Long Way Round

Author/Guide: Charley Boorman

Why a Booktrail?

Get on your bike from London to New York, through Europe, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia, across the Pacific to Alaska, then down through Canada and America.

ISBN: 978-0751536805
Genre: Travelogue

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What you need to know before your trail

Ewan and Charley chased their shadows on the adventure of lifetime. But they had no easy ride. Exhaustion, injury and accidents tested their strength. Treacherous roads, unpredictable weather and turbulent politics challenged their stamina. They were chased by paparazzi in Kazakhstan, courted by men with very large guns in the Ukraine, hassled by the police, and given bulls’ testicles for supper by Mongolian nomads.

And yet despite all these obstacles they managed to ride more than twenty thousand miles in four months, changing their lives forever in the process. As they travelled they documented their trip, taking photographs, and writing diaries by the campfire. Long Way Round is the result of their adventures – a fascinating, frank and highly entertaining travel book about two friends riding round the world together and, against all the odds, realising their dream.

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Map of the journey from the book

Boys and their toys – Two good friends go on a one epic bike journey and there are many ups and downs along the way.

From 14 April 2004 to 29 July 2004, Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman, together with a small team travelled from London to New York City via Western and Central Europe, Ukraine, Western Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia and Canada, and in total covered some 18,887 miles (30,396 km). Some sections of the journey for obvious reasons were not done by motorcycle – the part of the journey through the Channel Tunnel, the train journey in Siberia ( to get around the Zilov Gap). several river crossings, a short impassable section in eastern Russia by truck, and a 2,505-mile flight from Magadan in eastern Russia to Anchorage, Alaska.

The riders took their BMW motorcycles through deep and swollen rivers, many without functioning bridges, while travelling along the Road of Bones to Magadan. The summer runoff from the icemelt was in full flow and the bikes eventually had to be loaded onto passing trucks to be ferried across a few of the deepest rivers.

The journey passed through twelve countries, starting in the UK, then through France, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Canada, and the US, ending in New York City.

The team stayed mainly in hotels while in Europe, North America, and the more populated parts of Russia, but frequently had to camp out in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. They visited various sights and landmarks en route, including the Church of Bones in the Czech Republic, the Mask of Sorrow monument (described as the “Mask of Grief” in the show) in Magadan, and Mount Rushmore in the USA. They arrived in New York on schedule, and rode into the city accompanied by a phalanx of bikers including McGregor’s father Jim and the Orange County Choppers crew.