Book Club

It is Friday! That means it is time to link up with sweet Heather from Blonde...Undercover Blonde for the Book Club.


You all know that I love reading. And I love traveling. So it makes sense that I love to read about traveling.
This is one of my favorite books about traveling:
Long way round
by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman

I guess you all know Ewan McGregor. He was Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars 1-3 and Mark Renton in Trainspotting. But he also loves adventures so in 2004 he decided to travel with his best friend Charley Boorman (also an actor) from London to New York. On their motorcycles.  The traveled eastwards through Europe and Asia, then flew to Alaska and continued by road to New York.


That's the overview wikipedia gives:

From 14 April 2004 to 29 July 2004, McGregor, Boorman, motorcycle riding cameraman Claudio von Planta and their support crew travelled from London to New York, via Western and Central Europe, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia and Canada, for a cumulative distance of 18,887 miles (30,396 km). The only sections of the trip not undertaken by motorcycle were the 31-mile (50 km) passage through the Channel Tunnel, 580 miles (930 km) by train in Siberia, which circumvented the Zilov Gap; several river crossings and a short impassable section in eastern Russia, which were undertaken by truck; and a 2,505-mile (4,031 km) flight from Magadan in eastern Russia to Anchorage, Alaska.

Upon encountering numerous swollen rivers and a serious lack of functioning bridges while travelling along the Road of Bones to Magadan, the riders got their BMW motorbikes through some fairly deep rivers. The summer run-off from the Siberian winter was in full flow and after a valiant effort, the bikes eventually had to be loaded into the trucks of passing drivers and ferried across a few of the deepest rivers.

The journey visited twelve countries, starting in the UK, then passing through France, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, USA and Canada, ending in New York.

The team mainly stayed in hotels while travelling in Europe, North America and populated parts of Russia but frequently had no option but to camp after reaching Kazakhstan and Mongolia. They took time to visit a variety of sights and landmarks while travelling, including the Church of Bones in the Czech Republic, the Mask of Sorrow monument (described as the "Mask of Grief" in the show) in Magadan, Russia and Mount Rushmore in the USA. They ultimately arrived in New York on schedule and rode into the city accompanied by a phalanx of bikers, including McGregor's father Jim and the Orange County Choppers crew.

They were on the road for over three months so a lot of catastrophes happened on their trip. McGregor got some petrol in his eyes, the motorbikes broke down, a badly swollen forehead because of a mosquito bite, a car accident of the camera team (there is a documentary about the trip too), a theft, a shoulder injury, scary gun-loving Ukranians and lots more. 

I haven't watched the documentary yet but I will definitely check it out.

The books also contains some pictures that they have taken on their trip and you can see how much McGregor and Boorman enjoyed this trip.

So if you like to read about travelling and adventures I highly recommend this book to you!


Katrin