Ewan McGregor to ride through Namibia

BRITISH actor Ewan McGregor has embarked on a monumental motorcycle journey from Scotland to Cape Town, which will pass through Namibia, in a bid to raise money for charity.

The ‘Star Wars’ star has already arrived in Italy with friend Charley Boorman on the first leg of their trip, dubbed ‘Long Way Down’. The pair completed a similar adventure in 2004 from Scotland to New York via Europe and Asia, which was made into the BBC documentary ‘Long Way Round’, televised in Namibia on the BBC Prime channel.McGregor and Boorman hope to raise funds for Unicef, the Children’s Hospice Association in Scotland and the charity Riders For Health – which supports motorcycle-riding health workers in Africa.The 24 000-kilometre trip, expected to last three months, will take the daring duo through 20 countries, including Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa.”There’s a huge amount we’re really looking forward to,” Boorman says on the BBC website.”The pyramids, obviously, the Nile, and Ethiopia, which many people say is the birthplace of mankind, so that should be amazing.Then there’s the mighty Okavango Delta wetlands, the Bushmen in Namibia, I could go on forever.”McGregor and Boorman plan to visit several Unicef projects as they work their way south – in Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia.Much of the riding will be off-road, as was the case with ‘Long Way Round’.”We’re thinking Sudan and Ethiopia will be the toughest going.In Namibia you can have as much off-road as you want and nearly all of Tanzania is a dirt road.In fact, in a lot of the countries most of the time it’ll be dirt roads, and we’re perfectly happy with that,” says Boorman, who has been competing off-road for years.The pair completed a similar adventure in 2004 from Scotland to New York via Europe and Asia, which was made into the BBC documentary ‘Long Way Round’, televised in Namibia on the BBC Prime channel.McGregor and Boorman hope to raise funds for Unicef, the Children’s Hospice Association in Scotland and the charity Riders For Health – which supports motorcycle-riding health workers in Africa.The 24 000-kilometre trip, expected to last three months, will take the daring duo through 20 countries, including Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa.”There’s a huge amount we’re really looking forward to,” Boorman says on the BBC website.”The pyramids, obviously, the Nile, and Ethiopia, which many people say is the birthplace of mankind, so that should be amazing.Then there’s the mighty Okavango Delta wetlands, the Bushmen in Namibia, I could go on forever.” McGregor and Boorman plan to visit several Unicef projects as they work their way south – in Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia.Much of the riding will be off-road, as was the case with ‘Long Way Round’.”We’re thinking Sudan and Ethiopia will be the toughest going.In Namibia you can have as much off-road as you want and nearly all of Tanzania is a dirt road.In fact, in a lot of the countries most of the time it’ll be dirt roads, and we’re perfectly happy with that,” says Boorman, who has been competing off-road for years.