Long Way Down & The Ride

Sunday evening was a good evening for motorcycle related viewing.

National Geographic - 6pm Sunday - The Ride
2 Half hour programs on Kevin & Julia Sanders and one of their GlobeBuster rides from Alaska to the tip of S. America.

After getting into the Guinness Book of Records for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by 2 people on 1 motorbike, and then following that with the fastest 2 up ride from Alaska to the tip of S. America this husband and wife team decided to set themselves up to run professional, escorted, motorbike tours – see their website GlobeBusters.com

These were the first 2 half hour programs in a series following one of their first escorted tours from Alaska to the tip of S. America. A trip that would see them taking roughly a dozen riders of differing skill levels on this trip that would last 5 months. It started with a bit of pre-event planning and a get-together, then the crating up of the bikes, their arrival in America, meeting up with a local called Dave who was to ride with them for the first part of the trip but soon fell off and badly busted his leg so couldn’t continue.

These first 2 programs showed the group coming together with some male bonding in the form of skinny dipping in near frozen waters in Alaska. Then one of the group (Dom) busting the gearbox on his BMW R1200GS with constant wheelie popping and having to ride 1000kms to get it fixed, only to then get the first speeding ticket only narrowly avoiding an automatic few days in jail.

So at the end of the first hour they are crossing from the USA into Mexico after riding down through some fabulous mountain scenery by way of British Columbia, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Arizona -- 1 month’s riding gone and 4 to go!


BBC2 - 9pm Sunday - Long Way down
The final 1 hour program on the exploits of Charlie Boreman & Ewan McGregor covering the final part of the journey from John O'Groats to the tip of S. Africa.

I found the Long Way Round series intriguing from the start as they set out to get sponsorship, undertook training, called in experts and met with other overlanders to get their views and learn from their experiences. The trip across Europe is one that many people will hope to, and should be capable of, undertaking at some time in their lives. Going through into and across Russia, Mongolia, China posed problems and risks that many will not be prepared to expose themselves to. Then riding across the USA – relatively speaking is childs play, but, it was all interesting and each aspect was covered in what I’d term appropriate depth.

But Long Way Down has been different. Very little on the preparations and planning, with only the difficulties in getting visas for the Americans getting any real coverage. Riding across Europe and crossing onto the African continent was condensed right down to a few minutes, presumably because the editorial team felt that they’d been there, done that. Watching the crossing of North Africa to Egypt and them getting down to the ferry left me feeling as if they were only showing it in order to prove that the guys actually did ride that bit. Only once they got off the ferry at the southern end did the series get anywhere near to the quality of Long Way Round.

And then tonight, the final leg to the tip of S. Africa with Evie’s pathetic attempts to ride a bike, to be with the guys (Ewan) and to get in on the act. How many times did she fall off? Probably 100 times more than they showed us on the programme. She had supposedly had extra training since we’d last seen her fall off in the UK in the first episode – being kind, the best I can say is that it didn’t show. Then there’s Charlie, and in a way I feel sorry for him what with Evie elbowing her way into a ride-out for the boys, but wouldn’t it have been so much more apt if Charlie had fallen off pulling those stupid wheelies rather than put Claudio in the position where he was the one that had the crash.

Then the finale – the scene at the end where they are met and then followed by the crowd of bikers that had gathered to greet and ride with them. Is there any biker who wouldn’t want to be there? I know I would have!