Ewan McGregor reads from his book

[Beddhist]

He wrote a book "The Long Way Round" about his bike travels with his mate and backup crew. Because he is famous, so is his book. On HUBB (http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000400.html) the book was pretty disliked. But, the BBC broadcast him reading excerpts from the book and I liked it.

Those of you with broadband access can form their own opinion here (http://beddha.free.fr/LWR/).

Enjoy and dream,
Peter.

You live only once.

[Bob]

I'm guessing you don't really know much about this? Given your comments, I'm assuming you've not heard about the original TV series?

So here is a link to a review I did of the DVD of the series:

http://www.bobpickett.co.uk/bkit/bookslongwayrounddvd.htm

If you're interested, there is a link in there that takes you to the relevant page in Amazon to order it.

I found watching the series, then reading the book was the best way to do it - the series was inspiring and will make you want to go out and ride! Then come home, read the book and fill in the gaps/get more detail on some of the incidents.

On it's own, with no real knowledge of what it is all about, I can understand some of the criticism. But combine it with seeing the series and it makes for an enjoyable read.

[DogBreath]

Nice review Bob
Its surprising how many people haven't heard about this great piece of film (plastic?)
My wife has no passion for machines, and she queued up each night as we played each episode of the DVD, she loved it.

[Beddhist]

Nice review. No, I haven't seen the series, not living in GB. Most folks on HUBB hated the series, probably because they did it years before on their own, without backups, sponsors, etc. Apparently, the actors acted up a little in the biginning, as if the world owned them something. But, I have no opinion on it myself, so search the HUBB and see for yourself.

In fact, I should put a shameless plug in here for HorizonsUnlimited (http://HorizonsUnlimited.com) (of which HUBB is a part): it's THE site for world bike travel.

Another thing other travellers have encountered is the Ewan factor: when they tell people about their trip people respond "Ah, you are doing what EMG did." It seems to get on some travellers' nerves...

Anyway, not having seen even a clip all I can say is I enjoyed EMG reading from his book and so I provide the link for others to enjoy.

NO, I'm not doing what Ewan and Charlie did! :ar15:

Cheers,
Peter.

[dawnrazor]

Nice review Bob
Its surprising how many people haven't heard about this great piece of film (plastic?).

strictly speaking film is made of celluloid which is a colorless flammable material made from nitrocellulose and camphor, which is impregnated with silver nitrate and colour dyes. Regardless of this amazing fact, the long way round was shot on digital video tape, which is made up of layers of magnetic strata deposited on a polycarbonate base. So not film or plastic then.

[DogBreath]

strictly speaking film is made of celluloid which is a colorless flammable material made from nitrocellulose and camphor, which is impregnated with silver nitrate and colour dyes. Regardless of this amazing fact, the long way round was shot on digital video tape, which is made up of layers of magnetic strata deposited on a polycarbonate base. So not film or plastic then.
Errr, DVD on plastic? Thats the train of thought I had anyway.
Don't want to sound pickie, but I think polycarb could be described as "plastic" too.
Anyway, I guess 30,000 years ago some dude hiked from the west coast of the European continent to the East coast, ala "Clan of the Cave Bear", but that doesn't detract from the effort those guys put in. Shoulda used a lighter bike tho, those beamers sucked in the shitty stuff.
I see Charlie B is in the Dakar next year, riding a Beamer.
Twould be nice if we got some regular coverage of that event, like they do in Oz.

[R6_kid]

im pretty sure the book was out before the series. I got it as a christmas pressie last year and read about half way. Then the series came on and i almost started reading again but im not much of a reader...

[Mooch]

Thanks for the link , missed the TV series , and haven't got the DVD, don't read much (probably why I don't spell well) . I like his honset descriptions of what he felt thoughout the journey , 14 weeks on the road sounds like a dream and a nightmare , some interesting counties too. Like the description of the boarder crossing into Siberia with the Hotel owner he miss took for Sibirean Mafia , funny really but you wouldn't know at the time.
I see he will be doing South America too , maybe we'll meet him on our own journey at a smilar time .... who knows.