Long Way Down (2007) s01e09 Episode Script

1
Back in 2004,
my friend Charley Boorman and I
rode from London round to New York, east.
And we called the trip the Long Way Round.
We did it! New York!
It's Ewan and I living out a dream
on motorbikes.
Shortly after we got back,
we decided it was definitely something
that we wanted to do again.
We started talking about Africa.
And we're calling this trip Long Way Down.
We're gonna ride 15,000 miles
through 18 countries.
From John O'Groats,
through Europe and into Africa.
Across Libya to Egypt,
following the Nile south into the Sudan.
Crossing the equator
and over to the Skeleton Coast.
Arriving in Cape Town
85 days later.
We're gonna give these guys video cameras,
and they'll also have cameras
with microphones on their crash helmets,
so they can film as they're riding along.
There's a bit of tarmac.
Look at that!
A third motorcycle will travel with them,
and on that motorcycle will be Claudio,
a cameraman.
In addition, Russ and I will travel in
two 4x4s with Jimmy, another cameraman,
Dai, our medic, and Jim,
a cameraman who will help with security.
We'll be filming the guys
from the vehicles,
linking up with them at borders,
but otherwise,
the motorcycles will be on their own.
Got sun on my face ♪
Sleeping rough on the road ♪
I'll tell you all about it ♪
When I get home ♪
Comin' round to meet you ♪
The long way down ♪
It's beautiful. We came here at night,
and so, you know, you wake up to this.
It's just incredible.
And it's winter here, and it's still hot.
And they say, you know,
winter lasts about six weeks,
and then it's back to summer.
It's a beautiful morning.
Another rough day in paradise, eh?
This is my lovely wife,
Eve, looking very, very much the part.
We've just left the Chintheche Inn.
Take your time, Evs. There's no rush.
Oh, Eve!
I'm really proud of her.
She did well there,
just for wanting to get back up on
and keep going.
Looking well ahead, Eve.
Oh!
Oh, Christ. You okay?
Just let it go. Let it go. Let it go.
Let it go. You'll hurt yourself.
- You did really well, Eve.
- You did very good.
No, because you came off,
and you got right back on it.
She kept getting up.
Yeah, fashion first, safety second.
That's what I always say.
Okay, shall we rock and roll?
You're a fucking nutter, Charley.
A nutter.
I think tonight we must try
and balance things on our head
to see how we can do.
'Cause you see women
with buckets of water, and they don't
How's that possible?
Look at the scenery. Look at that.
That's amazing.
This is a moment I wanna mark
to remain in my memory forever.
The beautiful blue sky
and the perfect white clouds.
I can't tell you,
the smell of tobacco is quite
pungent.
It's their biggest and maybe their
only export crop as far as I can gather.
But as someone who's smoked
for many, many years,
I've had quite a
relationship with the tobacco leaf,
you know, in my own way, and
I only gave up in February.
- Oh, my God, Ewan.
- Look at it, look at it.
Fucking hell.
Wow, it's really packed in,
that leaf, isn't it?
It's like you could just pick that up,
and light the top of it
and smoke it like a pipe.
You know what I mean?
It works very much like the cattle market.
The guys bring in their cows,
and then they try to get the best price
for their particular cow.
- Right. How do they depend
- And they're a particular pale.
How do the people who are buying it
know what's better than others?
Well, there are five different leaves
here. Is that right?
- Yeah.
- Five different leaves.
- Five companies.
- And so each buyer would know,
- "Okay, I want that."
- "I want that and so much."
And it'll have to be.
They're checking it.
Putting the price down.
It's amazing the amount of people
involved in the transaction.
Four or five buyers, the auctioneer,
and then guys marking down
who's bought which bale.
And he just seems
to throw the ticket down anywhere.
And then there's two or three guys
behind him who are picking up that ticket
and then putting it
on the appropriate bale.
And everyone must has to be
absolutely focused on what's going on
as the guy's going
For someone who's given up smoking,
to walk into that place, smell the tobacco
was just almost too much.
Biting my tongue
and digging my fingernails into my hands.
Kumbali.
Kumbali Country Lodge.
The thing that we're trying to plan today
is a surprise for Ewan.
On Long Way Round,
we flew his dad, Jim McGregor,
out to New York
and completely sprung a surprise on Ewan
by having him turn up on his motorbike
about 60 miles north of New York.
And we're gonna try and do the same
with Ewan's mother.
So you're slightly nervous, just a bit?
I'm absolutely terrified.
I hope I don't get off wrong.
Did you ever use the navigator,
you know, successfully
to find anywhere
that you're going in the trip?
It's only my boy, but I'm really nervous.
Many times. I find it quite handy to
Sir, I think you ordered a Coke.
Oh, my God.
- Ewan, it's your mom!
- What are you doing?
What are you doing here?
Hey! Oh, my God.
We got him again!
Oh, Lord. It's so lovely to see you!
- Charley!
- Hello! How are you?
I'm fine.
- Second surprise.
- What are you doing here?
Just great.
And Eve's mum and dad
are gonna be joining us in Namibia
and her brother in Botswana.
The Ewan McGregor family tour.
We're going down the road
to a village called Chimteka,
and just outside the village
is a sort of a community care center.
We're going to see how
they look after the under-five-year-olds.
See what the community is doing
to support the children,
some of whom have lost their parents
to HIV and AIDS,
and just generally,
the community work there.
This is what they're eating.
So they try very much
to give them the stable diet.
They try very much
to give them some vegetables
and some beans when they can,
so they can have protein
and all that kinda stuff.
Hey there.
The graph shows that
the child is growing very well.
The community has done huge amounts here.
And they're promoting them
not to be completely dependent on UNICEF,
that everything that they do
has to come from the community.
Has to That UNICEF will support them,
but they have to do it themselves.
This is a family who both have HIV
and who are living
on antiretroviral drugs, is that right?
And they've had a baby,
and the baby's HIV-negative.
Do you talk about it openly
to your friends
to try and tell your friends
and other people that it's
it's okay to go to the hospital
and stuff like that, or
"It's a new thing."
"Because the AIDS problem,
people don't really know it here."
"They always refer
to witchcraft when someone has died."
"So they still don't believe
that there is AIDS."
"So people are dying, a lot of them."
"But there is a denial"
"But for us, me and my family,
we went to the hospital.
And we go and we take medication."
She's incredible.
She wants to eat.
She's hungry.
It's the one thing
I don't think I've seen yet in Africa,
since we've been riding through,
is a playground.
I haven't seen one.
And you notice the children
don't have toys to play with, you know,
like we do in Europe.
Yeah, the first time I've ever seen
a playground in Africa.
It's great to see a place
where children are able to learn
and have a laugh and play
and, you know, be kids again.
And if you're living in
a child-headed family or you're an orphan,
then that's probably
a rare thing, you know?
But it's great.
It's really nice to see
such a positive, optimistic
place. It's lovely.
Yay!
Fantastic! That was brilliant.
Bye-bye!
It's amazing.
Their baby was born HIV-negative
all because their parents got
the correct medication at the hospital.
Fantastic.
Okay, this is Eve
going through her first border.
This is us leaving Malawi.
Zambia awaits.
Yee-haw!
Here we are in Zambia. Zambia!
We've been told there's lots of potholes,
but if it's just like this, this is easy.
This is like a good road with a few holes
in it, you know what I mean?
We just arrived at a campsite
called Mama Rula's.
All right!
How cool is this?
Oh, yeah!
Actually, it was the first time that
Eve and I ever camped together in a tent.
It was the first time
we slept together in a tent.
My tent smells a bit
like a goat apparently.
I think Ewan had a goat in his tent.
- Did you hear the
- I never had a goat in there, did I?
- Shut up.
- A sheep?
- Shut up.
- One of those.
I'm here by myself.
I'll be fine.
Don't worry about me.
It used to be,
"Charley this, Charley that,"
and now it's just, "Eve this, Eve that."
Bye.
That goat I had in there,
it's in the back of one of the Nissans.
Yeah.
As opposed to
Feeling more confident,
a bit more relaxed.
Yeah.
And riding on dirt roads
I'm getting used to it now.
It's quite fun.
You're a very good student.
She's an off-road rough rider.
That's what she is now, you know?
Four countries left to travel through.
Eve has to catch a plane on the 22nd,
and it's the 19th today.
So we have three days to do 1,000 km.
Which is doable if the roads are good,
and if they're not, it might be a problem.
I love this feeling
in the morning when you get going.
I just love it.
I love riding this bike.
So we're heading towards Lusaka.
We won't get there today, but the aim is
to get about 240, 250 miles down the road.
There's just something so beautiful
and right about moving forward like this.
Every day discovering another place,
finding, you know,
the scenery change around you.
This is supposed to be the bad road.
It looks pretty good to me.
This lady came up to us.
Her name, I think, is Festina.
Yes.
And she spoke very good English.
- Yes, these are lemons.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And these are guavas.
- Guavas.
- Yes, but they are not ready now.
- Not yet.
We asked her to show, you know,
where she lived and what crops she had.
And she took us around
and very kindly introduced us
to her grandchildren.
Really lovely.
So there is where we get water.
And is that your water for everything?
Yes, yes.
- For the plants and
- Yes, yes.
- And drink and wash?
- Yes, yes.
Lovely lady who did a lot of work
with the community
and, you know, reaching out,
getting the orphaned kids
teaching them, telling them stories,
telling them about God and the church,
and, you know, all of that. Very involved.
And you have many orphans?
- There are many.
- Yeah.
Yes, there are many orphans.
- Because of HIV and things?
- HIV and AIDS.
So many parents have died.
- Yes.
- Yes.
So the children have remained orphans.
She's confronted with HIV.
She's surrounded by it.
I tell them how they get it.
- You do? Right, right.
- I do.
And how to prevent it.
- Yes. Abstinence is very important. Yes.
- Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
We know how to handle them anyway,
as children.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yes.
And they do understand.
- Good.
- They do.
You know, it's amazing to see
those women that actually got the message,
got the fact that,
okay, you have to be careful,
and you have to be tested.
And you can have a good life
on antiretroviral drugs.
Strong women like her
are the hope for Africa.
And hopefully, men will follow suit.
Yeah, I'm so hungry.
I was waiting for Charley or Ewan
or you to say something.
'Cause I don't want to be a burden.
It's true.
Don't show Ewan this.
You and I can share these, Claudio.
We can have half a pack each.
You're probably wondering
why I've got a towel
in the middle of this town on my shoulder.
I'm not gonna have a shower,
but I think it is time to see
if we can fix the hole in between my legs.
It's time to see
if we can get rid of the man-Gina.
- Hello.
- Hello, how are you?
- Is it possible that you could fix this?
- Oh, I can. Give.
- Is it okay? Okay, good.
- Yes.
He's gonna sew
the back and the top together.
No, no! Don't say that.
I'll put them on, and my balls will go,
"blurp!" up behind my ears.
Thank you.
How you say "thank you", Eve?
There we go.
Nice and neat. Perfect.
Brilliant.
I'll go and change.
I tell you what, I must say,
absolutely just blown away by Eve.
Every day she's been getting
better and better.
I mean, she's racing along here today
on these potholed roads,
you know, and she's doing 65, 70.
She's not fearful at all, you know?
I mean But she's very smooth.
I'm really, really impressed myself.
And she's weaving in and out.
And if she sees one late,
she turns and weaves
and knows when to go over one
when you just can't avoid one.
That always happens.
And it's just been nice
having Eve around for everybody.
It's a welcome change
in the dynamic, I think.
We've got to be camping by
the latest 5 o'clock here
because by 5:30, bang,
the light is gone.
So we're gonna try and stay
in a village tonight
just to have a little bit of an
experience.
So we found this little village
that was a little bit protected
from the road.
Hello.
- Good morning.
- Good morning.
Nice to meet you.
- Ewan. Ewan.
- Yeah.
- Charley.
- Charley.
Eve.
- Eva?
- Eve.
We were wondering if we could
put our tents up and sleep here tonight.
Yeah, is okay?
- It's okay there.
- There?
- Wonderful.
- Thank you.
Yeah, and this is your home?
Yeah.
And how many wives do you have?
- Huh?
- How many wives?
- Wife?
- Yeah.
I've got one.
- One? Oh, good.
- One, this one.
This one? Hello!
- Hello.
- Hello.
Hello, nice to see you.
- Hello, nice to meet you.
- Hello, sir.
I'm gonna test myself
for malaria today, Claudio.
I tell you, the last few days,
felt a bit fluey this morning.
- I reckon that cockerel's gonna be noisy.
- In the morning?
Oh, yeah. They start about 4:00.
All right. I've got earplugs.
Could eat it.
And I feel like
I've really settled into Africa.
I don't feel threatened
by anybody anymore.
And I'm quite happy just to rock up
somewhere and start chatting to people.
- You want to go?
- Yeah. After you.
- Okay.
- So, you're gonna show us the kitchen?
- So you're cooking for tonight?
- Yes.
This is amazing.
And that's all to put things away here.
- Oh, that it is.
- Yeah, all the pans.
- To sit on.
- Yeah.
- Okay?
- Okay.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
There we are.
Charley's got malaria.
He's feeling a little tired,
and he's got malaria.
It's not the case that
we've just been on the road for 12 weeks
and relentlessly chewing through
hundreds of miles every day.
No. Malaria.
'Course.
Join us after the break to find out
if Charley really does have malaria.
'Cause you're supposed to sort of go,
"Oh, my God, does Charley have malaria?"
All right, hang on.
Let's do it again. Yeah, no, no.
Eve.
I think Charley might have malaria.
- Perfect, perfect.
- Is that better? Was that better?
- Where's the clean bit?
- No, there.
There?
There was viciousness in there.
Doesn't look clean to me.
My finger really hurts now.
You got enough blood in there?
- Oh, yeah.
- Did you?
Just leave this for
ten minutes.
- Okay.
- Dave.
Yeah, it's Ewan.
Look, I think Charley's got malaria.
Could be the end of the trip.
No one takes me seriously.
Dai.
It's Ewan.
Yeah, what are the symptoms for malaria?
I think Charley's got malaria.
Could be the end of the trip.
Negative C.
C? Yeah, no malaria.
Can you see the line?
You can just see a faint line
across there.
- I could see you were really worried.
- I was really worried.
I tell you what the next worry is.
- Oh, yeah?
- What do you have?
- Oh, yeah, what do you have?
- What is it?
I have
road fatigue.
Yeah, you're just tired.
You're fucking knackered is what it is.
And really,
I just wanted to use this as well.
Would you like to eat?
- Eat?
- With us.
You can try. It might be quite fun to try.
He came up with two sort of elder guys.
And we gave them some sausage and beans,
which they really quite liked actually.
Very nice, eh?
Yeah.
- It's hot.
- Good?
I mean, you could eat it cold.
You can eat it
- Good night.
- Bye-bye.
- Good night.
- Good night.
That was cool, wasn't it?
They loved my cooking.
Look at that sky.
Every morning you wake up to one of those.
I could have done that
every night, I think.
Going through, meeting people,
seeing how they lived.
It was just the best.
- Take care. Be safe.
- Okay.
And they were so friendly and lovely.
As we've found most people to be
on this journey.
The last run into Lusaka is fine.
They say the roads are absolutely fine.
So, it's 100 miles.
Go in, get our tires done,
and then head on
towards Livingstone and Victoria Falls.
So how long you riding for?
Two months.
- Two months?
- Yeah.
For the first time on the whole trip,
met a bloke on a motorbike.
I started off in Arniston,
which is the most southern tip
near Cape Agulhas.
And I've been all the way
through South Africa,
and not just through Namibia
- but sort of zigzagging around.
- Yeah.
Been to the dunes
up the Skeleton Coast, Etosha.
Back through, then into Botswana,
only into the Okavango.
Back up, Caprivi Strip,
which was fantastic, Malawi.
And then I'm gonna go back
to South Africa through Mozambique.
- Mozambique, lovely.
- Yeah.
Probably give me about
I don't know, 15,000 Ks?
Beautiful.
He has some
lovely exhausts on the back of the bike.
Lovely noise.
Still, it was really nice to actually
meet someone on a motorbike,
which was lovely.
And then got into town,
and Ewan and Eve were having a coffee
when this bloke turns up
on an old Triumph California.
I'm coming to show you how to go
to where to change your tires today.
Right, okay.
I've got another guy
waiting on the side of the road.
So I'm just gonna call him
to say I've found you.
So this is the man
that is following us in.
We started following him,
and then another guy turned up
on a Gold Wing,
and another guy turned up on a Honda.
And then another guy,
and then another guy.
All these guys suddenly
turned up and started leading us in,
and they led us through Lusaka
to this guy Ray's workshop.
Met a guy who runs a motocross race team,
and he's been kind enough
to say that he'd help us
do whatever we need to do
to get the bikes ready
for what could be some very tough terrain
in Botswana and Namibia.
So the next two countries
that we're traveling through.
It's not the finish line, but every day
we link up together with 14 to go,
it's just a special, sweet day.
Well done. You're doing well, eh?
It looks great in the workshop.
I like the dirt bikes.
Shame they're all KTMs.
We're gonna get
your and Ewan's bikes in first.
Oh, sorry.
You might need a hand to
You said something
that I thought was so nice.
You said, "All I want is a just a little
flavor of my husband's adventure."
It's so nice to have good,
new tires on, isn't it?
Such a relief.
Next time there's a Long Way Up,
and we ride Long Way Down long way.
You want a bigger piece, don't you?
- I'm coming.
- You want a bigger piece of this thing!
- Yeah.
- Yeah!
It's about 5 o'clock,
so the sun's going down.
So Ewan and Charley and Eve have decided
to go onto the next campsite
so that they don't end up
riding in the dark.
But we've been invited to see
a cotton-producing plant.
There's a big cotton truck
in front of us actually,
so we're now following it to the plant.
Cotton is a big part
of Zambia's export business.
We are supporting
about 185,000 farmers as Dunavant.
- 185,000 farmers? That's a lot of farmers.
- Yes.
- In Zambia only?
- In Zambia only.
On the truck there,
we'll sort and grade it.
- Okay.
- Yes.
The A-quality is the spotless cotton,
and the B is the one which
has a bit of a little contaminants
and C is the bad crop.
So when you're saying A,
it's just the whitest?
The white.
- The whitest.
- Yeah, sure.
This module weighs about six tons.
On average, it will come from
a three hectare plot.
And this is grade A?
That is grade A, yes.
It's actually quite amazing stuff,
isn't it?
- This is the lint.
- That's what you wanna keep?
This is what our main product is.
This is what we sell
to the textile industries.
The lint gets pulled out,
leaving the seed behind.
The seed, we normally take it to Lusaka.
We crush it and make cooking oil from it.
You make cooking oil
out of the cotton seed?
Yes.
We come with a tractor-driven transporter
which picks up the module,
- and we take it to the mixing floor.
- Okay.
These are the ladies.
They're obviously sifting out
the impurities from the cotton.
So it obviously comes in
through the hopper at the top,
they sift it out, take the impurities out,
and then the good cotton drops
into the conveyor belt at the bottom
and then zooms along to those guys
shoveling it at the end.
And they do 22 bales per hour.
So it's got the seed in amongst the lint.
And so somebody has
to take those out by hand?
- No, no. We are using machine.
- And that's what we're gonna see?
Up, down, all the way over here.
This is the seed now the
lint has been taken off,
and this is the by-product.
- I can't get over how dense this is.
- Yes.
- It feels like concrete.
- Yes, exactly.
How many of these do you generate
out of this place per day?
Per day we are getting about 300 bales.
Taiwan, China, the UK market.
So it's Our lint is selling
all over the world.
Willy, what's the difference between
the highest grade and the lowest grade
in terms of what you might
be able to get for it?
It's about twice as expensive.
So between the best and the lowest
- Exactly.
- is twice?
Yep.
Thank you, Willy.
This has been a lot of fun.
- Thank you, Willy.
- You're most welcome.
But then we rode on to Choma.
And I think that day
we did over 250 miles.
Look at that sunset.
Isn't that just beautiful?
I mean, that really is the African sunset.
That is Africa right there.
I'm Joe McGregor Brooks,
and this is a crocodile farm.
It's filled with problem crocodiles.
When they have a crocodile eating people,
they call me,
and I go and try and catch it.
Right, and you've been living here
in Africa for how long?
- Fifty-three years.
- Fifty-three years.
And how long have you been
wrestling crocodiles?
- Fifteen years.
- Fifteen years.
And then I spent 15 years running
from elephant, hippo, lion, leopard.
One leopard caught me and bit me there.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
If it's not too rude,
can I ask how old you are?
- Nearly 80.
- Nearly 80?
- Yeah.
- Wow. That's impressive.
And he was
a great storyteller and a character,
you know, and a lovely man.
Great laugh.
Very sprightly for his age, you know.
If they come quickly,
I tap 'em on the nose.
It's the only vulnerable part
on their whole body, is the nose.
- Okay, good to know.
- I'll remember that.
And if they get too close,
I'd stick my spike down its throat.
But that's never happened yet.
I'll show you this albino.
It's very cheeky.
- The albino's very cheeky?
- Yeah.
There he is. Look! And his name's Russ.
Hi, kiddo, how you doing?
Shut up. What's wrong?
Here, come on. Up!
Come on!
Come, boy.
Is that quite rare, an albino one?
Yeah, one in maybe 20,000.
- One in 20,000.
- Yeah.
He's cheeky.
If you get a call that there's been
a croc that's attacked someone,
- how do you know it's that croc?
- It's usually just the biggest one.
Take out the biggest one.
It's usually that, yeah.
Small crocs don't take people.
So that's in there,
goes into the crocodile.
And then I just
Pull He takes off.
- Right.
- And I pull the handle out.
And because it's offset
as it tries to get back out again
- Tips it opposite.
- it goes like that.
And then it's stuck under the skin.
And that will hold the biggest crocodile
'cause it only makes a tiny hole
when it enters.
Turn it sideways,
and that'll hold the biggest croc.
- What's this?
- Oh, hello!
Now this is Maramba.
Now he's a big one, isn't he?
Yeah, he's quite big.
He was eating people in the Maramba River.
Now he's a nasty croc.
Doesn't like people.
Your son was saying
that their brains aren't very big.
Walnut brain.
Hey, walnut brain!
Okay, only kidding. No offense.
- You're so brave with this fence here.
- Yeah, yeah.
Cheers!
What's the square root of 23?
Remind me,
what is the square root of 23, Ewan?
I don't know.
They've been around
for over 200 million years.
- Yeah.
- There's nothing like them.
They survived earthquakes,
the Ice Age, the floods.
They outlived the dinosaurs.
Whatever made them die,
it didn't kill them.
And they're almost unchanged.
They haven't really changed much.
They swim through the water,
you know, effortless, like this.
Wonderful things.
Come on, Eve.
Yeah, we're about to go in
with man-eating crocodiles.
- You're looking at the butterflies.
- Okay.
He's got his eye on us.
Look, he is keeping his eye on us.
- Yeah, it's okay.
- All right
Bloody hell. Okay, okay.
It's all good.
Fuck. Well, that's got rid of that one.
No, for him to get ready to come for you,
you'd have time to get out of the way.
- We would?
- Yeah.
You'd see the movements?
Yeah, he's not interested in harming us.
- And what's the slit behind the eye?
- Anymore.
That's his ear.
- That's his ear?
- Yeah.
But these things are perfect.
You see, even the shape.
They can swim through the water
that much from the surface,
and they don't disturb the water.
- Right.
- No, they're fantastic animals.
And they look completely like logs
to animals, don't they?
- Until the moment of
- Yeah.
Often you see the animals are
they're eating.
It's their first time to see a crocodile.
- They're usually
- First and last!
You could've
sat and listened to him all day long.
He was such a lovely man,
and he was so enthusiastic.
It was amazing
being so close to those
huge, big vicious beasts, you know?
Quite extraordinary.
We had one about that size.
So we cut it open, and inside
there was a complete life jacket.
So it meant that, you know,
it can't digest life jacket. It's nylon.
But it digested the person wearing it.
- Oh, my God.
- Holy shit.
- Oh, look at that eye.
- Do you see the second eyelid?
- It's amazing isn't it?
- Yeah, amazing.
I mean, you've never seen
the size of these crocodiles.
I mean, they are enormous.
Can you see the big croc behind me?
Eighty years old, he is.
98% success rate in shagging.
Basically.
He's got 19 women.
And I'm standing
Look, I can just touch his tail there,
you see?
That's how close I am to a man-eater.
And bit another male crocodile in half.
Lovely.
- Thank you very much.
- You're welcome.
- I'm really touched.
- My pleasure.
- Take care.
- Okay.
We had a lovely time.
Really, a lovely time. Yeah.
- Keep in touch.
- Will do.
- See ya, Joe.
- All the best.
I very much enjoyed his company.
He's a good man.
What an amazing guy, yeah.
Quite a one-in-a-million character,
you know?
We're heading towards Livingstone.
This is my favorite thing in the world,
you know?
Pastime-wise, to sit on a bike and go
and discover other countries and people.
It's the best thing in the world
for the soul and for the spirit,
and for your head and your heart.
And to be able to do it and share it
with Eve is just the best thing.
'Cause she's so confident on the bike.
It would be crazy not to do more of this.
There's a great, big elephant
just here, look.
Just through the trees.
We're just riding past
with Eve and Charley.
Don't stop your engine, Eve,
just in case we need to get out of here.
Let's go. The boys are gonna bungee jump.
The next stop is seeing Charley and Jimmy
throwing themselves off
a very high bridge.
We're just approaching
the Victoria Falls Bridge
where Charley and I
are gonna bungee jump 111 meters.
Look at the baby!
Jesus, let's not get involved.
Let's not get in the middle of this.
There was this lady who was walking
with a shopping bag, a plastic bag,
and she got mugged by a baboon, literally.
It came from the back,
grabbed the bag and ran off.
There was bread in it
and he's stuffing his face,
and all his mates came as well.
They're thieves!
Poor thing, she must've had a fright.
- That was crazy, wasn't it?
- Yeah.
It was crazy and exciting.
And then when you see the bridge
It's high, man. It was a high bridge.
And you're, sort of, halfway between
Zimbabwe and Zambia.
We got onto the bridge,
and I was watching other people jump off.
Three, two, one, bungee!
Makes me feel a bit sick
just watching people jump.
And, so for me
It's not for me, you know.
This is a safety backup harness
that he's putting on,
the full body harness.
This strap holds up to 2,200 kg.
So what you don't wanna do is get this
wrapped around your neck, you see,
as you go along and then
You know I've always
got your heart, Jimmy.
Thank you.
If I die, it's been a blast.
Long Way Down.
- Long Way Down, how apt.
- You just finish the trip for me.
It's gotta be
a relatively safe thing to do
otherwise there wouldn't be
businesses doing it.
But, yeah, I think it's fine.
I think it's a huge experience,
and it's here.
And if you're into that kinda thing,
you gotta go and do it.
This is one of the things in my life
that's always scared me, and I
I would regret it if I didn't do it
right now, which is why I'm doing it.
I could never
in a million years think of doing that.
- Feeling a little bit nervous.
- Talk to me.
- Hi, how are you?
- How you do?
- Very well, thank you.
- Doing good, hey?
- How many times you jump?
- Never.
- Never. Your first time?
- Yeah.
- Let's hope not gonna be the last, right?
- Yeah, that would be good.
Anyway, this tog,
they're just for comfort, okay?
On top of the tog,
I'm gonna put the industrial webbing.
And that's gonna be your main connection
to the bungee.
- You see this?
- Yeah.
- That's gonna be your life, okay?
- That's it?
That's your main connection.
It's a bit frayed, is that okay?
Check, this one is gonna be
your second connection.
So, which means it'll be 100% safe.
Yeah.
Anything that makes me feel
like I might die
doesn't do it for me.
And then you're gonna have five seconds.
Count down, "Five, four,
three, two, one, bungee."
The further you jump far,
the better jump you have.
- Yeah, the more you jump out
- The better it is?
- The better it is.
- Okay.
- Now it's time to stand up. Are you ready?
- Yeah.
All right, you can hold on me
and jump over there.
Here we go.
- Here we go. One Check one! Check two!
- Check one. Two.
Are you ready to rock and roll?
I suppose so.
So then you shuffle forward,
and you have to put your toes
over the edge.
And it was really high up.
It was a huge bungee jump.
Hi, Mum.
Now, chin up, look at the horizon there.
We are counting for you.
- Big jump, yeah?
- Yeah.
Five, four, three, two, one, bungee!
Wow!
Fantastic.
Yee-haw!
That is the craziest thing.
He just kept falling and falling
and falling and falling.
Shit, those first few seconds. Holy shit.
That really shits you up.
Look at the horizon there.
We are counting for you.
And then he just says,
"Okay, Five, four, three, two, one,"
and he goes, "Jump as hard as you can
'cause you'll get the better jump."
And so you just
You leap as much as you can,
and then there's a second of nothing
'cause then your body's in shock
for a second or two.
And then you start going, "Ah!"
And then your arms start waving,
like, thinking, "Ah!"
And then you suddenly realize
where you are.
You're in Victoria Falls upside down.
And that's the first time
you've looked at them, is upside down.
And you're sort of just bouncing around,
and it's just, like, great, you know?
But you get a lot of pressure
in your face.
'Cause I think, for me,
that might freak me out the most.
When you're hanging
and then drawing you back up.
Do you not think,
"What if it slips now?" No?
Because there's a guy there
who holds onto you,
and he's sort of chatting to you,
and he's going, "How is it?"
It's your first time jumping?
Yeah, first time. That was amazing.
- Yeah, no, it's absolutely great.
- Just incredible.
I mean, this is not natural, you know?
Doing this is just
not a natural thing to do.
This is crazy.
This is craziness.
Chin up. Look at the horizon there, James.
- Okay. Okay.
- Counting.
Five, four, three, two, one, bungee!
Fuck.
Jimmy!
That was one of the most amazing things
I've ever done in my life.
Your scream was like, "Wah!"
from the beginning,
and your scream was like, "Whoa Ah!"
Both of you just went though.
He went, "Five, four, three, two,"
and you both just jumped.
I'm sure I'd have been
They would've gone, "Five, four, three,
two, one," and I'd have gone
"No, come on, Ewan.
Five, four, three, two, one."
"I can't, I can't!"
I would've had to come back,
and they'd have to untie me,
and it would've been a nightmare.
But look where we are! Look! There it is!
So here we are at Victoria Falls
and 12,000 miles to get here.
And over the craziest roads
and everything.
And
And we're here.
And it's amazing.
My God, they're beautiful, aren't they?
On this trip,
I've gone to so many beautiful places,
stunning, stunning places,
and I've sat there thinking
you know, how nice it would be
if my wife was with me.
It was beautiful,
and we got kinda misty wet
from all the water coming over the edge
and falling into the depths.
It was just beautiful.
I'm leaving,
I'm going to the airport,
and you guys are going to Botswana.
It's a sad moment. For me anyway.
So I've discovered a bit of Malawi,
a bit of Zambia.
And I also discovered
that being on the bike
is really an enjoyable way of traveling.
I feel differently,
I think, about the bike.
It's beyond the mint.
It's beyond It's beyond
No, because it's been
a learning curve for me.
Come on.
So what does it mean for the future?
So No, it doesn't mean anything
for the future.
Just relax.
But what it means is that
You might want to do it again.
- Bye, Eve.
- Bye-bye, Charley.
I think I improved in the last seven days.
I've became better at riding,
and I've enjoyed it
more and more and more.
I'd like her to come a bit longer,
you know?
She'd liked to have come a bit longer.
And
Anyway.
You too.
It was the first trip
for me and Eve on bikes,
and it won't be the last, I'm sure.
She did us all proud.
I think the boys enjoyed
having her company and
Yeah, she certainly enjoyed the whole
not just the riding,
but the whole atmosphere of the trip.
And it's always nice to see it
through someone else's eyes.
So it's really sad that she's gone.
I'm a bit gutted.
Got a huge lump in my throat.
Well, we're going into Botswana,
and it's one of the countries
I've really, really wanted to see.
There's something
about going into another country.
It's always really exciting, isn't it?
So here's our ferry.
So better get my stuff ready 'cause
we have to ride on there in a minute.
So we're at the Zambezi River.
We're about to cross
from Zambia into Botswana.
Massive, massive lorries, aren't they?
Off we go.
Botswana!
We've got two days to get to the place
where we're gonna fly
into the Okavango Delta.
Botswana's got a real feel to it,
hasn't it?
Really does. Different from Zambia.
Nice big baboon there.
Roads are fantastic.
And some of the most impressive landscape.
I mean, just flat plains, look.
Nice temperature, beautiful sky.
Yeah, I think it was quite emotional
for poor, old Ewan, leaving Eve.
It was lovely having her here.
And it was nice to ride with her.
I've got a lovely, big
Touring Harley-Davidson in the States.
And I love it.
I love riding around America on my bike.
It just makes sense.
Harley-Davidson in the States
makes such sense.
People are snobby about them.
People are generally full of shit,
you know?
Well, what can I say about Botswana?
This is the foot-and-mouth fence.
It runs all the way across Botswana,
and you have to go through the ditch.
And this is where
we're gonna leave the bikes and the cars
while we fly up to the Okavango Delta,
which is a huge marsh.
And of course, we wouldn't be able
to drive up there on the bikes.
Unless we could turn them into boats.
As we drive along, we never know
what we're gonna meet along the way.
So it's very important to know how we're
gonna handle our self with the animals.
Okay, one thing is,
we're gonna ask you not to stand up.
So enjoy it.
- Okay, thank you.
- Cheers, Doc.
We just saw everything today.
We saw wildebeest.
We saw giraffe.
Zebra.
We saw elephants.
And that's all in 15 minutes
of getting off the plane.
Apparently, we got quite lucky.
Sometimes you can drive around for ages
and see nothing.
Hello.
- Hello!
- Hiya! How are you?
You're overlooking
the beautiful sunset there.
How beautiful?
Besides the cicadas.
It's the most beautiful place
I've ever been to.
Unbelievable.