Words: Jason Thomas

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on the road filming their documentary Long Way Round

 
The Long Way Round was Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s dream to ride two motorcycles from London to New York. Not only did they accomplish the incredible journey, but also it was one of the most-watched television documentaries of 2005 and has recently been released on DVD (it’s available in stores now). We were able to catch up with Charley Boorman on this incredible adventure.

Klublife: There was more to this than just riding two motorbikes around the world, right?

Charley: I suppose so. First and foremost, Ewan and I wanted to go around the world on motorbikes. Like all of these things it is not something you decide to do overnight. There was a period of time that we talked about it and it started off with us going to the south of Spain, to drive down there. And then meet our families and then ride back. Then it ended up going to New York somehow, and then a little bit longer. We both have children, and we are both wrapped up in different charities, but we were looking for a charity that took care of children and had representation in all the countries we were going through and I think UNICEF does that. They seemed the obvious choice to us. So we contacted them and hooked up with them in three different places. I think when you are traveling a lot you become very vulnerable as a traveler. Your senses are heightened and your emotions run much higher. Stuff we saw with the kids in the Ukraine, it really touches you and it is very hard, especially when you are away from your children. It was worth it in the end: we raised a sh!tload of money for them so that was cool.

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman with their bikes on the Road of Bones, Long Way Round

Klublife: The road of Bones in Russia was one of the toughest parts of the journey, but did you ever expect to encounter a church full of bones at the beginning of the trip in Eastern Europe?

Charley: That was funny. One of the reasons we went through Mongolia and up to Magadan was…well there, were a couple of reasons. One of them was that we were in the planning offices and geographical society where Phileas Fog planned his things and it was great, this planning office where you can go. We were sitting there looking at the route and there was this beautiful photo of Mongolia, and we said “Christ, where is that?” and they said “Mongolia.” It was just the perfect biking country, and we thought, right, let’s go there. There was this guy we knew who was doing this journey, and we knew him as the Millennium Ride. He was this guy who had been going around for four years and we happened to go on his website and he had some photos of the Road of Bones, and this mad bridge and these crazy roads and we thought, Christ, what’s that? And we went there because of its history as well, it has staggering history, the Road of Bones does. Everyone says it is completely impossible so your whole mind focuses on that. What we didn’t realize is that Kazakhstan was as f*cked up as Mongolia and the Road of Bones was. So in actual fact, instead of having this one road or Mecca we were trying to get to, we ended up having to get through all of Kazakhstan and Mongolia, where there were just about no roads. So by the time we got to the Road of Bones anything was a piece of piss, really.

Klublife: Was the food something you anticipated? Especially the Mongolian tesitcle day?

Charley: The testicle thing was funny. We were just happy to be there on a really lucky day, according to the Mongolians. I don’t see that myself. It all started because we saw a cow go down, and we thought, oh look, they are slaughtering a cow. We thought we would just pop over because we were camping beside one of these Gherds, where these Mongolians live, like big tents. They have their own horses and cows and sheep and goats and they are very self-sufficient. Well, you have to be because there is nothing there. So we thought we will go over and experience and get a steak, a bit of fillet. Anyway, as we walked toward it this cow got up again and started limping off. That should have been the telltale sign, but we didn’t really think much of it. I think Ewan made some passing comment about testicles. Then we sat there and were having a cup of tea, chatting away and they said, “Are you hungry?” and we said “Yeah, that would be great.” They opened up the lid off of this cauldron and there were 200 testicles bubbling away, in this gray water that looked like sink water that you had just done you Sunday washing in. So they handed them to us and Ewan got his and it was quite small. Mine was enormous. I don’t know if that represents what I am like in real life. Anyway, he ate his and I ate mine. He was fine, but I bit into mine and it was the pop that really just did it for me. It got about half way down my throat and I just coughed it straight back up again. It was funny though, on this trip it was Ewan, Claudio and myself, and we spent most of the time on our own. Every six or seven days we would hand over rushes to the team at the borders, to do the UNICEF stuff and other bits and pieces. It was near the beginning of Mongolia and we had just come through this big town, and we were spending the night with the crew. So, Russ was there for this testicle thing and his was the funniest. His went down his throat and then he coughed it back up and it came flying out of his mouth and landed on the carpet and rolled towards our host and they were all just looking at this testicle rolling across the floor, just staring at it. We thought, oh shit, they are going to be really offended. They all just started laughing. But then there was this really little kid, and she got this big bowl of testicles and she was eating them like they were really delicious with all of the entrails hanging out of her mouth—it was just horrible.   

Klublife: In one of the remote towns, you were offered a sheep head? Did you eat it?

Charley: I didn’t eat it. I am a bit of a gagger, and am not really good with slimy food, although I can eat pretty much anything else. I’ve eaten frog and snake and turtle. I’ll eat oysters, only little small ones. Turtle, crocodile, everything, but boiled sheep’s head, ’cause all it is is fat and skin. It is black-gray so it is really horrible.

The Long Way Round is the best thing on DVD this spring and features the wonderful talents of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. If you’re looking for something original, fresh and most certainly not the usual programming, then The Long Way Round (in stores now) is up your alley!