Mr. Right of Way

Exploration envy. It’s what might drive you to dismiss a guy like Charley Boorman and conclude that, indeed, being Ewan McGregor’s “best mate” will get you places. Which was literally the case, anyway, when in 2004, McGregor rung up the buddy-for-life he’d made on the set of a pre-fame period flick called The Serpent’s Kiss (1997) and tossed the idea of a road trip at him. And not just any dandy excursion to Italy like they’d once discussed but a route and ride less taken: by motorbike — from their London playground down east through the hard-man’s-lands of Siberia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Alaska, and then skipping over to New York.

While the two revved their bikes to go roughly 19,000 miles, they’d snagged a camera crew as well, and the Motorcycle Diaries-ness of it all (with Charley as the Alberto Granada to Ewan, the book-turned-movie’s Che Guevara) resulted in the travel-docu series Long Way Round. And, due to all that wanderlust (and lusting after Ewan from strong female viewership, undoubtedly), a journey from Scotland and through Africa in a second series called Long Way Down.

When you’ve got two guys straddling BMW all-terrain motorcycles — one, a red carpet regular and the other, an actor thanks to daddy (Charley’s dad John Boorman directed Deliverance and Excalibur, the first two films he starred in) — you expect lots of mileage in juvenile self-indulgence. But amid the wide-eyed wonder of two grown men-turned-six-year-old boys riding through aptly-named danger zones like the Road of Bones (Siberia) and the Skeleton Coast (Namibia), the spiritual sobering that such travel bequeaths was due the duo. Especially with UNICEF serving the reality checks along the way, Ewan and Charley discovering that the kids are certainly not all right in many places — from the nuclear-ly devastated children of Chernobyl in the Ukraine to Ethiopian youngsters whose limbs had been torn apart like doll parts due to landmines. The two clasped hands with UNICEF and found out how it was giving these kids what they deserved from the start — childhood and a future.

To Bike Or Take A Hike

It was a long ways in maturation for Charley — from seeing the trips as nothing more than two blokes on bikes to proceeding with a well-traveled mind and heart. So sans his Obi Wan, Charley decided to go his own distance for UNICEF, following its meds-to-remote-areas trail for a new series called By Any Means. From Ireland (Charley’s homeland) to Sydney, by crazy Iranian cab or Bangkok tuk-tuk, it was both mobile and humanitarian enculturation as he witnessed the great divide UNICEF has to get across to immunize those in need.

Of course, in light of children’s plight the world over, UNICEF’s work is never finished and there’s still a lot to see. Forging on with his journey from Sydney and en route to Tokyo, Supreme had a quick, in-transit chat with Boorman, who’d sat his backpack down for a bit and exhibited a breadth of EQ as substantial as his miles traveled. ‘Course, exploration envy was ignited considering the guy was able to wakeboard 12 miles from Malaysia to Singapore, but more from all the people he’s met — and helped — along the way. But then you realize that those people are closer than you think.

Supreme: With Ewan, you did a lot of prepping for Long Way Round — from a crash course in Russian to meeting the ambassador of Kazakhstan. What about visiting the Philippines?

Charley Boorman: I had an amazing journey, ‘cause we started down in Mindanao and made our way up to Cebu and all sorts of different places. It’s lovely, especially after Indonesia was quite complicated to get through. One of the places we wanted to see was Papua New Guinea and the Philippines — two of the highlights. I spoke to Ewan the other day and there was definitely a twinge of jealousy.

I made a movie a very long time ago called The Emerald Forest and I became great friends with this actress called Techie Agbayani. She always spoke about the Philippines so I knew a bit about it before. The traffic sucks in this city but it’s much more beautiful than I imagined.

Well, there’s the beauty and I’m sure there were a lot of slap-in-the-face moments where UNICEF was involved, as well.

Our involvement with UNICEF came when Ewan and I were looking for somebody with representation in the countries we were going through. This is my 10th field trip now with UNICEF and I can never understand how, all around the world, we’re very precious about our children but it seems to always be children who suffer. Here in Manila, you have children who sleep, bathe, and eat on the street. A family under a sheet of plastic — and there’s 12 of them there. A boy, Jason, who I met today — he’d been a naughty boy. He doesn’t really know where his parents are. He was sniffing glue, stealing all sorts of stuff, and now, he wants to go back to school. He wants to become a police officer. He wrote me a letter thanking me for giving him the opportunity to go to this shelter and promising to make a big an effort as possible to change. And this is just a little 13-year-old boy and he’s already been through a lifetime of things we never have to experience… never want to experience.

We can be very blinkered about what goes on even in our own cities. A lot of people don’t want to know that 50,000 children in Manila have no home. By visiting different UNICEF projects and bringing them into the show, people kind of watch them, accept them more, and maybe get involved.

People always complain about kids on the street but there is no simple pluck-them-out solution. What has UNICEF’s approach been?

We met this one guy today — Butch — who was a street kid himself and (now) he helps kids get back in some form of education and gives them a chance to learn life skills, gives them a chance to have a better life, and maybe get them off the street. It’s quite difficult to approach these children because they’re quite wary. Butch spends all his time finding kids who are most vulnerable, helping them get into a shelter and giving them a second chance.

I figure things are more profound now than just a trip on a motorbike.

On (Long Way Round), I always just saw it as two guys just having a blast, but I think there came a point when we were halfway through Mongolia, having camped for our 10th night in a row, and you realize you’re in the middle of nowhere. That if you have an accident, there’s nothing there. I’m a better traveler now, but you still have your really shit days. When we went through Papua New Guinea, it was hard. The infrastructure was terrible and there’s not really much food around so it was stressful but exciting. But the experiences and stupid situations you find yourself in, those are the bits that, when you finish the journey, you remember.

And the company you keep along the way, as well. Good to know no Amazing Race-type drama occurred with you and Ewan. Any chance of a Long Way To Go, maybe?

Long Way To Go, Long Way Up, Long Way Across… yeah, but there’s no rush. There was a long way between the first two. Ewan’s busy making movies and I’m doing these things, so…

By any means, did you get to ride a carabao on this trip?

Surprisingly, I got to drive a jeepney. And in the Philippines and Indonesia, there are motorbikes everywhere. But the shows are more about the people — not so much about the transport. It’s about the people you meet along the way. 

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By Any Means 2 airs on BBC UK in October and worldwide, via the National Geographic Channel