Charley Boorman · 2008 · global

Boorman without the motorbike. From his father's house in Wicklow to Sydney Harbour in three and a half months, twenty-five countries and twenty thousand miles, using a hundred and twelve modes of transport and a commercial airliner only when there was genuinely no other way - container ships, dugout canoes, a solar car and an elephant.

1. 1
   Wicklow

   12 April 2008, from John Boorman's house on the Irish coast - the rule being no commercial flights if it can be helped, and as many different ways of moving as the route will supply.

2. 2
   Isle of Man

   Motorbikes up to Kilkeel and then across the Irish Sea in a fishing boat - the first of the hundred and twelve, and the moment the premise stops being a gimmick and starts being the whole shape of the trip.

3. 3
   Liverpool

   Ferry into England, and down through France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy by whatever presents itself - trains, classic cars, canal boats, and a crew of three doing the work a full production team did on the bike trips.

4. 4
   Venice

   Gondolas, because the rule demands it - and then east into the Balkans through Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria on roads that were the overland route to Asia long before anybody filmed it.

5. 5
   Istanbul

   Turkey and the crossing into Asia, then Georgia and Azerbaijan and a passage over the Black Sea - the stretch where the trip leaves European infrastructure behind and starts improvising in earnest.

6. 6
   Tehran

   Iran, and then the Gulf and the United Arab Emirates - a country that turns out to be the friendliest on the route, which is the sort of thing the format exists to discover.

7. 7
   Mumbai

   India by every conveyance the subcontinent offers, including an elephant - and the section where the hundred-and-twelve count starts climbing fastest, because India has more ways to move than anywhere else on earth.

8. 8
   Kathmandu

   North to Nepal and the Himalaya, and then the failure the book is honest about: Burma refuses them entry, and they have to take a commercial flight into China to get round it.

9. 9
   Bangkok

   Down through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand by bus, boat and tuk-tuk - the easy stretch, and the one where the crew finally stop worrying about whether the next border will let them through.

10. 10
    Singapore

    Malaysia and the strait, and then the long island-hopping run through Indonesia by ferry and fishing boat - which is where the no-flying rule costs them the most time and gets them the best material.

11. 11
    Bali

    Across the archipelago toward Australia, and the last of the sea passages - and by now Boorman has been travelling for three months without once being in charge of the vehicle.

12. 12
    Sydney

    Sydney Harbour in July 2008, twenty thousand miles and a hundred and twelve modes later - and a sequel already forming, which took him on up the Pacific Rim to Tokyo the following year.