tested a few different bikes and Harleys…. We’re just very excited to be involved with Harley-Davidson because it’s such a massive brand. And a brand that you would not imagine being at the cutting edge of electric anything, you know; it’s about big throbbing petrol V-twin engines. We were enthusiastic because they were so enthusiastic and they seemed to be pushing into this.
Then we had to learn how to do it and we did it, sort of on the hoof… I mean the bikes were prototype and we asked them to turn it into an adventure bike by putting better suspension. Charley was very involved with them and helping figure out what we needed and better suspension on the front and back, making the bike higher; better screen, redesign the seat…. They sent the bike and then we had to go, we had to learn how to use it… like how to manage battery life, which was kind of cool actually. Bikers will get to see us struggle with it and then come to terms with it. I think that’s a nice story arc.
You must have met a lot of people during the course of the journey. Any moment that sticks out and makes you happy looking back?
Charley Boorman: Oh yeah, there are so many moments. When you ride electric bikes, you know the terrain that you’re riding on becomes a factor and headwinds become a factor. Then there is tailwinds, which is behind you… it makes such a difference going downhill and stuff like that…. We were up in Bolivia and it was some of the toughest riding that we did… some terrible roads and big corrugation on the roads and deep gravel and sand. You know all the things that bikers hate and there was suddenly this hot thermal bath with these three guys (all bikers) in it. We got into the water. It was quite cold up in the high altitude and we were chatting away and we suddenly realised that all of us had the same issues, you know with headwind, tailwind uphills, downhills… things that affected us. When we did the two trips earlier, we were riding petrol motorbikes; we never had these experiences. So these little memories of meeting people make it very special.
Long Way Up will premiere on September 18 on Apple TV+
Adventure heroes
Who are your real-life motorcycling heroes?
Ewan McGregor: Well, it’s interesting. Let’s discuss the different realms of biking. One of our inspirations for doing these trips in the first place was a British journalist called Ted Simon, who wrote a book in the 1970s called Jupiter’s Travels. I think he also wrote for The Sunday Times or Sunday Times Magazine. In ’72, he set off on his trip when I was one-year-old. He wasn’t a biker but decided the best way to experience the world would be on the back of a motorcycle, so he got a bike from Triumph. He wrote for the magazine I think. I think the book starts in India and he’s on the way back… you know he’s been on the road three and a half years and it starts with him sitting under a tree; he’s run out of petrol and he’s sitting under the tree and it starts with him sort of saying, I’m hundreds of miles from anywhere, but I’m safe in the knowledge… in the absolute certainty that someone will arrive to help. And some guy turns up on a bicycle. He gets on the back of the bicycle and the guy takes him to a petrol station. It’s a beautiful piece of writing. He’s a bit of a legend in terms of adventure, motorcycling.
In racing, Valentino Rossi has been a hero of mine because we just watched him on the cutting-edge of motorcycle racing for so many years and he’s such a wonderful character. He’s cheeky and fantastic. And he’s still there every week… he is 41 years old… far too old to be being able to do that but he is our hero.
And then going back to our childhood, Barry Sheene was sort of our racing hero when we were kids, and Charley was lucky enough to know Barry a little bit.
Charley Boorman: Yeah well, he actually chatted up my wife! I was in a restaurant and we were with a bunch of friends at one table. And we were sitting at the end of the table because we came late and at the other table were Barry and Damon Hill. Anyway, I went up to go to the bathroom and when I came back, he was sitting on my chair, chatting to my wife. “So Olivier (Boorman), you are a good looking girl, do you want to come to Australia with me?” I tapped him on the shoulder and said I know she doesn’t want to go with you, but I will! That was my experience with Barry Sheene.
