Long Way Around Review

I've been watching this TV series called Long Way Around, where Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor (a.k.a. Obi Wan Kenobi) ride their cross-country BMWs from London to New York- the long way around.

Charlie and Ewan set up an office in London several months before departing and hired a small staff to help plan their route, get the paperwork set up, consult with them on border crossings, and many more activities.

To train them before the ride, they hired a personal trainer. To prepare themselves for harsh border crossings they hired an ex-military safety guru to teach them basic evasion, combat training, weapons use and how to best deal with a hostage situation. To prepare for any unforeseen medical problems, a doctor was brought on board. To learn Russian prior to departure they hired a Russian area consultant, a visa advisor and a language coach and they have 2 support crew vehicles.

They rode from London to Ukraine passing through the Czech Republic, and stopping at the Church of Bones. Along the way they passed through various monuments and tours cleared for themselves along with the support and video crews. The two-van support team went ahead at most border crossings and at major sites to arrange visits, viewings and make for easy passage. A lot of what they saw would not have been possible without the support crews, and yet without Ewan on the team it wouldn't have been a TV series at all.

The show itself is inspiring and lively, and gets me eager to have this similar kind of adventure when I retire. It's hard to watch a show like this one that makes travel look so dangerous, difficult without a whole crew behind you and then realize that with a bit of real-world thinking and prior experience you could undertake the same trip as they did, and I'm sure people have.

In the foreseeable future, I won't plan to do something like the Ewan-Charlie team, as I think they have something special and love what they are doing. I just think it is sad that it takes a celebrity on a team to get publicity for it. A lot of great travelers are doing equally amazing trips and because they aren't A-listed stars they don't get sponsorship, recognition or free gear, and the trips don't get publicized so that most people think travel is this dangerous and relatively pointless activity. Providing useful articles, reviews and writings on movies and films online.