I am not really into motorbikes or giant media expeditions, but I shall be watching Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor’s

on BBC 2 in the autumn, beginning this Sunday. Video captures the atmosphere of a place in a different way to books or film and I will enjoy seeing again the roads that I rode.

I tried to get Ewan McGregor to write the foreword for my second book but I couldn’t get past his ‘people’. Great trip though.

Long Way Down is the most recent motorbike adventure with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. Leaving on 12 May 2007, they travelled through Europe, and then Africa – from Tunisia to South Africa, via countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia – a total of 15,000 miles. The team arrived in Cape Town, South Africa on 4 August 2007. It is a follow-up to the Long Way Round trip in 2004, where the pair rode their motorbikes from London to New York, travelling east across Europe, Russia and the United States. As on Long Way Round, they were accompanied by Executive Producers/Directors Russ Malkin and David Alexanian.
Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are best mates, and passionate motorcyclists. As well as undertaking Long Way Round and Long Way Down, they ran a motorcross team together for years, and Charley took on the Dakar Rally in 2006.
Ewan and Charley supported UNICEF on Long Way Round and continued to do so on Long Way Down. They visited various UNICEF projects along the way.