In 2004, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman embarked on an epic challenge to bike 20,000 miles across 12 countries and 19 time zones in just 115 days.

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. Watch Long Way Round Apple TV+ (CA) 7 days free, then 8.99/month. 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. 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. 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 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 riders took their BMW motorcycles through deep and swollen rivers, many without functioning bridges, while travelling along the Road of Bones to Magadan.

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

Charley boorman long way round