Description:
It’s 2004, and two men set out on a trip not knowing they were about to create one of the last portraits of a world that was right on the precipice of changing forever.
Transcript
Two Seasons, Two Decades
Everyone thinks my bike looks like a piece of old crap, but they’ll see. Don’t judge a book by its cover, you know? That’s what I say. I honestly didn’t think this would become
a video. I thought I was just taking a break from work with this fun new travel show in which actor
Ewan McGregor and his buddy Charley Boorman go on a motorcycle road trip across Europe.
There they are, look, there’s our first windmills. It was actually a legacy sequel of sorts,
because they also did a trip like this, a much bigger one even, all the way back in 2004,
which I hadn’t seen yet. You know, we’ve had rain, we’ve had mud, we’ve had rivers, we’ve had turned over cars, we’ve had everything.
And so in between the weekly releases of each episode of this new season, I checked out their first adventure as well, and what I discovered will blow your mind– well, maybe it’s not as
dramatic as that, but still, there was something about watching these two journeys that happened
20 years apart side by side like this that was quietly profound. And I think it’s because in
the timing of these two seasons, they sort of accidentally captured a major transition period
in our society; one that isn’t just defined by technological changes, not even just by cultural
shifts or the rise of social media, but rather by something deeper, like some kind of spiritual
reconfiguration in our relation to the world and in how we move through it, one that seems
like it’s rapidly eroding so much of what used to make travelling and just being in the world
so meaningful. I think that many people who lived through this transition, myself included, have already been feeling this somewhat intuitively. But for me at least, it wasn’t until I sat down to watch these two guys drive off on their motorcycles in two completely different historical eras, that this vague awareness was suddenly brought into focus, and that I felt like I could finally see clearly what has been happening, and on a more hopeful note; what we can do about it. And I think it’s because in the timing of these two seasons, they sort of accidentally captured a major transition period in our society; one that isn’t just defined by technological changes, not even just by cultural shifts or the rise of social media, but rather by something deeper, like some kind of spiritual reconfiguration in our relation to the world and in how we move through it, one that seems like it’s rapidly eroding so much of what used to make travelling and just being in the world so meaningful. It’s something that I’d already been feeling kind of intuitively and somewhat pessimistically for a while now, as I’m sure many others have as
well. And yet, I don’t think I had ever seen the contrast between then and now as clearly,
and as insightfully as I did while watching this show. And more than that, nor had I ever
encountered a travelogue as surprisingly uplifting and transformative as this one.
The Last Analog Adventure
I don’t know, it was a big heavy bike, I’ve never really done it before. First, let’s wind back the clock. The year is 1997. Ewan McGregor stars in a movie where he
meets Charley Boorman, and soon enough a lifelong friendship is born. Part of the
reason why they hit it off so well is because they both share a passion for motorcycles, It smells really nice too. and so naturally, the idea
of going on a trip together became inevitable. We always talked about doing a trip together.
Maybe to Spain or somewhere like that. But what initially started as a simple
holiday eventually snowballed into a much greater ambition: to travel from London all
the way to New York by going east across the Eurasian continent, and to document the whole
adventure with a professional film crew. The idea of filming it in the first place was to have a record of it, firstly. And long story short, in 2004 this is
exactly what they did. After weeks of preparation and training, they set out on their bikes together
with their cameraman Claudio, who would be riding with them on his own motorcycle, and with a small support crew of two vehicles that followed them from a distance,
and that they would occasionally link up with at border crossings and other critical moments.
A holiday doesn’t have to be lying on a beach, you know, it can be exploration and an adventure.
Over the next 3,5 months, they would travel about 31.000 kilometers, or 19.000 miles,
across 12 different countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Sand and mud today. I feel really, really far away from home now,
suddenly much further than I did yesterday. The document of their adventure released later
that same year, in the fall of 2004, as the television show Long Way Round.
For context, just in case 2004 doesn’t feel that long ago to you, this is when we were still one
year away from the first ever YouTube video, 2 years away from the first digital GoPro camera,
and 3 years away from the first iPhone. In this sense, Long Way Round might just be one of the
last documented analog adventures, one of the last portraits of a world that was right on the
precipice of changing forever. See you in New York!
Actually, I should mention, they did make another season soon after the first one, which I would consider as still existing in that same historical space.
When we first met up in London after we’d hadn’t seen each other for a little while, we started talking about Africa. Long Way Down, as it was called, took place
in 2007, which was still about a month before the first iPhone came out, and 3 years before
people would first begin posting travel pics on Instagram. In this season, Ewan and Charley rode
from Scotland down into the African continent, all the way to Cape Town in South Africa.
Our first African camp, Charley! And so technically speaking, we have two documents of what I guess can be called the before time. And to see clearly what
exactly has changed since, what exactly defines the transition period that followed soon after,
this is where we jump to the next time that Ewan and Charley got back together on the road again, which wouldn’t be until our current decade. I’m dying to get out there.
I want to be on a trip again. Here again, we technically have two new seasons. First, there’s Long Way Up from 2020, in which they traveled from the Southern tip of
Argentina up to Los Angeles in the United States. And we’ve got just 3 months to do it. There’s a lot to do. And then there’s Long Way Home,
the new 2025 release where they make a round trip across Europe. It’s funny, isn’t it? 20 years this year of doing this, that’s bizarre, isn’t it?
The Democratization of Imagery
So to get the obvious evolution out of the way, let’s briefly talk about the visual presentation.
We’ve got a shot of you riding the bike, shot looking forward, and a shot from your lid. It’s kind of funny how you wouldn’t include this now, and in fact, the new seasons don’t even
really bother to, but in the first two journeys, they spend a whole episode on the preparation in which they cover, among other things, the process of actually documenting the trip.
We want to film this but we don’t want to be surrounded by loads of cameramen so we’re just
trying to figure out the best way to do it. They talk about using state of the art helmet
cameras, they explain the need for these cases upon cases of additional filming equipment,
and just reflect on the general challenges of documenting an adventure of this size.
We’re taking so much camera equipment on this trip that we decided to take two camera vehicles.
Can you see me now? Today, interestingly enough, it’s not so much that the visual language has actually changed all that much. I mean, sure the
image quality got a lot better and they added a drone to their repertoire, which they didn’t have before. But other than that, the show looks pretty much the same. It’s still a mix of second unit
establishing shots, footage filmed by cameraman Claudio, footage filmed with Ewan and Charley’s
helmet cameras, and moments taken from the video diaries which Ewan and Charley kept along the way.
Have you been keeping a diary? No, have you? No. The real difference then is more about the way
this visual language has become so commonplace now, how it has become democratized.
They must have made a James Bond movie here, surely. We’ve got a tunnel, and
James Bond, and all of this, look. Now of course, all that pro-gear of yesteryear exists as typical consumer products; action cameras, pocket cameras,
phone cameras, cinema cameras, camera drones, all of these have become the standard toolkit
not just of professional travel shows, but also of individual creators, of solo travelers, Instagram
influencers, hobby cinematographers, and just everyday folks making personal holiday videos;
a group that I would also include myself in. I’ve been fortunate enough to have taken some bigger
trips, including an amazing honeymoon to New Zealand, which had been on my bucket list ever since I first saw the Lord of the Rings as a 10 year old. And even though these videos are just
part of my private memories, I still liked the idea of also creating something that could may as
well have been a real travel show, and although I’m by no means an expert cinematographer, I do think I got some pretty good-looking footage here and there. But anyways, the
point is that nowadays, the technology itself is no longer really an obstacle. Pretty much anyone,
anywhere can now go out and capture what they encounter in clear images and great detail,
and more importantly; they can now share it online for the whole world to see.
And this brings us to what might just be the real defining feature of this transition period, which contrary to what you might be thinking right now, is not so much about the rise of
the internet and of social media perse, but more so about its second order effect, which is that
in this overwhelming flood of images, videos and documents, in this rapid digital charting
of the world around us, it feels like we have accidentally killed the meaning of an adventure.
A True Measure of Distance
I felt like some great explorer. We were really riding our bikes into nowhere.
While watching the first two seasons, there was one thing in particular that really struck me, which was the palpable feeling of distance in every meaning of the word.
Now look, there’s absolutely nothing that way. Absolutely nothing that way. The roads were long, the terrain a continuous challenge, and traversing it felt impactful,
it felt risky even, in a way one would expect when venturing so deep into the unknown.
So sticky and so slippy. You okay? Look at this place!
I remember especially this part where they were travelling down the Road of Bones in far east Russia; a long, Soviet Era highway that has largely fallen into disrepair.
There’s been a mounting sense of fear about the whole thing. Despite having received warnings from the locals, they went ahead anyways and soon encountered
broken down bridges and whole sections of the road that were reclaimed by rivers.
The roads just deteriorated and deteriorated, it was just everything thrown at us at
once. We could never ride across that, it’s far too deep, current’s too strong.
They were lucky to encounter some big rig trucks, which were the only vehicles to occasionally traverse this ghost highway, and in hindsight clearly the only ones capable of
doing so. But even then, pulling the support vehicles through the rapid currents was a
seriously nerve-wrecking ordeal, with a tensity that rivaled even the most thrilling Hollywood
productions. And it wasn’t just because of the immediate dangers; the risk of getting stuck,
of losing their equipment and so on, but also because you knew that all this was taking
place at the absolute pinnacle of their sort of psychological or sociological distance as well.
That’s no good, that’s no good, that’s no good! At this point in the journey, they were hundreds of kilometers into what is essentially no man’s land, thousands of kilometers removed from home.
They were in a place they had barely ever seen images of. Had no idea what the landscape ahead
would look like. What they did know was that there was no AAA service here, no one to call,
no Reddit forums to ask questions in. The people they did encounter were few, and none spoke their
language. Again, in every sense of the word, they were truly distanced from the world they knew.
We got to a point where we couldn’t ride any further. This bit has beat us actually.
Now obviously they were never going to re-create this particular kind of excitement driving around Europe in 2025, but even in the 2020 season, when they crossed the whole
Domesticating the World
of the South American continent, that impact of distance also felt strangely different. And this
wasn’t because they didn’t venture into faraway difficult-to-traverse places, because they did. These roads might be a little bit… You okay? You alright? I’m good, I’m fine.
No, it was because of a change in that other form of distance, let’s call it symbolic distance,
that one that is only experienced when you’re far removed from the world you know in those more psychological, social and linguistic terms, when you’ve truly ventured into what to you is
uncharted land, into those faraway places of which you have little preconceived notions,
few clear images, and limited tools by which to traverse them. Because nowadays, that just
doesn’t really happen anymore, does it? There’s a small moment in the South America trip where Ewan,
thousands of kilometers away from home, casually records a foreign language with his phone which
feeds it right back to him in plain English. And it just feels so indicative of how our interaction
with the world, at least in relation to travel, has become so different now. Language barriers are
easily overcome with translation apps. Every phone is also a GPS that lets us navigate even the most
remote places with relative ease. Social media and Google reviews guide us in where to go and
what to do. And all the while, we remain tethered to the place we left, to our everyday concerns,
connections and distractions. It’s like the world’s distant frontiers have been
digitally domesticated, its once adventurous essence now made convenient and familiar.
The Rise of Modern Travel Culture
It is a fundamental transformation not just of how we travel, but also of what it means to travel in the first place. Because perhaps most importantly,
what all this has resulted in is that we transitioned from a world of imagination
to one that feels like it’s been entirely encapsulated within our symbolic field,
one in which the once blank spaces of curiosity have been completely inundated with images.
Machu Pichu day. And there it is, I gotta turn the camera.
Seeing Ewan and Charley visit the great lost city of the Incas for example, feels entirely different now because you’ve probably already seen the exact same pictures
of it a thousand times already on Instagram reels, YouTube videos and friends’ photos.
Your symbolic distance from the place has already been significantly diminished. And while you would
think this would make the act of travelling somewhat redundant, clearly, it has actually
had the opposite effect, it actually created a new and much more expansive travel culture,
one that also signifies a more fundamental shift in how we interact with the world. It’s a culture
that is no longer really defined by discovery, or by adventure, but rather by consumption.
Oh goodness, this wasn’t quite the experience I was expecting to have up here, ah well. Today, it feels like we no longer travel into the unknown as much as we are trying to actualize a
pre-existing mental image of it. Or to put it like this: the foreign is no longer just a fascination,
it has also become a commodity, it has become a product to be selected and purchased,
one that we might even feel socially pressured to consume as part of our personal identity projects,
you know, as a form of social capital. After all, in an increasingly individualized world,
we desire unique experiences so that we can stand out as unique individuals. And we better get them
fast, for the supply, it seems, is limited. We all know that the classical tourist
Chasing “Authenticity”
destinations have long since been overrun, you don’t want to be found at the Trevi fountain or in Santorini no more. No, the name of the game is ‘authenticity’ now; it’s about seeking out
the hidden gems, the undiscovered secrets and all the “come here now while it is still pure”
type of places. In this sense, it kind of feels like what we’re really after is exactly that
lost sense of adventure, to find some place that hasn’t yet been enveloped by the world we left,
find some image that hasn’t yet been rendered profane. But of course, the ironic tragedy here
is that with each secret we uncover, each place we visit while it is still pure, we contribute to its
loss of that special status. And indeed, more often than not, the “authenticity” we believe
to have found turns out to have already been folded into the mold anyways. That rundown barn
in the Alps where your grandfather once slept in exchange for a good conversation is now an
expensive Airbnb experience, a rare find, though! Key’s in the lockbox. Your local guide in Vietnam
is on Instagram and locked into the same Twitter discourse as you are. And no matter where you go,
it feels like it’s always the same candy bar wrappers and half-empty fast food bags that are littering the landscape. All of this, of course, is part of a much wider process of globalization,
of the more general homogenization of culture that has been going on since long before Ewan
and Charley set out on their first adventure. And yet, I can’t help but feel like these last
2 decades or so have nevertheless formed a significant escalation of whatever was
already going on before. It’s like we all have this subconscious feeling that we’re running out of something important, and it’s put us in this desperate frenzy to grab what
little we can before nothing is left. Ok let’s do it. Alright here we go,
A Surprising Change of Heart
another day. I feel like my bike is so noisy, wish it was a bit quieter.
With all this in mind, I was initially watching Ewan and Charley’s latest season with some cynicism, watching it as a leisurely trip that, while still being fun enough,
was ultimately little more than an impression of the true adventures they had 20 years earlier.
Poppies! Wow, beautiful poppy fields, holy moly. To add to the nostalgia, they even chose to ride
vintage motorcycles this season. As if they figured that if the road itself wasn’t going to give them any troubles, they might as well create some drama by hopping on bikes that were
sure to break down at some point. Give it a wiggle mate give it a wiggle. Your fingers okay? Yep. But as I got deeper into the season, that initial
feeling actually started to change. Instead of finding merely a lamentation for what was lost,
surprisingly enough, I also ended up finding an inspiration for what can still be regained.
Ah man, the idea of riding the bike to your house, so exciting. For while the journey itself was far less ambitious this time around,
just exploring their own backyard, as they put it, they did still bring with them that same adventurous spirit that also propelled them across the world all those years ago.
It is such a beautiful part of the world, Austria, I love it. And especially in today’s consumerist travel culture, that actually felt kind of revelatory.
Because as they were making their way through Europe, and traversing its many backroads, small
towns and local traditions, what they demonstrated was not just the idea that there’s always more to
discover even in the places that you consider close to home and already familiar. But more
importantly, it was a reminder that travelling is not really an act of geographical movement,
or an experience to consume. Rather, it’s a mode of being, it’s an attitude. It’s a
purposeful relinquishing of the everyday to open yourself up to the unknown and the unfamiliar.
It’s the feeling of looking at the horizon and wondering what’s beyond. It’s to follow nothing
other than your own curiosity, to temporarily disconnect yourself, run wild, and be free.
You have to be open to the journey. Look at this. Very pretty, beautiful.
Reclaiming the Adventure
Look, we all know the saying “it’s the journey, not the destination,” and yet, despite being a
tired cliche, it still feels like we’ve forgotten the truth which it represents. We’re flying more
often and further away than we ever did in the past, we follow where the clout has already been,
chasing these supposedly “authentic” experiences that in reality have already been pre-curated.
We are essentially skipping the journey for the destination. Part of what made those original
seasons so adventurous was exactly because of how distance, both in physical and symbolical terms,
accumulated slowly between the travelers and their home, with every new destination becoming
more impactful precisely because you could feel the growing weight of journey that preceded it.
We’ve come this far and people’s faces have changed and people’s houses have
changed and people’s beliefs may have changed. And while it’s not pushed to the extreme lengths
as it was in the past, it is still there in the new season too. It still shows how
there’s a wholly different experience that opens up when you’re not just taking that cheap 90 minute flight to your destination, but instead dedicate yourself to feeling every inch
of ground that leads towards it, to witness all the in-between spaces that you would have skipped over otherwise, and in that process, to imprint on your psyche a real measure of distance.
This is also why Ewan and Charley drive on motorcycles, it’s because, as they repeat
throughout each adventure, it allows them to feel the earth vibrating beneath them,
the air flowing around them. It’s because it makes them feel connected to the world they’re travelling through, which in turn renders their experience more immediate and impactful.
It becomes another sensual experience as you ride along. You said something yesterday when
you said it’s sort of humbling and I think it’s true, it sort of puts you in touch with yourself and the world in a way, and you realize it’s the beauty of it, and the vastness of it.
And that’s something you just don’t get when you step out that airplane all hazy and disoriented.
In fact, from this perspective, the notion of jet lag is not just your body adjusting to a rapid
shift in time zones, it’s a moral punishment for having cheated distance. Now of course,
I’m being a little dramatic here. Obviously, if it’s it been your lifelong dream to travel somewhere far that is only doable by airplane, then by all means go for it. I did, more than
once even. But still, I did feel it was important to talk about this, because all this stuff, it’s
not just about travelling itself, it’s not about where you’re going, or about how you get there.
No rather, it’s about our longing to experience something that we so easily forget, that so
easily slips away in our day to day existence. It just became really apparent that this journey
The Real Wake-Up Call
should be shared with, you know, with him. The actual reason why there was such a long
gap in between the first and later seasons is because for both Ewan and Charley,
life simply got in the way. Ewan had his career in Los Angeles, Charley had his in England,
and the two just lost touch for a while. That is, until Charley got into a serious motorcycle
accident that he was very lucky to survive. How is Charley, Olly? I woke up in intensive
care and had a massive brain injury. I got a text saying he’d had a horrendous motorcycle
accident. And I broke my pelvis, the ribs were smashed, collarbone was broken. Other people
wanna run again or do whatever but I want to get myself better enough to get back on a motorbike.
In the aftermath, the two men reconnected again, as if being suddenly reminded of what truly mattered to them. I was reaching out to him more,
and keeping in touch about his rehab. And soon enough, they were back on their bikes again. Here we are, Long Way Four, Long Way Four!
Now, Charley had recovered as well as he could, but physically, he hasn’t been the same,
which is part of why the newer seasons don’t feel quite as dangerous as the older ones. I’ll get my scooter. But then again,
it was actually kind of endearing to see Ewan being so concerned about his friend’s safety.
Are you okay? Have you hurt yourself? It’s fine I think I’m okay. I can breathe.
Also, we should take into account here that since their first adventure, both men have
aged with more than 20 years by now. We’ve all got older. You don’t look a day older. Thank you, don’t feel it. In this sense, the transition period that feels so
poignant in between their first and last adventure isn’t just defined by a societal shift, but also
by a much more personal one; the transition from a life that’s staring wide-eyed into the future,
to one that’s already begun to look back, that’s really starting to feel the weight of time.
I’m sure it’s gonna be an emotional moment. A day of memories today, really.
20 Years From Now
At one point during their 2025 trip across Europe, they pass the same road that they
also traveled on during the first season all the way back in 2004, and visit the same place
where they also stood as younger men. 20 years ago we looked down this hole Charley and here we are again. None the wiser. This is gonna be the cruel cut back and forth
between us 20 years ago and now. Oh, I dropped it. That’s very good luck that.
And I found this to be a surprisingly moving moment. Because as they were reminiscing about
their past experiences from when they were still in their early 30s, roughly the same age that I
am right now, I just couldn’t help but imagine myself in their place, couldn’t help but wonder
what stories I’ll be recounting 2 decades from now, what present experiences will stay with me
in the years to come, and what friendships will define me for the rest of my days.
I’m so glad, 20 years, that we’re still knocking around through the world on bikes.
It made me realize that in between these contrasting seasons, in between the analog
era and the digital age, the daring expedition and the leisurely trip, what I saw above all else,
and what probably got me hooked on this show to begin with, was the way it captured a deep and
genuine yearning for life, a longing to have those meaningful experiences, to make those connections,
and to just be amazed and surprised and nurtured by the world and the people around us.
There’s something very attractive about being on the road, you know, you yearn
for adventure and not knowing what comes ahead. In this sense, an adventure is even more than a mode of being, more than a momentary escape from the everyday. It’s a creator of stories,
a forger of bonds. Or, to repurpose another cliché, it’s the friends we made along the way.
Being on the road with Charley is something that I share with him and no one else, you know, he’s in my mirror or I’m in his. It’s so familiar. We’ve done so
many thousands of miles like that, you know. I think as you get older you’re much more precious with the people that you spend time with. And Ewan is one of those people. I wasn’t
really going anywhere until we did Long Way Round, so I feel very grateful that I met Ewan.
It’s been amazing. It has. Thank you, Ewan. It’s been great fun. Thank you, man.
Making a Difference
By now, it’s been a few months since I’ve watched the show, and already I’ve felt a significant shift in my own desire for travelling and exploration, felt a desire to slow things down,
to focus less on chasing manufactured consumerist desires, and more on just being out there with the
people I care about. But then again, more than merely changing our own attitude and finding refuge in our own little bubble of experience, I think it’s also important to acknowledge that
the world is changing around us, that there is a real vulnerability to exactly those pristine
places we love to journey into, and that we ourselves therefore play a significant role
in deciding their fate one way or another. This is something that Ewan and Charley also make a point
of as in each season, they make an active effort to contribute to some greater good beyond their
own adventure, and to leave each place a little better than they found it. And in that spirit, I
wanted to do the same, I wanted to make this video not just to generate personal insight, but also
to inspire actual material change, which is why I was so happy to once again be able to partner
up with the amazing community-funded organization that is protecting biodiversity around the globe:
the nature protection organization Planet Wild. Through a global community of nature enthusiasts
who care deeply about the natural world, Planet Wild is engaged in a wide variety of conservation
projects. Every month their community funds a new project partner to protect animals, forests
and oceans and each project is documented and can be viewed on their YouTube channel, which is not
just a great way to see what your contribution helped achieve, but which is also genuinely inspiring as it demonstrates how simple local initiatives can actually make a huge difference,
such as this project where they are helping to protect one of Europe’s last ancient forests,
which is one that is especially close to my heart as I’d love to explore more of my own continent, and have actually been planning a road trip across the Balkan countries where
much of that last remaining wilderness is located. Planet Wild is basically crowdfunding for nature,
which I think is a great way to help from a distance. If you like to support their efforts, you can become a member right now through a monthly contribution of your own choosing – big
or small, whatever feels right. You can start for as little as the price of a coffee, and you can cancel anytime. If you join through my personal link, this QR code,
or by using the code STORIES210, then I’ll make sure that the first 100 people to sign
up will get their first month paid for by me. You’ll immediately start making a difference,
for ourselves and for the future and you’ll become part of a global conservative community
dedicated to preserving nature and maintaining the world’s sacred wilderness. If you want to
see Planet Wild in action, watch their video protecting Europe’s ancient forests here.