Long Way Round was something I’d always meant to see, and earlier last year, I was gifted the DVD, which I sat, watched and thoroughly enjoyed.

I then got the book for Christmas this year (along with the DVD and book of Long Way Down) which I’ve been working my way through.

Its truely fascinating stuff, following Ewan and Charley’s trip of a lifetime around the world. Even just watching it on TV, its amazing to get those glimpses into other cultures, so the affect it must have had on those involved in the trip must’ve been truely profound.

The book also provides a good counter-point to the TV series. While the TV series did a good job of balancing the trials and joys of the journey, the book provides a slightly starker look at how challenging the trip could be.

Certainly by halfway through the book, I was left wondering why these two would go through it all again for Long Way Down, as both actors are very upfront about having to confront their own demons, with Charley accepting that his constant worrying about things is leading to clashes, and both actors battling the poor moods that the constant travelling through poor conditions can cause. However, as the book goes on, and they start travelling through Mongolia, Ewan especially starts to find the trip that he dreamed of, camping out in the Wilderness and meeting warm-hearted strangers to whom he is just a passing traveller and not just “Obi Wan Kenobi on a bike”.

Its a heart-warming read how these encounters clearly touched both actors quite profoundly and you can’t help but revel in their triumph as they finally reach Manhatten.

Now I’ve just got to get cracking on the Long Way Down book

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 14:09 and is filed under Miscellaneous, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.