Long Way Up

Got sun on my face.

Sleeping rough on the road

I'll tell you all about it.

When I get home.

Gonna roll up the sidewalk.

Gonna need letting up.

Comin' round to meet you.

The 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.

We've been waiting here for over three hours now,

and we've just heard that our destination, Buenaventura,

has been shut down because of fog.

And it all has a bit of a knock-on effect

because the boat we're supposed to catch is leaving in two hours.

So, it's not looking really very good at all.

But is it possible to land at Buenaventura now with the fog?

No problem.

- Yes, it's open. - Good.

So Buenaventura is open?

Yeah, everything is okay.

We finally got the good news we've been waiting for,

but we're cutting it a bit fine

especially as we've got to load and unload at the other end.

- Ready, guys? - Yes, sir.

Let's go.

We've ridden our bikes a long way since we started,

but now we've hit a bit of a brick wall.

With the roadless Darién Gap blocking our route

between Southern and Central America,

we've got no choice but to go by air and sea to get to our next country, Panama.

Charley and I are in one plane with the three bikes,

and Russ, David and the crew are in the other plane with all the equipment.

We're trying to find the other plane.

I think he must be up here.

What I thought was gonna be easy is obviously difficult.

Hang on.

- There he is right here. - Where?

On the left.

There he is.

Hey!

Wow, that was close.

It's spectacular flying over the Colombian jungle in these two planes.

It's real Raiders of the Lost Ark stuff.

Pretty cool.

The bikes are all in one piece. They didn't fall over.

So, that's the first leg of our three-part journey to get into Panama.

- All right. - Yeah.

Gracias.

- Right. Next stop, the ferry, yeah? - Okay.

We're heading into proper deepest, darkest Colombia now.

Like, Buenaventura's still connected by road,

whereas where we're going, there's literally no roads in or out.

So, only way to get there is by ship.

The boat's gonna take us along the Pacific coast,

passing a handful of remote villages along the way

on a two-day journey to Bahía Solano in northern Colombia.

They are... They're super isolated communities,

and a lot of them are slaves that ran away

and set up these isolated communities on the coast, you know,

and just lived off farming and fishing.

Why is Buenaventura still on the no-travel list?

This area in particular because it is a port town,

because it is so isolated.

You know, it's been a hub for paramilitary activity,

for narco activity,

and obviously, conflict with the FARC and other...

And guerrilla groups, you know, that have been around.

- There's some boats. - We're going down there?

No.

The boat's down there.

- There's our boat. - You're kidding me.

- Seriously? - That's it. Yeah.

Hey, my friend. Speaking English?

Castilian, brother.

It's gonna be really interesting. It's gonna be an interesting affair.

This one?

This is a wreck.

How do we get it down there?

Wow.

There's also, like, 15 people living in this boat.

So many people on it.

This can't be our boat.

This doesn't even look seaworthy.

That's not the one that we saw the pictures of.

No, it's not.

This is not the boat you're looking for.

Move along, move along.

This isn't our boat, is it?

- What? - It's not the one in the photos.

The one in the photos is over there.

That one up there. That green one, surely.

They're already preparing the food for us down there.

Yeah.

- This is it, is it? - This is our boat.

This is our boat?

Okay.

This is a rough boat.

There's no joking about it. It's a rough old boat.

We're supposed to be on it for two days.

This is, like, gonna have bedbugs, cockroaches, ticks, rats...

Yeah. Wait, we are in the way. It's all going...

Yeah. I mean, they're just putting the bikes on.

It's almost like it's a done deal, you know.

We were trying to negotiate getting in a better boat.

So, there's no going back now.

My God!

Oh, no. He's pushing my bike alone. It's very, very heavy.

I think they're used to doing this with scooters.

I don't know that they're used to doing this with Harley-Davidsons.

The reason they're rushing is 'cause the tide's going out.

And if we don't get it on, we can't get the boat out.

Here he goes.

Let's just get in, shall we?

They're having a little bit of an issue in the machine room.

You may wanna come and have a look at it.

You're not gonna believe this.

They're having a little battery trouble, of all things.

Batteries.

They can't get the main engine going.

If you look down there, you can see that battery there.

They've used that to start the main engine.

And it started... The engine started within a...

Like, within a heartbeat, it started.

So, that's a good sign.

I loved that they've borrowed the battery from that boat over there...

- To jump-start. - To jump-start this boat.

Ciudad Mutis. Nuquí, Chocó. Over.

It's just the noise.

I love all the voices and the rabble. Isn't it great?

This is... This looks nice.

You said it. Step aboard. Come on.

This will be a shot that'll be difficult to get at sea.

That's true.

Wow, look at the... birds flying over the waves.

And now a fisherman passing in the distance. Wow.

- Captain, the ship's all ready, sir. Okay. - Good.

Unframe the main sp-lame and frame the plain stints.

Okay, I'll flutter the flames, sir.

It's sort of a mix between James Mason and a pirate.

Look. We're off, we're off, we're off!

This is my cabin.

There are three bunks. Here.

Three on here.

I'm gonna just try and sleep on this middle one,

but I have chosen the only cabin which doesn't have a fan.

And which is by the... exhaust.

Pretty crazy, huh?

Oh, my God. It's so good.

Oh, my God. It's really delicious.

I mean, that is fresh fish.

- Yeah, this is great. - Yeah.

More fish?

- I'm so happy. I love it. - Are you?

Yeah.

- Yeah, it's delicious. Yeah, really good. - This is actually amazing.

Yes. Charley Boorman.

- He is in the house. - Speak of...

How are you doing?

Very well. Yeah.

It's a bit like what it might be like in prison.

Well, I thought it seemed familiar.

It's got a little prison vibe, doesn't it?

Really does.

Gonna go to the bathroom.

Okay.

She's noisy, but she's safe.

Here we go.

This is how the bathroom works.

I guess it's just constant pumping of seawater into here and...

This is where...

This is where I shall leave you for now.

Join us next week on Long Way Up to see if the boys make it to port.

Good morning.

I didn't sleep particularly well.

I was sliding around, like... forever on this bed.

This was my view this morning.

Huge, huge ocean.

You know when you're in a small boat, and you go out, and you can't see land,

you suddenly feel very small?

It always takes, like, a day or so to get your sea legs, I suppose.

- Morning. - Morning!

I have a coffee in my hand,

and I was going down the corridor, and I went like that.

And I went...