Newest Long Way mini-series streaming on AppleTV+ this September

Last month, we reported that the newest entry in the Long Way series, “Long Way Up”, will head straight to Apple TV+. It was a complete detour from the previous two installments, the Long Way Round and Long Way Down, which aired on BBC and National Geographic on cable TV, as well as being available in DVD.

Yesterday, it was announced that the first three episodes of the new series will be premiering globally on Apple TV+ on September 18, 2020, with new episodes streaming every week thereafter.

The new Long Way series was 12 years in the making since its last installment. The new show will see the main presentors, Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor, ride through South America, this time, onboard electric motorcycles, Harley-Davidson Livewires. This, too, is a departure from the BMW GS Adventure bikes they’ve used in their previous exploits in Eurasia, USA, and Africa.

Their new adventure is probably the first series to document transcontinental travel onboard electric motorcycles. While the motorcycles are already on sale, by today’s adventure-riding standards, using electric motorcycles is completely unheard of. After all, the biggest issue is charging.

To help them complete their latest adventure that started last September 2019 in Ushuaia, they brought along a small expedition team composed of 2 Rivian R1T electric pickup trucks, 4 camera chase motorcycles (that run on petrol), a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Van, a Ford F-350 pickup truck that carried the quick chargers and backup batteries for the motorcycles and the R1T; and an entourage of 40 or so motorcycle riders (by invitation only) from the different localities they visited.

Charlie Boorman commented that charging the Livewire motorcycles wasn't too bad at all. They often plugged them into local sockets. In areas that were off-the-grid, they only used good 'ole fashioned generators to power the quick chargers for the pickups and motorcycles.

The Long Way Up started in Ushuaia, which is the southernmost tip of Argentina in South America. In this region, most of the roads they passed were underdeveloped. The roads got progressively better the closer they got to the USA. Still, it's no simple task as the journey entails an intimidating 12,000 kilometers (more or less) to reach Los Angeles, California.

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