Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman set off from Ushuaia in September 2019 on Harley-Davidson LiveWire prototypes that had never been ridden this far, let alone across Patagonian snow, the Atacama, Bolivian altiplano and Central American jungle. Each night they hunt for power, sometimes from a diesel generator, sometimes from a Rivian pick-up towing them at 30 mph to shove electrons back into the batteries. Cold slashes range, altitude throttles it further, and when a software update bricks Ewan’s bike in Ecuador he has to fly ahead while Charley rides Panama alone.
Apple TV+ followed with the same team that shot 2004’s Long Way Round, turning the 100-day, 13-country dash into eleven 45-minute episodes released weekly from 18 September 2020. Along the way they visit UNICEF schools, a Quechua-language classroom in Bolivia, a Venezuelan refugee camp in Peru and a youth centre in Honduras that keeps kids out of gangs.
The final push into California is almost anticlimactic: sleek US fast-chargers let them cruise the last miles in convoy with their families to the Bike Shed in Los Angeles, 13,000 miles and one global pandemic after they started.
Production Details
Apple TV / 1 Season / 11 Episodes / 2020
Created by: David Alexanian, Charley Boorman, Russ Malkin, Ewan McGregor
Showrunner(s): Ewan McGregor, Russ Malkin, Charley Boorman
Producer(s): Lucy Trujillo
Main Cast
Ewan McGregor as Self
Charley Boorman as Self
Russ Malkin as Self
David Alexanian as Self
Claudio von Planta as Self
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Self
Jamyan McGregor as Self
Max Biaggi as Self
