Long Way RoundLong Way Round (LWR) is a documentary television series, DVD set and book documenting the 19,000-mile (31,000 km) journey of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman from London to New York City on motorcycles. They travelled eastwards through Europe and Asia, flew to Alaska, and continued by road from there to New York.
Other projectsMcGregor, Boorman and the LWR team undertook a second journey known as Long Way Down, riding from John o' Groats in northern Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa in 2007. As with Long Way Round, visiting and raising awareness for UNICEF projects was an important part of the journey. Boorman competed in the 2006 Dakar Rally, which was filmed and broadcast in various countries as Race to Dakar. Boorman has also undertaken trips from Ireland to Sydney (By Any Means) and from Sydney to Tokyo (Right to the Edge: Sydney to Tokyo By Any Means).
InspirationMcGregor and Boorman were inspired by motorcyclist Ted Simon's book Jupiter's Travels. They met with Simon in Mongolia.
DVDA two-disc DVD of the journey was released as a mini-series on DVD late in 2005, consisting of seven episodes of about 45 minutes each, totalling around 400 minutes of material. The episodes are unnamed, but cover roughly the following sections of their trip:
Episode 1: Preparation;
Episode 2: London to Volgograd;
Episode 3: Kazakhstan;
Episode 4: Barnaul to western Mongolia;
Episode 5: Western Mongolia to Yakutsk;
Episode 6: Yakutsk to Magadan (the Road of Bones);
Episode 7: Anchorage to New York
The accompanying bonus disc contains several short features and deleted scenes.
Special edition
A special edition of the DVD was released, extending the series to a total of ten episodes of about 45 minutes over 3 discs (and without the original version's bonus disc), totalling around 540 minutes of material. Differences between the two versions are notably at the beginning (the original version condenses their trip preparation in one episode, the special edition is over two), and at the end (the original version shows their trip from Anchorage through Canada to New York in one episode, the special edition over two); the special edition also dedicates an entire episode to interviews and a look back of the trip one year later. The special edition's episodes are also unnamed, but cover roughly the following sections of their trip:
Episode 1: Preparation, part 1;
Episode 2: Preparation, part 2;
Episode 3: London to Volgograd;
Episode 4: Kazakhstan;
Episode 5: Barnaul to Western Mongolia;
Episode 6: Western Mongolia to Yakutsk;
Episode 7: Yakutsk to Magadan (The Road of Bones);
Episode 8: Anchorage to Calgary;
Episode 9: Calgary to New York;
Episode 10: One Year Later.
Music selection is also slightly different across the two versions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Way_Round