Long Way Down Trivia Quiz

Answer: Eight

Eight people did the full trip. The full road team consisted of actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, producer/directors Russ Malkin and David Alexanian, cameramen Claudio Von Planta and Jimmy Simak, cameraman/security man Jim Foster and team medic Dai Jones. Claudio also rode a motorbike on this journey, while the rest of the team travelled in two 4x4s.
Toward the end of the trip, there was a week in Malawai when the team number increased to nine as they were joined by Ewan's wife Eve, but she did not undertake the whole trip.

Answer: Shepherds Bush Roundabout

A pedestrian stepped out into the traffic on Shepherds Bush Roundabout and in his attempts to avoid hitting them, Ewan ended up underneath his motorbike. He spent six weeks in plaster and had to miss the skiing trip which his wife and children still went on with Charley and his wife and family.

At one point, it looked as though Ewan might need surgery on his injured ankle, which might have resulted in the trip being cancelled completely. Fortunately, the bone healed naturally and Ewan was back on his bike just as soon as the plaster was off ("I really can't sit in a people carrier on the West Way anymore" he said). Prior to setting off on this expedition, the team attended training sessions at the Shadow Hawk Survival Centre and the Objective Hostile Training School in Daventry and also did some off road driving training in Wales.

Answer: Tunisia

The team arrived in Tunisia on day 13 of the trip, having travelled by ferry from Trapani in Sicily. They were delayed at Tunisian customs for seven hours. While in Tunisia, Charley and Ewan visited the set of the original "Star Wars" (1978) movie. Libya was the second African country on their itinerary. They did not visit Morocco or Algeria at all.

Answer: David Alexanian and Jimmy Simak

It was the two American members of the crew, David and Jimmy. Despite the best efforts of the production team in London, it was not possible to get visas for the two Americans to travel through Libya. Swiss cameraman Claudio and the five British guys took the three bikes and two cars through Libya by road as planned while Dave and Jimmy flew to Cairo and rejoined the gang at the Egyptian border three days later.

While in Libya, the team visited the Leptis Magna Roman ruins and also experienced a severe sand storm.

Answer: Sudan

At the time of the trip (summer 2007), it was not possible to drive from Egypt to Sudan (although a road was under construction) so Ewan, Charley and the boys had to take a ferry from Aswan, across Lake Nasser to Wadi Halfa in Sudan. On their way across the lake, they passed Abu Simbel, two massive temples built into the rock in the 13th Century BC for Pharaoh Ramesis II.

The ferry only sailed once per week, so rather than miss it and wait another seven days, the team had to race through Egypt and while they did find time to visit the pyramids, they were not able to explore Cairo or Alexandria. Chad was not on the "Long Way Down" itinerary.

The boys did travel through both Ethiopia and Kenya and actually flew to Kenya from Aswan to make a quick visit to the Riders For Health charity (rather than visit it while they were riding through Kenya) before flying back again to catch the ferry.

Answer: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Everyone was a little frazzled by the time they reached Addis Ababa and watching on TV it did appear that they were all much more relaxed on the second leg of the journey. Addis Ababa means 'new flower' and not long after leaving Addis Ababa, Ewan and Charley stopped for a break at a flower plantation, whose owners had put up a sign saying 'Charley and Ewan coffee break', knowing that their plantation was on the only possible route for the "Long Way Down" to take through Ethopia to Kenya. The team crossed the border at Metema and had to spend a night camping in the customs compound because the border had closed for the day when they arrived. Ewan fell off his bike somewhere near Kombolcha. Sashemene is home to a large community of Rastafarians who believe that Ethiopian emperor Hale Selassie was a god.

Answer: Elephants

They saw all these animals at some point on the trip, but it was elephants that were feeding a mere 20 feet from Marsabit Lodge. After leaving Marsabit, the team stopped for fuel and the cars had to be filled by cans direct from a tanker because there was no electricity to power the pumps. If the tanker had not arrived when it did, the team would have had to spend another night at Marsabit, which Ewan would have quite liked.

Instead, they travelled on and spent the night with a tribe who were preparing for a ceremony to circumcise 70 of their boys and the village chief showed Charley and Ewan around his hut.

Answer: Crossed the Equator

At the Equator, Charley and Ewan looked on in wonder as a man called Jogo demonstrated how water drains clockwise in the northern hemisphere, but just a few feet away across the Equator and into the southern hemisphere the water drains anti-clockwise. The boys wanted to know what happened actually on the Equator and were shown that the water does not turn at all. The "Long Way Down" was supposed to spend ten days in Kenya, but due to being behind schedule, raced through the country in only four days.
The Fair Trade Coffee plantation that they visited was in Uganda shortly after crossing the border at Tororo on day 50 of the trip.
The Okavango Delta is in Botswana and somewhere around day 73 of the trip the whole team flew up there and saw hippo, wildebeest, elephant and kudu. Ewan got very close to an elephant but it smelled him and charged and trumpeted. So he hid behind a tree!
The race up Betty's Hill took place much later in the trip, just before they reached South Africa. Charley won.

Answer: UNICEF

Ewan McGregor became a UK ambassador for UNICEF (The United Nations Children's Fund) in 2004 and the boys supported the organisation on both their "Long Way Down" and "Long Way Round" trips. The UNICEF project that they visited in Uganda (a centre for the rehabilitation of child soldiers) had to be reached by plane as it was too dangerous to ride the bikes up there.

They also visited a UNICEF child care centre in Malawi and a UNICEF project at Zalambasa, near the Ethiopian border with Eritrea which was educating children about the danger of land mines.

Answer: Daddy

Not all the fixers appeared on camera but a few did. Daddy was the Rwandan fixer and he assisted the team in a fairly smooth border crossing after Chris, the Ugandan fixer, had taken them to the wrong crossing point. Daddy also talked on camera about the Rwandan genocide and gave his opinion on the country's president.
Nikos was the Kenyan fixer, Peter worked with them in Tanzania and Rick was their man in South Africa.

Answer: Gorillas

The team trekked to a height of approximately 3000 metres and spent an hour watching a group of gorillas. Everyone seemed to be deeply affected by this experience. Later, when the team arrived in Kigali, they met Rosette from Rwanda tourism who invited them to her brother's wedding reception where they met Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda.

They were invited to an audience with Paul Kagame, at his home the next day so Ewan, Charley, Dave and Russ all bought suits (and Russ and Ewan bought some rather strange shoes too). Later they visited the Genocide Museum at Kibuye where they saw clothes belonging to some of the 1000s killed in the 1994 genocide as well as broken skulls of the victims.

Answer: Dai

Dai was convinced that the hotel in Kigali had not returned his passport to him after his stay there and the border officials would not let him through without it. After two hours, Dai searched through his possessions and discovered the missing passport in the pocket of a pair of his trousers.

Answer: Malawi and Zambia

Eve McGregor learned to ride a motorcycle especially so that she could join Ewan for part of this trip and had been riding for only about eight months when she arrived in Malawi. She joined the gang 10,643 miles into their journey at Songwe, Malawi and travelled with them through both Malawi and Zambia. Episode six of "Long Way Down" has a great deal of footage of Eve falling off her bike, but she gamely got back on. Eve was rewarded for her troubles by, among other things, a stay in a lodge on the shores of Lake Nyasa, a visit to a tobacco auction at Lilongwe, a visit to a UNICEF project and a night camping in a village where she, Charley, Ewan and Claudio shared their evening meal with some of the village elders. Eve joked to the camera "They loved my cooking." At the end of the week, Eve flew home while everyone else continued across the border into Botswana.

The team did not visit Zimbabwe at all, although they could see it from the Victoria Falls bridge where Charley and Jimmy did a bungee jump.

Answer: Namibia

Namibia was the 17th country that "Long Way Down" travelled through. Their route was Scotland, England, France, Italy, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

Answer: Cape Agulhas

After starting the trip at the most northerly point of Great Britain, "Long Way Down" arrived at Cape Agulhas, the most southerly point in Africa where they were joined by a convoy of fellow bikers to ride the final few miles to Cape Town.
The Skeleton Coast as the name given to a stretch of coastline of southern Angola and northern Namibia and got its name from the bleached whale and seal bones that littered this coastline at the height of the whaling industry. "Long Way Down" visited the Skeleton Coast in Namibia toward the end of their journey. The cars and bikes had split up for a couple of days. The bikes camped near a tree not far from the Skeleton Coast while the cars arrived at the Skeleton Coast half a day early, tried to drive onto the beach and both got stuck in the sand.
Vioolsdrif is where the motorcyles crossed the border into South Africa. Port Elizabeth is on the opposite side of South Africa and was not part of the itinerary.

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