The Road Well Travelled: Charley Boorman

Charley Boorman, 45, put his career as an actor on hold to become a modern adventurer and explorer. He is now most famous for his epic motorbike trips around the world alongside Ewan McGregor, shown on TV as ‘The Long Way Round’ and ‘A Long Way Down’. Charley competed in the 2006 Dakar rally for another documentary series while his By Any Means DVD saw him travel from Ireland to Australia saw him travel across the world via canoes, container ships and cement barges, among other vessels. His latest travel series, for Channel Five, is Extreme Frontiers, which sees him exploring the wilder side of Canada.

For your new show extreme frontiers, you climbed the 8000ft Mount Fable with the guy who taught Sylvester Stallone – what was that like?
It was one of the highlights of the trip: Barry Blanchard is such an amazing man and he was such a great character and hugely experienced – he had climbed Mount Everest and all the big mountains and done all this work for movies such as Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit. I had never really done proper mountaineering before but we were climbing up vertical cliff faces and I loved it. It was an incredible way to see the Rocky Mountains.

We had to go along the ridge at the very top of the mountain; this tiny ledge with a drop either side of you. You are tied to Barry and basically what we did was walk along the ridge and then if one of you fell the other one would throw themselves off the other side then hopefully you balance each other out. Stupid. I was a quivering, shivering wreck.

You met Ewan McGregor on the film Serpent’s Kiss – why did you get on so well?
We were working on the west coast of Ireland and both had our wives with us and we had both just had our first children. We were all going through this same kind of thing really and we had this very strong bond with our motorcycles. I suppose you meet lots of people and once in a while you meet that one person you really seem to connect with and becoming a friend isn’t even an effort – you see each other all the time and you are mates. We ran motorcycle race teams together and then eventually started talking about doing a long journey together. At first we were just going to go down to Spain and have a holiday and somehow we ended up going round the world.

Can you tell us about your cancer scare?
My wife took the dog to the vet to have his annual check and the last thing he checked was its testicles – the vet said one of them felt a bit odd and that we should keep an eye on it. So she said one of my husband testicles feels a bit odd and he said to her that I should get that checked out. So she went home and sent me to the doctor and four days later I was on the operating slab with the surgeon saying, ‘Don’t worry Charley its nothing to worry about.’ I had a silicone replacement. Men aren’t very good at it – I think I was lucky with the vet and my wife realised and pushed me. At first, I really panicked because my sister died of ovarian cancer about 15 years ago. I had seen what that’s like especially when you’ve lost the battle against cancer and what happens to that person’s body and the family. So for those few days before I found out it was a real freak out. Then the doctor looked at it and said, ‘It’s an inconvenience, not a life change, don’t worry about it.’ The dog and I are both fine now.
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How tough has being dyslexic been for you?
It’s never really been that much of a problem. When we were living in Ireland people at the school didn’t really understand so that part was very frustrating. But it’s come a long way now and I think dyslexic people become very entrepreneurial because they have to think outside of the box in order to survive. You are constantly thinking of ways around things. People like Einstein, Richard Branson and Jamie Oliver are, or were, dyslexic. And here I am six books later…

What was it like going to see the troops in Afghanistan?
I went to Camp Bastion in Kandarhaar to do some talks with Ross Noble. We had an amazing time and we were relatively safe because we were in the camp – although the occasional rocket would come into the camp. What everyone is doing there is unbelieveable. What’s amazing is that the average age of people is so young and these lads go out and deal with landmines every day and ambushes – it’s huge stress. Then we met the bomb disposal guys and they had just lost one of their guys. I have total respect for what they do – it’s quite extraordinary.

What do you think is the difference between car and motorcycle riders?
I think for me travelling around the world on a motorbike is a much better choice of vehicle because when you ride through Africa for instance and you arrive in a town  you are already in that environment. If you talk to someone you are in their environment whereas if you stop in a car you have to get out of your car to talk to someone so you are going from your environment to there’s so you are already removed slightly.

What’s next?
Ewan and I have always talked about doing a third series – we would love to do South America from the bottom to top – we aren’t in any rush and these things take a long time to do. We are both still young so there is plenty of time; it’s definitely on the cards.

For more on Channel Five's Extreme Frontiers, please visit www.charleyboorman.com

[Photograph: Rex Features]