On July 31st for one night only Fathom will be presenting Ewan McGregor’s Long Way Down on the big screen. I had heard about this amazing adventure a while back and then nothing more. I am glad this has popped up back on my radar. The movie follows actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s 15,000 mile trek from Scotland to Capetown, South Africa on BMW Motorcycles. I guess the BMW motorcycle is the motorcycle of choice for epic road trips because Alton Brown used one in Feasting on Asphalt 1 and 2.
A trip of this magnitude is so amazing to me. Right now my Aunt and Uncle are traveling cross country in a car and now an RV. They have been blogging about their whole trip and with each amazing location the bug for me to get out on a road trip gets stronger. For me, the most ‘epic’ road trip I ever took as from Massachusetts to Florida in the back of a Toyota Camry while playing with my Nintendo Gameboy (1st Gen, old school, B&W version) for hours on end. Not exactly ‘epic’ by any means.
The movie Long Way Down is a follow up to the movie Long Way Round from 2004 where Ewan and Charley rode 20,000 miles from London to New York via Russia, Mongolia, Alaska and many other points along the way. In Long Way Down Ewan and Charley leave the well made roads of Scotland, England and France to the more challenging roads through the heart of Africa. They started their journey in the most Northern tip of Scotland, John O’Groats and rode down to the Southernmost tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas. Then it was back up to Cape Town to celebrate another amazing journey.
In case you may be thinking that this is just a movie about two guys taking a motorcycle ride because they are rich actors, well you are wrong. This movie and the the journey has worked in conjunction with a bunch of charities including Unicef, Riders for Health and Children’s Hospice Association of Scotland. Not only that, as the team travels they will be bringing awareness of Africa to the wider world.
The 2 hour director’s cut movie is a one time only event and will be the first introduction of The Long Way Down to an American audience before the 10 part series appears on the Fox Reality Channel. An amazing journey through 20 countries over several months. It has once again fired up the bug in me to get a motorcycle or at least go on a motorcycle adventure.
The movie is July 31st at 7:30pm and there are many theaters near me that are playing the movie and it is only $10 a ticket. You can find out if there is a theater near you and order your tickets online at the Fathom website. This event will most likely sell out, so order your tickets today.
