SOUTH AFRICA: British actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman arrive in South Africa after a 15,000-mile motorcycle journey from Scotland

Record ID: 454653

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: British actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman arrive in South Africa after a 15,000-mile motorcycle journey from Scotland
  • Date: 9th August 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR EWAN McGREGOR SAYING: "It feels really good to here. Not back, I haven't been here before so." (Cameraman's question: How long have you been on this trip?") (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR EWAN McGREGOR SAYING: "It's been three months since we left." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR CHARLEY BOORMAN SAYING: "Three months. It's been good fun. Nice continent." PHOTOGRAPHERS McGREGOR STANDS WITH BOORMAN McGREGOR ON MOTORBIKE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR EWAN McGREGOR SAYING: "Yeah, it hasn't sunk in that we're here really. I suppose there's no denying that we are when you see that (Table Mountain) in the background. It's weird that it's finished. I quite would like to turn around and carry on back up the way, really. I don't want to stop." McGREGOR TOGETHER WITH BOORMAN McGREGOR WIPES HIS FACE
  • Embargoed: 24th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Entertainment,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA1OHDVQRXKKRSAL7E5Q0NXUV14
  • Story Text: The two British actors, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman set out on a motorcycle journey on May 12 from John O'Groats, Scotland, travelled through Europe and African countries including Libya, Rwanda, Zambia and Namibia before arriving in Cape Town, on the southern coast of South Africa.
    McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the "Star Wars"
    films and starred in "Trainspotting," "Moulin Rouge" and "Down with Love," said the journey - dubbed the "Long Way Down" - had been "fantastic."
    "I'd quite like to turn around and just carry on back again,"
    he said as the pair posed for photographs on the beach against the backdrop of Table Mountain.
    The two actors met on the set of the 1997 film "Serpent's Kiss." The pair bonded over a shared love of motorcycles.
    "I started to do it after movies then taking some long trips across America and Australia and I found it was a nice way to end a film. I find often it gives you a lot of time for reflection on a motorcycle because you're on your own and there's something about the momentum that's very…I mean. It's just something about riding a motorbike, it's difficult to express, good it is for your soul but anyway, there's something that gives you time for reflection and I found it was a nice way to finish a job and from that we started talking about when our children grow up and leave home, maybe we should leave to ride to Spain or something and then we decide to ride much further than Spain and not to wait till the children grew up and left home," McGregor said during a press conference.
    The two previously circumnavigated the world by motorcycle, in 2004, passing through Russia and ending up in New York on a journey televised as the "Long Way Round".
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register