EWAN MCGREGOR AND CHARLEY BOORMAN HEAD TO SIBERIA
09 July 2004 - BMW Motorrad GB

For Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman time marches relentlessly on. And time has now taken the two-wheeled actors through the hostile, open wastelands and rugged roads of Mongolia, heading for Siberia.

After setting off from London at the end of May to circumnavigate the globe on two BMW R1150 GS Adventure motorcycles, the duo have completed over half their self-imposed, 20,000-mile odyssey. The journey is part of a project entitled Long Way Round and will be made into a major TV series to be screened on Sky One (UK) and Bravo (USA). McGregor and Boorman will each keep a personal journal and the memoirs recorded in these will be edited and compiled into a book that will be published in the autumn by Time Warner Books (UK), Atria (USA), and Penguin Books (South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).

The last six weeks have seen the pair ride through Central Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. From there, a carefully planned route will take them to Siberia, Alaska, Canada and a final destination of New York City.

Ewan and Charley know that the hardest part of the ride is still to come. However, they are both confident that they will be able to cope with whatever Mother Nature and Lady Luck decide to throw at them. They have every confidence in the R1150 GS Adventure, all-terrain motorcycles, supplied by BMW Motorrad Great Britain. Their meticulous preparation included comprehensive off-road riding instruction from two BMW Paris Dakar riders Simon Pavey and Nick Plumb, as well as a technical and maintenance course at BMW Motorrad in Bracknell.

Into Kazakhstan

Although Ewan and Charley were warmly welcomed by the Kazakhstan people, the roads beyond Atyrau were the most hostile they had yet encountered. The time-ravaged highways were to provide an ominous indication of what was to come. The biggest problem Ewan and Charley encountered in remote Kazakhstan was the lack of available accommodation. For mile after mile there were no houses and they had to put up tents for the first time. After inhospitable roads, rain and a week on the road, the duo finally reached the old capital of Almaty.

Onto Mongolia

Two weeks after entering Kazakhstan, Ewan and Charley crossed the border into Russia’s Altai region. The duo stayed only briefly and – with overnight stops in Barnaul and Gorno-Altai – rode on towards the Mongolian border at Tsanganuur. Once in Mongolia they found that the landscape was one of continuous change. From open steppes, past lakes and gorges, the road merged seamlessly into vast open landscapes where Kazakh Yurts and Mongolian Gers lived side by side.

Quotes

CHARLEY BOORMAN on the toughest part of the journey so far: “Riding through Mongolia has been amazing. There are few countries in the world that seem to have been unspoilt by the West but Mongolia is one of them. It’s been hard work though – the roads are terrible and fork off into another route without warning. There are no signposts, meaning that we have had to rely on our GPS systems. We’ve never met such inquisitive or generous people. Every time you roll up to a village crowds gather. Out here no-one knows who we are or what we are doing; they just want to find out what is going on, what our bikes are and where we are heading. The going has been difficult and we were worried about the low octane petrol, but the bikes have been running fine. The main problem has been falling off. The roads have been a combination of dry and dusty, and wet and muddy. The most difficult bit was when we had to cross a particularly rutted crossing by a lake. It was so boggy it was a nightmare... so we just crawled along. We fell off countless times. The bikes have been standing up to the punishment well. Nothing else would do the job as well as one of these.”

EWAN MCGREGOR on the testing conditions: “Mongolia has been one of the most eventful countries so far. To begin with we covered loads of miles but then it started getting sticky. There was one point where we covered just 100 [miles] in three days. It was so rainy and muddy that we just couldn’t get anywhere, we just kept getting stuck and falling off. The worst bit of the whole trip so far though was when I fell off in a river. It was what I was dreading the most. I had nightmares of baling out and filling the engine with water and stranding us in the middle of nowhere. The moment finally happened when I crossed a river and hit a massive boulder hidden under water. Luckily, as the bike began to fall I hit the kill switch, stopping the engine before it sucked in water. When we dragged it out of the river it was fine. I’ve been carrying so much luggage that it was damaging the bike and making it so heavy that it was difficult to ride. The rear subframe failed, but we managed to get a local mechanic to weld it. It was amazing to watch – he was a real craftsman... It only cost £10 for three-and-a-half hours work. I’ve never needed a bike as much as I do now – it’s the most important thing in the world... It’s been a good thing though – I’ve got rid of most of my luggage and the bike is so much easier to handle. I just can’t believe the difference, it feels so light and nimble.”

The distance from London to Mongolian capital Ulaan Bataar is 6,700 miles. Bike performance into Mongolia was good because they were very thoroughly serviced in Almaty. There were no major road problems as far as the Mongolia border. However, in Mongolia there were no asphalt roads until Ewan and Charley neared the capital so they were faced with waterlogged marsh and grassland, which was often extremely slow going. Despite the challenging terrain, the two bikes handled well.

About Long Way Round

It is the realisation of a dream born out of the love of motorcycles; the freedom they bring, and a desire to use them in a test of human endurance – an extreme challenge. The adventure is also a major test of Ewan and Charley’s friendship as they travel through some of the most beautiful, yet incredibly hostile terrain in the world. The trials, the trails and the tribulations will be captured in their book and a major TV series. Ewan and Charley are providing Motor Cycle News with an exclusive progress report of the journey. Further updates will also be posted on www.longwayround.com at regular intervals.

The bikes

BMW Motorrad Great Britain has provided three R1150 GS Adventure all-terrain motorcycles, considerable technical help and practical riding equipment to Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman and their support team. Based on BMW’s best selling R1150 GS, the Adventure was designed for long distances and is engineered to perform in all conditions, on or off-road. The visually striking 1150cc flat-twin has many special features as standard but a vast range of options and accessories contribute in making it the ultimate long distance machine.

BMW’s global network of dealerships and the availability of parts guarantee that McGregor and Boorman will receive excellent technical and indigenous support in the unlikely event of a mishap. They won’t get lost either. Each bike will be equipped with a BMW Motorrad Navigator II, Global Positioning System – one of the most advanced satellite navigation products, accurate to within 15 metres.

Although extremely competent riders, the two friends have received invaluable rider training at BMW’s Off-Road Skills facility in South Wales. Their instructors were Simon Pavey and Nick Plumb, who have both completed the infamous Paris Dakar Rally. BMW Motorrad has also provided technical training so that Ewan and Charley are self-sufficient and can carry out routine servicing and maintenance en route. McGregor and Boorman will also be kitted-out in BMW’s ultra-safe advanced rider clothing, including Rallye 2 suits and gloves, and Thermokomfort undergarments.

The TV series and the book

Long Way Round is being made into a major TV series to be screened on Sky One (UK) and Bravo (USA), with a book of their personal memoirs to be published by Time Warner Books (UK) and Atria (USA). The friends will film most of the programme themselves – via individual hand-held cameras and state-of-the-art bike-mounted cameras supplied by Sonic Communications (International) Ltd of Birmingham – and will be joined periodically by a third rider who will film the pair at specific points. The Long Way Round television series is being produced by David Alexanian (Elixir Films) and Russ Malkin (Image Wizard TV), and co-produced by Ewan and Charley.

Customers can call BMW‘s information line: 0800 777 155

www.bmw-motorrad.co.uk

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