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| Long Way Round | | Date Created: Aug 30, 2005, 08:08 PM |
 Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across The World by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman is a must for motorcycle maniacs. When I saw the BMW 1150 GS Adventures on the cover it was inevitable. OK, I have an 1150 RT and an F650.
It wasn't particularly relevant that McGregor is a well known actor and Boorman is a less well known actor (his father is a famous director). I was interested in the bikes and in the concept. I'd already read Jim Roger's epics, Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip and Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers, the latter a bike trip also.
Done in a diary type style with alternating entries by Ewan and Charley, it's quite readable if a bit too long on the "but how did you feel?" type reporting. Amazingly, you really can start in London and bike to New York City with only a transport across the Channel, a train transport in central Asia and across the Bering Strait to Alaska (and of course a big support team). The part of the book relating to the ride from Alaska to NYC took up all of about one chapter.
The trip, the places, and the people are truly what comes through, not the destination or the accomplishment. Along the way you learn a lot about what you're made of and how to surmont obstacles as well as the zen of motorcycle maintenance. The BMW's held up well, incidentally. The only other bikes they considered were KLM's.
I will definitely think of Obi-Wan Kenobi differently, next time I see him. And I might just have a bit more interest in visiting Mongolia...
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