Cape Town - It’s a guy thing. Men define themselves, and other men, by what they do. I’m a journalist, Ewan McGregor is an actor, Charley Boorman is a motorcycle adventurer, and if you believe his friends, a professional nutcase.
Ever since he and McGregor rode two BMW GelandeScooters from London to New York by travelling eastwards across Europe, Asia and North America - the ‘long way round’ - and were immortalised in the subsequent book and TV series, he has also been a TV presenter, a UNICEF ambassador, and a full-time biker, riding to and across some of the wildest places on earth, collecting an awe-inspiring number of broken bones along the way.
Then, while testing a new Triumph in Portugal in 2016, a car pulled out in front of him and he ended up swerving into a wall, shattering his left leg and breaking his right ankle and hand.
Long Way Back
At first it was unclear whether Boorman would even walk again and it was a year before he could get back on a motorcycle; his latest book, Long Way Back, tells the story of that painful process, along with the introspection enforced by months of inactivity. Now he’s in South Africa for the start of a ride from Cape Town to Victoria Falls, and before he leaves he’ll be in the Market Hall at Grand West on Monday 28 August to talk about a life spent on - and off! - two wheels.
Join him for the evening by
at R350 per person. There will be free indoor parking for your bike in the Sun Exhibits hall, and the doors will open two hours early, at 6pm, to give you time to look around the adventure biking displays in the hall.