Charley Boorman: By Any Means

Global traveller and bike nut

Driven. Wisecracking. Dangerous. If you only knew Charley Boorman for his free-spirited biking antics alongside Ewan McGregor in their seminal TV saga Long Way Round, you’d be forgiven for thinking that he was just one of the boys.

As WideWorld found out when we spoke to Charley last week, this family man likes to keep one foot firmly on the ground. The other foot? Well, it’s itching to venture out into the wilderness once more.

Taking his adventures on the road with a spoken word show in March, and a published book detailing his latest By Any Means trip from Sydney to Tokyo, the former actor was good enough to take the time to discuss his travels, adventures – and the essentials he can’t do without.

We hear you’ve just returned from Afghanistan with the Help for Heroes charity. How was the experience?

It was pretty amazing. You don’t realise the scale of what’s going on until you actually go out there: there are a lot of people! The camps are like small cities. There’s everything there, from the kitchen to the guys that fight on the front line and everybody in between.

The boys out there are doing a fantastic job. They very much appreciate all the support they’re getting from Help for Heroes and all the goodwill that comes from the British people. It makes a big difference to them out there.

Your career as an adventurer really took off with Ewan McGregor in tow. How has it been over the last year or two setting off on your own?

I think every experience is different. I did Long Way Round with Ewan and after that, I did the Dakar Rally without him, which was painful! I crashed on day five and broke my hand. I was riding in a team of three and we always knew that it would be tough for one of us to finish. Then I rode another 450 kilometres after that and got to a doctor. I know, stupid really. This doctor just laughed at me and said, not only can you not ride a motorbike; I’d be shocked....

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