Post Description

Long Way Round (LWR) is a documentary television series, DVD set and book documenting the 19,000-mile (31,000 km) journey of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman from London to New York on motorcycles. They travelled eastwards through Europe and Asia, flew to Alaska and continued by road from there to New York.

From 14 April 2004 to 29 July 2004, McGregor, Boorman, motorcycle riding cameraman Claudio von Planta and their support crew travelled from London to New York, via Western and Central Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia and Canada, for a cumulative distance of 18,887 miles (30,396 km). The only sections of the trip not undertaken by motorcycle were 580 miles (930 km) by train in Siberia, which circumvented the Zilov Gap; a short impassable section towards the end of their Russian journey, which was undertaken by truck; and a 2,505-mile (4,031 km) flight from Magadan in eastern Russia to Anchorage, Alaska.

Upon encountering numerous swollen rivers and a serious lack of functioning bridges while travelling along the Road of Bones to Magadan, the riders got their BMW motorbikes through some fairly deep rivers. However, the summer run-off from the Siberian winter was in full flow and after a valiant effort, the bikes eventually had to be loaded into the trucks of passing drivers and ferried across a few of the deepest rivers.

The journey visited twelve countries, starting in the UK, then passing through France, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, USA and Canada, ending in New York. In early episodes of the series the narration claims that they will visit 13 countries, which is consistent with a map in the book version which shows they briefly entered Kyrgystan while travelling between the Kazakh cities of Shymkent and Almaty. However, the entry into Kyrgystan is not explicitly mentioned in the text of the book or TV series and the "13 countries" reference could possibly be a mistake, perhaps because they entered Russia more than once or counted Alaska or Siberia as a separate country.

The team mainly stayed in hotels while travelling in Europe, North America and populated parts of Russia but frequently had no option but to camp after reaching Kazakhstan and Mongolia. They took time to visit a variety of sights and landmarks while travelling, including the Church of Bones in the Czech Republic, the Mask of Sorrow monument in Magadan, Russia and Mount Rushmore in the USA. They ultimately 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.

The journey was also used to bring attention to the humanitarian efforts of UNICEF. During the journey, the team took time out to see and film some of UNICEF's work. The projects visited included an orphanage in Ukraine housing children affected by the Chernobyl disaster, a climbing wall built at a youth centre in Kazakhstan, and an outreach project working with street children who live in the heating systems of apartment blocks in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Episode 1: Preparation, part 1; 
Episode 2: Preparation, part 2; 
Episode 3: London to Volgograd; 
Episode 4: Kazakhstan; 
Episode 5: Barnaul to western Mongolia; 
Episode 6: Western Mongolia to Yakutsk; 
Episode 7: Yakutsk to Magadan (the Road of Bones); 
Episode 8: Anchorage to Calgary; 
Episode 9: Calgary to New York; 
Episode 10: One year later. 
 

Poster: Obelisk
Post staat ook in a.b. british documentaries

Episodes 1-4 zijn inmiddels gepost.