Long Way Up

We're gonna ride 13,000 miles through 13 countries.

From Ushuaia, in and out of Argentina and Chile, to the Atacama Desert,

heading up to La Paz before we cross Lake Titicaca,

continuing along the Andes to Colombia, over to Panama,

through Central America and Mexico, arriving in Los Angeles 100 days later.

We're gonna give these guys video cameras,

and they're also gonna have cameras with microphones on their crash helmets

so they can film themselves as they're riding along.

Is this a road? Oh, my God!

A third motorcycle will travel with them,

and on it will be Claudio, our cameraman.

In addition, Russ and I will travel in two electric pickup trucks,

along with cameramen Jimmy,

Anthony and Taylor, who will also help with logistics.

We'll be filming the guys from the vehicles,

linking up with them at borders,

but otherwise, the motorcycles will be on their own.

I hope they're not stuck out there in the middle of nowhere.

- They should have stayed with us. - Yeah.

It was a mistake to go.

How are you doing, guys?

We're unfortunately out of battery.

Wow. Still it is quite far away?

- Yeah. So, another 20 miles. - Yeah, it is.

I definitely need a tow charge.

- David will have broken down. - Yeah.

- Or run out of gas. - Or run out of juice.

They'll be trying to tow charge him on these roads.

Yeah, one over here.

Okay.

- We're just gonna take this slowly. - Yep.

You go out in front. He's obviously second, the Sprinter,

and I'm just gonna be slowly limping behind. Okay?

- See how we do. - Si.

- Yeah. - Thank you, guys.

All right. Let's try to get there.

If you don't believe in God, tonight's the time to do it. Okay?

Yes.

I don't have glasses. I've just frozen my windshield.

Funny thing about these trips is that usually things are okay.

But when they're not okay, they're not okay quickly.

Can't see anything 'cause of the dust.

But we can see the light of the hotel in front of us.

I think we just gotta get it home. You know what I mean?

You're so close, Russ. I just... just made it.

If we didn't get both these cars back in,

we would have been really stuck.

You're here, man. You're here.

By the skin of our teeth.

What a mad journey that was, huh?

At least we got to the chargers,

but I'm not sure what's happened to that suspension.

But anyway, we're here. That's the main thing.

Dust, cold... madness.

You know you're at, uh, 5,000 meters when, as opposed to having a minibar,

they have a freakin' medicine cabinet here.

You know? And oxygen tanks.

That is a brutal road for those guys to ride tomorrow morning.

But for Charley to sit on that bike and that washboard for 30 miles

and what's coming.

Yeah, we have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Right?

We've got about 60 miles of these tracks until we reach tarmac.

This is a little bit more than we were expecting, but we'll get there.

We just have to ride it out at its own level, you know what I mean?

Just weaving all over the place.

Okay. Oh, it's very sandy here.

Come on, Charley. Come on, Charley. It's okay. It's okay.

It's okay, Charley. Ooh.

What was that?

Freaks me out a bit 'cause of my legs.

They feel a bit kind of, you know. I've got these smashed up legs.

We've heard about this lake. The locals call it the blood of the gods.

It's incredibly red, isn't it?

Apparently those flamingos are naturally white,

but their feathers get tinted by the lake.

That mountain behind is beautiful.

I do these trips

and then I come home with hundreds of photographs of my bike.

Wow.

The main... the main thing is that Charley'll never talk about it,

but his legs are so vulnerable 'cause he's had two horrible smashes,

and his legs are full of rods and titanium bolts and screws and...

If the bike falls over on his leg and it bre...

It really could mean the end of his leg. You know what I mean?

Must be at the back of his mind all the time,

like, when he's wobbling around on this.

He's just unbelievably ballsy that he doesn't...

He... He just knuckles down and does it.

He's not unaware of that,

yet he's able to, sort of, conquer it and move on,

which is very brave.

This style of traveling is exhilarating at one level.

It could be a lot of fun as well. But it's very taxing, you know.

People don't sleep well. They don't eat well.

It's dangerous, you know, being on a motorcycle like that

in those conditions.

Ewan doesn't do a lot of off-road riding.

Charley's had a couple of bad accidents

which prevent him from standing up on the pegs.

He hasn't been standing up

'cause, like, it's too much pressure on some of his broken bones.

Ooh, oh, oh, it's a little soft here.

- It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. - It's so soft.

- We're at 14,500 feet. - The altitude. Yeah.

Okay.

- Look at that mountain! - It's just... It's biblical.

Got hair in my eyes.

You little beauty. Come on, you beauty. Here we go.

Come on, you beauty. Come on, going up over here!

I don't know who's more scared, you or me, when you make those noises.

Oh, I don't like it.

I don't like the sand. Oh. It's really sandy, man.

Ooh, ooh, ooh.

So close, but yet so far.

Now the other road looks better.

Just can't win. Light hands, light hands.

Track through.

Look ahead with your eyes.

Just steer the bike with your eyes.

I wanna be over there. I wanna go over there.

I'm gonna go over there!

Little... little... little soft...

Oh, Jesus. Okay, Charley's down.

Okay, he's down. He's down.

Okay.

It's okay. It's okay.

You okay?

Are you okay? Have you hurt yourself?

No, my rib.

A little bit.

I just felt my rib a little bit here just go click.

- No. - But it's fine.

It's fine. I think I'm okay.

Yeah, I can breathe.

- Okay? - Yeah.

Okay.

Hang on. Maybe I should get to your side, and we both lift.

You all right? I thought... I was worried about your leg being stuck.

- No. I'm... still up. - Okay.

One, two, three. That's it.

- Okay. - Okay?

I was falling, I was thinking about how everything was rattling away.

And I was slowing down, but I was...

But I still had the throttle slightly open,

and so it just made it worse.

Yeah, it's unbelievable. It's tough, this...

Okay. Well, I fell down... stupidly.

I was just very nervous of my legs, trying to get them up and out of the way.

You can look at all the maps at home,

but until you're sitting on the bike in this landscape,

you don't really know what it's gonna be like.

We knew Bolivia might be demanding,

but I wasn't imagining it would be this hard.

Suddenly you feel very vulnerable on the motorbike.

On the car, it's... it's a lot easier because you've got four wheels.

So, it's not so treacherous if you get into a bit of deep sand.

Well, we're in God knows where,

and we still have many more miles to go here.

I can't be certain this is the proper road ahead.

This last piece of really difficult roads...

It's not road. It's not road at all. It's just tracks.

Even if it is tracks, just openness.

I'm sure Ewan and Charley are struggling with these ruts.

But I really shouldn't have left without letting them fix the hand brake.

We haven't seen anyone since that hot spring.

- We're really in it now, mate. - Yeah.

Oh.

- Yeah, lost her there. Almost lost it. - Wow.

- Got her back though. - You got her back, baby.

Right over to the other side. It was like...

I thought you were going then. I really did.

It's Dave, I think.

Hello, guys.

Why don't you go in front and then we'll...

Can we shoot over the top or no?

Dave, parking brake.

Oh, my God. Dave, the car. The car.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Dave, watch! Be careful!

Dave, be careful! Be careful!

Oh, my God. You okay?

I think so. I don't have a parking brake.

Ooh.

Charley.

I basically don't have any brakes. And I... We went to let them work on it last night.

And I rented a car this morning, and it didn't show up.

The Rivian guys told me not to drive it. Of course I didn't listen.

The important thing is that nobody got hurt.

I'm quite dizzy.

That's a big, big, big rock.

Let's jack it up, 'cause it's wedged on it.

I think if we can come up two inches...

- Then what? Try and manhandle the rock? - Effectively, right? I mean...

Maybe drag the rock out of the way, if we can get it up... enough.

Yeah, I just wonder if it's too big of a rock.

The thing we definitely have to do is wedge those two wheels,

- so it won't roll back again. - Yeah.

Let me just see if... Let me just see if I go higher.

I'm worried that this is not gonna take the weight

and just... and fall over.

It was just... it was quite scary to see 'cause David doesn't have a hand brake.