Long Way Down

There’s a program I’ve been watching through NetFlix called “Long Way Down.” Technically, it’s the spin-off for “Long Way Round” in which actors Ewan McGregor from Star Wars and Moulin Rouge! and Charley Boorman travel around the world from London to New York on BMW motorbikes. It was quite the adventure, and they decide to have another go in “Long Way Down” by traveling from John O’Groats, Scotland (the highest point in Scotland) to Cape Town, South Africa.

I watched “Long Way Round” with my sister Kate. We had a great time watching it. It showed up as a marathon on SPIKE TV and we basically sat in front of the television all day completely engrossed in the show as Ewan and Charley rode across Europe and into Russia and Mongolia, flew to Alaska, then drove down through Canada and over to New York City. It was amazing seeing all the different people and the different cultures.

I’ve been watching “Long Way Down” by myself and I’ve found it to have a much bigger impact on me than the first one. I think it’s because of the well-known tragedies of Africa. Ewan and Charley stop a lot of places on this trip that deal with their connection to the charity UNICEF and they talk about the HIV/AIDS issue in all of Africa. It’s been extremely moving and sometimes hard to watch these families in completely poverty. I just feel disgusted with myself with my big TV and my cozy bed watching it, just so ungrateful and useless. Also, all the amazing animals they’ve been seeing in the wild. No fences, no barriers, no fake rocks painted to look like Africa. Real elephants and zebras and giraffes and all these amazing gigantic animals that we just don’t have in the United States. We have bears and a few big cats (most of them being endangered or extinct anyway) but nothing like what Africa has with these behemoth land animals. It makes me feel so small and insignificant. I also feel like anything I’ve ever done, whatever adventure I’ve had is nothing compared to what they did.

In the episode I just watched, Ewan’s wife Eve (pronounced Ev) showed up for a small part of the journey. It was touching to see the two of them interacting with each other and how excited they were for the other as they got to share the trip together. Also, Charley and one of the cameramen went bungee jumping over Victoria Falls. Now, one of my worst fears is heights! I can’t stand heights! And here they were as if it were nothing at all… jumping over this ridiculously tall bridge and trusting your average rope to make sure they didn’t fall to their deaths. Then, the cameraman gets on the screen and says that it’s what he’s most afraid of but he’s doing it anyway!

I was speechless! I literally sat forward in my bed with my hands over my mouth watching them fall over the bridge and plunging into nothingness for what seemed like forever. And when they started swinging at the end of the rope, I actually felt tears pricking the corners of my eyes. I don’t know why really, I just thought it was so amazing and I wished more than anything I could do the same. I probably never will… my fear is quite strong… but I just had the overwhelming urge to go find a large bridge and bungee jump!

But more than anything, I wanted Stuart to be there with me as I watched the show. I wanted him to be there and experience that with me, to feel what I was feeling or to create his own feelings by what I was watching. I don’t know… maybe he would find the whole thing silly and would have laughed to which I would have gotten very angry at him. But, I don’t think he would have. I just wanted him to be there whatever his reaction might be. I wanted to tell him all about my feelings in that moment and how I suddenly wanted to bungee jump and how I wanted to stay at the little inn on this massive freshwater lake in the middle of Malawi and see all the different animals in a Jeep and visit with these amazing people they were meeting.

But he’s at work… in Raleigh… and he’ll be at work for a long time… I can’t even text him…

That is what’s so hard about this whole thing. No matter how millionaire-wannabes create a new social networking website, no matter how many blog posts I create, how many text messages I send, how many hours we Skype, or how many times Facebook changes its Chat feature… there are some things you can only experience together in person, there are some thoughts you can only tell each other face-to-face. And being apart in a long distance relationship, you miss out on a lot of memories you would have had if you were together. 

At Ma's wedding