Book Review- Long Way Down, Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman
January 23rd 2008 07:55
First came the Long Way Round which was biking buddies McGregor and Boorman setting off on their BMW bikes from London to New York, a 20,000 mile trip across Europe and Asia. When I saw this last year I just thought it was the biz, what with the travel, meeting new people and their Unicef visits. Any of my regular readers will remember that it was reading and watching this that made me hire the BMW 650 last May. (see review)
So when I saw this book in the shops, I thought it would be a good read. ( I haven't seen the series yet) John 'O' Groats to Cape Town, 15,000 miles of adventure across Africa. I purchased it $39.95NZ and started reading it in my coffee breaks and lunch times. Now this is 341 pages and I finished it in just over a week, which left me with the feeling 'was that it?'
I have also read the illustrated edition of the Long Way Round and I found it a better read, this just felt different, not as good somehow? Combined with the fact that this time they had various fixers, support crew, medic, security expert, Ewan's wife etc all gave bit of an impression of a lad's lark. Not that I would to be negative about all the positive things they did for Unicef and Riders for Health but with Ewan constantly commenting on how lucky he felt to be doing this trip and Charley constantly going on about missing his wife, it does get a little tiresome at times.
But to give them credit, it was thought provoking reading their comments about meeting the child soldiers and mine victims as it was their encounters with the African wildlife. But overall I would wait to watch the series or get a copy of the illustrated edition as you get the same text but with more pics.
Although one of the things that impressed me, was the other travellers they met on the roads/trails. Couples who had been cycling around Africa for the last 5 years! Now that is just something else, to do that kind of thing with no fixers, support crew etc.
Talking of Unicef, Ewan and Charley did a 1 hour special that I watched recently
called The Missing Face. This is very moving and well worth watching.
On World AIDS Day- 1 December 2006, Ewan and his friend Charley Boorman fronted an exclusive documentary called The Missing Face. This hour-long programme followed Ewan and Charley on their respective journeys to Malawi and Swaziland, two countries hard hit by HIV in Southern Africa, exploring how children are missing out on their childhoods because of HIV (net sourced)
kiwiauthor rating 5/10 for reading value but 8/10 for issues hightlighted.
Riders for health website www.rider.org
Unicef www.unicef.org.uk
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