He travelled with Ewan McGregor on motorbikes across Russia to New York in Long Way Round, and down to South Africa in Long Way Down. He has also travelled to Sydney from Ireland in By Any Means, and done the Dakar Rally.
I have read his books and loved his programmes and so was really excited to find he was coming to my town to do a two hour talk on his travels. He signed his book for me too
I doubt many Americans have heard of him but the English Dopers might know who I mean.
It was really really exciting! He was fascinating and hilarious and I have to admit quite good looking (we will ignore the fact that he is old enough to be my dad).
I think Charley seems like a really, really fun guy. And the perfect foil to Ewan McGregor. Long Way Round was pretty much the best travel program I have ever seen. Ever ever.
However, he made a totally rubbish presenter on By Any Means. The “struggles” seemed totally arbitrary, and he didn’t try to explain anything. If he saw something weird, he would say “that’s weird” and walk on - not try to find out what the hell it was, or engage with the locals to discover more. That series pissed me off beyond measure.
American here who knows who he is and is excited for you! Long Way Round and Long Way Down are both fascinating to me even though I have no interest in motorcycles.
Yes I agree ‘By Any Means’ wasn’t nearly as good as the other series. He did announce yesterday that he got confirmation on Tuesday that he is going to do two more series of By Any Means. The first will be later this year going from Australia to Russia along the Pacific Rim. He is also said he is going to do the Dakar Rally again next year and try to complete it this time. Him and Ewan want to go from North America to South America when Ewan has more time.
He said not to tell his wife any of this because it will freak her out too much, so keep it a secret okay?!
Brit here who is really jealous of you! I loved *Long Way Round *and Race to Dakar (although have to admit that I thought *Long Way Down *was edited way too much and By Any Means was a little less than “awesome” (I believe this was his word of choice for anything good he came across!)).
That being said, he seems like a really nice bloke - I think that my husband even has a little man-crush going on with him (and Ewan)…I’m not complaining
