In The Ride: Alaska to Patagonia, Kevin and Julia Sanders lead 11 British riders from the top of Alaska to the bottom of South America on a lively two-wheeled adventure.
Traveling the world on two wheels is nothing new for Kevin and Julia Sanders. The British husband and wife duo are two-time Guinness World Record Holders for their round-the-world escapades. In
The Ride: Alaska to Patagonia, however, the Sanders decide to try something different by bringing 11 fellow Britons along for the ride. The result is one of the more entertaining motorcycle documentaries available, as the expedition journeys from the top of Alaska to the bottom of South America on a lively two-wheeled adventure.
The Ride originally aired as a six-episode series on the National Geographic Channel - Nat Geo if you want to be cool. Those expecting a full-length movie will have to use their fast forward to skip the intros and recaps that precede every episode, but that's about the only complaint we can lodge. Similar to the much-ballyhooed
Long Way Round,
The Ride captures the highs and lows of such a daunting expedition, drawing the viewer into the journey.
And you will become interested in the journey. Cinematography is well done, with the documentary-style format allowing the trip to take precedence over the riders. It's an interesting travel log. Riding through 12 countries, the opening episodes are intriguing, if only to see British folks experience the vast wilderness and beauty of North America. The route through Central and South America is where things get really interesting.
The Ride isn't a lovey dovey escapade with riders sipping champagne and getting massages at chic resorts. Far from it. Once the crew crosses into Central America, the drama gets torqued up big time. The less hairy moments involve cases of food poisoning and Montezuma's revenge, which would be god awful if you had to put in long days in the saddle. One particularly funny moment is when the group wanders through an outdoor market shopping, everyone complaining about the awful smell from the meat section. Everyone, that is, except the rider who decides to eat some cold chicken and potato salad. I almost got diarrhea just looking at the fellow's face once his guts started rumbling... Now that's good TV!
The plot twists ratchet up when one rider (the cold chicken and potato salad guy) discovers via telephone that, while he may have started the 18,000-mile journey married, he got divorced somewhere between Mexico and Panama. There are also several serious get-offs along the way, including one shattered femur in Alaska and a broken wrist in Central America. No crash is more serious, however, than a rider who hits a concrete pillar and pedestrian during thick Peruvian traffic, with both men severely injured and hospitalized.
The Ride delivers some true, unscripted drama, a welcome breath of fresh air from the so-called "reality tv" dreck infecting American airwaves nowadays.
Kevin and Julia manage to keep the expedition running despite the adversity, thanks in large part to the assistance of a support vehicle driven by the "Van Man." The support vehicle driver is a real cut-up and delivers some comic relief for those dreary moments.
Most of the riders come across as lively personalities in the film. There's the father/son duo, the two 30-something bucks out to burn rubber, a pair of wise elders pushing the 70-year mark, just to name a few. Everyone is likable, real and unafraid to expose themselves on camera, both literally and figuratively. What do I mean by that? Well, let's just say I used to think that America's repressive puritanical attitude toward nudity was a bad thing, but then you see a flock of pasty, middle-aged British men diving into the ocean nude, without reservation and on more than one occasion during the 150-minute DVD... It changes your perspective somewhat.
The Globe Busters crew was on hand when we visited the 2007 BMW Motorrad Days in Germany, where the Sanders were planning upcoming world travel tours in North and South America, as well as Africa.
We met Sanders at the
2007 BMW Motorrad Days (before we'd seen him naked on TV), where we scammed a review copy. Our only complaint is that it took us too long to sit down one evening and toss it in the DVD player. Make sure to check out
The Ride.
If the DVD gives you a hankering for a heavy dose of adventure-touring in real life, make sure to visit the Sanders' site
www.globebusters.com. The duo continue to run world tours through North and South America, as well as Africa.
Product: The Ride: Alaska to Patagonia
MSRP: £17.99
Buy It Now: The Ride: Alaska to Patagonia
More Information: www.theridealaskatopatagonia.com
