El mundo en moto: La aventura continúa (Un largo viaje al sur)

The first adventure seemed to be an actor's version of travelling around the world. But the cameras and support team did allow us to be in on their great adventure to pretty much unseen (to non-locals) parts of the world.

Long Way Down re-unites the old team, now all good friends for a trip to another adventurous part of the world, Africa. Race to Dakar could be viewed almost as a scouting trip for this journey.

To begin with Charley and Ewan say that they don't want to do a three and a half-month journey again but curiously their second journey seems to be 3 months long. Their schedule is more compressed and less free-ranging, and they have been allotted less episodes to tell their story in (one less episode makes a noticeable difference). And affecting it even further is the unusual addition of a fourth rider, Ewan's wife, for 10 days of the journey, who up until a few months before the starting date had never ridden a motorbike.

The presentation is identical to Long Way Round due to being made by the same people, and the journey starts off fairly similar in the European leg (a more adventurous route along the Balkan peninsula was abandoned in the planning stages). Also they have again chosen to use large, heavy BMW motorbikes, but presumably due to the X5's fragility in Race to Dakar, the support vehicles are two Nissan Patrols.

The series starts to get interesting when they reach Libya where US citizens are not allowed. Minus two of the crew, Charlie and Ewan are shown around some Roman ruins that rival those in Rome. Until more equatorial latitudes are reached, Charlie and Ewan essentially complain about the tight schedule and not being able to enjoy the experience. They relax as the scenery turns green and they reach areas with more infrastructure, and essentially have a blast the rest of the way except for the frequent border crossings. By the time the scenery turns brown (but not desert) again they are trying to savour the last of their experience. However most of what we see only seems like scratching the surface, if the story was a little more in-depth it may have captured the feeling of adventure than the first journey had. As it is it only seems like an extended highlights reel and unfortunately in a few places has a home movie feel to it as it is essentially a gathering of friends and family.

Overall I think it's a good look at another less well-known part of the world, Africa, but it seems a little flat and forgettable in comparison. It is still (mostly) compelling viewing and makes me want to explore Africa myself.

I feel like perhaps this will get buried because people may see it as a motorcycle show before a travel show. Charley and Ewan really bounce of each other well (though not as well as Long Way Round or Long Way Up), and I enjoy seeing just two friends share this incredible experience with each other.

As noted in other reviews, the rushed nature of this series brings it down a bit and I'm glad that they address it in the show, though it being too late to change the schedule. Charley just ignoring requests to not wheelie always made me laugh as it just shows how much fun he was having out there.

(I have mini grips with the team member Dave (one of the Americans) but he's not there enough to cause any real annoyance.

Then of course the big one...Eve. I have no idea why she is there and it feels as though his "star power" created an environment of no one really telling him no other than his mate Charley. Throwing a wife in this late in a trip and one that's allowed two friends to just be laid back and make jokes just threw off the entire energy between the two. It doesn't ruin the show but it would've been better had she not been there.

Just watch it and enjoy it. Great look at the world and an admirable way to travel.

I was so stoked to see that Charley and Ewan decided to embark on another bike journey together. Africa was a revelation and a visual smörgåsbord. I enjoyed their reactions and the tensions that emerged and subsided, which gave us access to their humanity. Including more of the support crew added dimension, although I do agree that Claudio should have been given more play. Enjoyed the pre-trek prep. Could have done with less griping about time pressure. Thought it was a bad decision to make this a plot point because there were so many other interesting suspenseful things. Really thought the energy and focus dropped off when Eve Mcgregor joined the trip. She added nothing. I felt there was some hidden agenda going on that had nothing to do with the spirit of the adventure. I agree with a previous post that said if she wanted to participate more in her husband's recreational passions she should have done that off camera. As a viewer I somehow felt used by her insinuating herself into the situation. It was like inviting yourself to a rock concert with your son and his friends, or showing up at rehearsal wanting to be part of their band. Hope she does not tag along on the next one.

The inclusion of Ewan's wife really ruined this show. She had no interest in bikes, can't ride and just came out of jealousy. She ruined the dynamic between Ewan and Charlie, Ewan having to Miss part to pamper to his incompetent wife. She is such an irritating person, very clingy to Ewan and had no place in this adventure. I imagine Charlie must have felt very much like a spare part. I guess the was included to make it more "reality" show, but that was the brilliance of the other two shows- didn't pamper to the masses. She fell Off on the first corner-how useless is that! Not a biker, not her dream, no place.

Watched the whole of LWD on Love film after catching most of it on the TV. I was just left mildly interested, but ultimately uninspired. I still can't quite put my finger on it, other than say to LWD just didn't deliver.

The reasons for this I feel are 1. Six episodes, as opposed to 10 on the extended LWR DVD. So felt rushed, someone said they went though three countries in one hr on one of the episodes? The guy's said they didn't want to be away from their family's for an extended period of time- no problem with this but the schedule compromised the quality of the show. A lot of moaning in particular.

2. Support crew were a main character as much as Charley & Ewan- this of course completely understandable in Africa where they were often in unstable territory, so need to stick together, but from an exploration/enjoyment point of view made it a less appealing show.

3. Ewan's wife, Eve, being a part of the trip- just didn't understand why they allowed a rider with virtually no experience to ride in a really tough environment- also no explanation of when she passed her bike test, we see her doing her CBT & then nothing? It was quite clear that Charley was not in favour, although he cover this well, so as not to upset Ewan. I think most of the crew, other than David Alexanian were think the same thing.

4. Lack of detail- LWR seemed to cover a lot more & seemed more "from scratch" whereas LWD was more corparate & rushed. I don't think the audience cared so much for the characters & where didn't seem t be in so many compromising situations.

I watched Race-to-Dakar as well. Also read the book, and found that more interesting, though not enough to buy it.

LWD did have some good points in it though. Seeing the ferry from Italy to Tunisia, as described in Ted Simon's Juniper's travels was great; seeing how different counties dealt with not having medical care- as we know it; the great work that Unicef do & the history of the conflict that went on- & is still going on in Darfur.

Love watching these guys & hope they take more care with Long Way Up!