Boorman’s bash from Sydney to Tokyo

Charley Boorman’s travel documentaries have won him a fervent following, probably due more to his personality than the locations he visits.

Whether from London to New York, Scotland to South Africa, or Ireland to Sydney, his charming, cheeky nature makes him an easy armchair companion.

His latest adventure From Sydney to Tokyo By Any Means sees him traverse Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan and Japan via a plethora of transportation modes.

As he explains to TV Tonight, while it is important to know where you’re heading in order to deliver an entertaining end product, too much planning can offset the element of genuine surprise.

“You’re the one who’s doing the trip so it’s so important to have a very specific idea of where you want to go and the type of things you want to see,” he says.

“I try not to read too much about the country that we’re going into because I tend to find if you read too much about it in other people’s books, you get other people’s perspective of the place. So when you go you almost have a pre-conceived idea. I like to go a little bit fresh into the countries, you know?

There are some countries where no amount of planning can ready you for the unexpected.

“In places like Papua New Guinea you ask people ‘Are there buses, what time do they leave?’ And they say ‘When they’re full.’  It’s very loose on the ground, there’s no proper infrastructure,” he says.

“Once we found out that there was a missionary guy with a flatbed 1965 Toyota truck that was going along. We went and found him and he said, ‘Okay meet me about 8:30 in the morning.’ So we met about 8:30 in the morning, got our bags out to the flatbed truck and then we didn’t leave town till 3 in the afternoon. By that stage he’d picked up another 15 people, a whole lot of supplies and off we went on the shittiest road I’d been on for a long time. No bridges, big river crossings and I don’t think we got into the place we needed to get to till about 4:30 in the morning or something.

“I always say to everybody it’s important to do your homework in the places you’re going to. We all have limited time when we travel, be it four months or four weeks, and you want to really pack in as much as you can. So the only way you can do that is by doing a little bit of research. There are certain things that you really want to do in some countries so you want to make sure that you pass by somewhere where that’s a possibility.”

By now Boorman is a bit of cult figure, especially to the motorcycling fraternity. In the first episode of Sydney to Tokyo, Boorman started the journey from Freshwater on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with a convoy of over 1000 motorbike riders who turned up on the day. He was also joined by former Australian Grand Prix champ Wayne Gardner.

“We started with Sydney and then sort of headed to the East Coast to Byron Bay and all the way up Cairns and it was absolutely fantastic,” he says.

For much of his Australian leg, Boorman hitchiked, but says it was perfectly safe.

“If it’s not safe to cross Australia, then it’s not safe anywhere,” he laughs.

“I was listening to Ross Noble at a gig and he turns to this guy and he says ‘Are you a backpacker?’ And he goes ‘Yes.’ And he says, ‘Well you’re not a proper one cos you’re still alive!’

“It’s funny whenever I told people I was going to Africa with UN or Papua New Guinea on this last trip people go ‘Ooh that’s a dodgy place.’ And you go ‘Oh really?’ And they go ‘Oh yes it’s a terrible place.’ So you ask ‘You’ve been there?’ And they go ‘No.’ So it’s just a pre conceived idea.”

In August Boorman will lead a tour in South Africa and he is inviting motorcyclists to join him.

“I’m just about to take a whole bunch of people from Victoria Falls to Cape Town. That’s going to be brilliant fun,” he says.

“It’s purely just to take a bunch of people across Africa. Anyone who’s got a motorcycle license can come along. If you go to charleyboormanlive.com there is link to the Victoria Falls ride. We’ve got two or three Australians coming along already.

“We supply the motor bikes, the accommodation, everything. All people have to do is get down there with their riding gear and come along.”

And as for another series with his travel companion, actor Ewan McGregor?

“There is always talk about a third one. But people get busy and when you do these projects it’s a good sort of six months you have to put aside and for someone like Ewan who’s been doing a lot of movies at the moment it’s a hard one to do.”

From Sydney to Tokyo By Any Means airs 8:30pm Sundays on BBC Knowledge.