Long Way Home

Across 20 years, and three incredible adventures,

we've traveled to some of the farthest flung corners of the world.

This is us on the road, Charley. This is us on the way, man.

Yet we've never properly explored the countries on our own doorstep.

- Okay, here we go. Into Europe. - Let's do it.

So, we're spending the summer riding a spectacular loop

through 17 of our closest neighbors.

Starting at my house in Scotland, we'll cross over to the continent,

travel up through the Nordics and into the Arctic Circle,

down to the Baltics before winding our way through the Alps and across France,

returning home about two months later.

And we're gonna throw caution to the wind

by doing the journey on temperamental 50-year-old bikes

that have been given a new lease of life.

My bike's making a funny noise.

Riding alongside them on a third motorcycle

are cameramen Claudio and Max.

And the guys will also be taking personal diary cameras.

Russ and I will be following with a small crew and two electric trucks.

Only meeting up with the guys when necessary.

So, this summer, Europe is our playground.

- Wow! -

And we're gonna follow our noses and see what we find on the open road.

Good morning. Good morning.

The recorders are on.

Have a lovely day.

So it's supposed to be a horribly rainy day today

but maybe... maybe it'll change and we'll have a lovely dry day.

And a bit of camping, which'll be nice.

So very excited, you know.

It's five weeks since we left my house in Scotland

and we're now in Finland.

We're riding south to Helsinki.

And from there we'll head to Estonia, our first Baltic country.

Finland is the size of Germany, but with only 7% of its population.

So most of it is breathtaking wilderness.

I don't like the look of those clouds.

I'm gonna stay positive, and we'll see what happens.

Bloody Nora. What a day.

- It's just a... it's just a little drizzle. -

It's just a passing shower.

Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck.

Already my legs are wet inside.

But it is July.

I'm just sitting on a big puddle of water.

So I have to get a plastic bag

'cause otherwise my arse is just absolutely sodden wet.

Okey dokey, here we go.

Let's look for a coffee, and warm up.

All right. Let's do it.

Should we pop in here and see what's there?

This looks promising.

Stick our gloves on there for an hour or two.

What's that?

It looks like a million scarecrows.

So it says here it's called "The Silent People"

and it was made in 1988 by a Finnish artist called Reijo Kela.

It does look quite eerie and odd.

But looks kind of beautiful too.

It says that there are no interpretation of what it is.

It's up to you to decide what your thoughts are.

What it provokes inside you.

They're all facing you and everyone's still and totally silent.

So it's quite, um, confronting in a way.

I don't know if it makes you think of people that have passed

or maybe all the people that have died in wars.

What a meaningless waste of life, you know.

Their focus on you puts a sort of pressure on you, I guess.

It's interesting.

It's simple but really powerful.

- Brilliant. - Yeah.

Wow.

It's quite something else, isn't it?

- Great, isn't it? - Yeah.

Bloody impressive.

My hair is quite similar. Look.

I'm sort of blending in with my hair.

This is Pete. Hello, Pete.

Nice to meet you, Pete. Hi. Nice to meet you.

Look, his jacket's dry. How can his jacket be dry?

Such a random, beautiful thing to do in the middle of rural Finland.

It's very nice.

That was just a wetfest.

Everything is hanging up to dry.

It's just too wet.

Anyway, fingers crossed. There's always tomorrow.

And, uh, with a bit of luck, maybe no rain.

This is not raining.

This is what not raining looks like.

Ah, I love this road!

Beautiful, isn't it?

I'd forgotten how much I love riding a bike in this nice weather.

It's like, "Oh, yeah. This is why we do it."

This country is one of the most forested countries I think I've ever seen.

I've heard that log rolling is happening up here somewhere.

Let's go check it out.

Okay, let's go.

Once you've left there, it's the point of no return.

You're committed.

Here he comes.

That's impressive, isn't it?

- That is very, very good. - Come on.

He just bulleted through, didn't he?

That's amazing.

- Very impressive. - Well done.

Let's get changed, 'cause I think we can have a go at this ourselves.

Are you sure it's this way?

- Two men, alone in the wilderness. - Duh.

Where do we go?

- -

- Bill and Ben. Two men. - Two men, alone in adventure.

- Somebody! -

Oh, look at that.

It's a dying art and sport.

Do we have to do that together?

Oh, my God. So one on each side.

Look at that.

This is called the, uh, lumberjack's christening.

When there was a new lumberjack who would come and join the logging team

then they would have to go through the process

of standing on a log and log rolling and try and get the other one off.

There's competitions. So these guys are practicing.

- -

I'll tell you what's not happening. That lying down thing.

- No. I think if we can... - I'm not lying down

while you walk over my back.

- -

- -

- Come on then. - We got this.

If I take the shot here... and then we're done.

Yeah, we'll pretend here.

Bet it's nice and cold.

- Fresh. - Fresh.

- - Bracing.

Thank you very much.

- Is it our turn now? - I'm very tired.

- I can imagine you're very tired. - Yeah.

Well done. That's not even wet.

- -

Take the stick.

- - Now, it is very good.

Okay.

Okay, take the stick.

- One's going. -

- -

- Spongy down there. - Spongy down there.

- My feet go like... -

And you can go like this.

- This. Sitting here and little bit here. - Yes.

- On top? Like this? - Yes. That way. Very good.

And now standing. Be very fast.

- Wait, wait. - On the surface?

- Very fast. - Wait, wait.

- Wait. - Good.

Now very fast.

- -

- So you just use it... - Very fast. Yes.

Use it against the water?

- Whoa! -

- Oh. Fun, hey? - Oh!

- - That was...

- Go for a... go for a spin on it. - I was so lucky.

- Do it on your own and then I'll... -

- -

It's so much harder when he's not holding it.

I know. It's almost impossible when he's not holding it.

Well, I think we did very well, Charley.

Best man here!

- Thank you. - Welcome to Finland!

Thank you. I'm Finnish now.

- I'm a Finnish person. - Best man.

Thank you very much.

From Ruunaa, we're riding 230 miles south,

close to the Russian border to Finland's Lakelands.

Let's stop over here, shall we?

Right, let's do it.

Shall we have a look at this guy's bike?

- Wow. - Look at that.

- Isn't that beautiful? - Beautiful.

It's a nice rig, man. Beautiful.

- Thank you. - Very nice.

Hello, lovely.

Oh, look at that.

Reminds me of Sid.

Look at me. Sid. Whoo-hoo!

Hey!

Very nice.

I've made a new friend.

So nice, man. JAWA.

It's from Czechoslovakia?

- Yeah. '69. - Yeah.

Oh, yeah, from the old Eastern bloc.

- Yeah. - So cool.

We're really close to the Russian border here, right?

Yeah. Very close.

He's gonna take us to look at the border.

It's quite an eerie feeling.

"No entry without a special permit."

That forest is Russia.

- Oh, the forest is Russia? - Yeah.