From September to December of 2019, twelve years after The Long Way Down, our favorite TV duo of motorcyclists was back in action. This time, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman headed northward from the southernmost tip of Argentina up to Los Angeles for their latest adventure, The Long Way Up. The documentary has yet to air but after a few weeks of silence, we finally get a glimpse of how things went down in a brief interview with McGregor himself.
Trying To Follow Along:
Sitting across The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, McGregor briefly discussed his adventure with pal Charley through South and Central America. Since the trip wrapped up at the end of this past December, there’s been a deafening silence about how things went. After confirming everyone made it safely to L.A., everyone on the crew went MIA, as though nothing happened. We’ve been particularly curious about this trip since the team opted for a pair of electric motorcycles—Harley-Davidson LiveWires to be specific—instead of the usual BMW GS, something McGregor describes as “amazing and quite tricky at the same time.”
While we’ll probably have to wait until the documentary airs to get the full picture, McGregor spoke up about some of the challenges they faced, including running out of “juice”. McGregor told Fallon that Boorman somehow managed to never run out of power but that he had to get towed on several occasions. By towed, he really means pulled by a car by holding onto the pillar—a technique he apparently learned in New York City.
He also describes how they had to ask locals to charge their bikes and how charging two bikes sometimes meant (literally) blowing a fuse. He, however, commented on the people’s generosity which, from the sound of it, greatly contributed to making the adventure a success.
The interview was shared on the show’s YouTube channel on February 1, 2020, but the meeting between Fallon and McGregor seemingly happened in December, possibly a few days following the end of the trip. Though he doesn’t reveal much else about the trip, it’s nice to finally hear someone from the team break the silence and open up a little about the adventure. Now, we have to keep an eye out for an air date of The Long Way Up.