Long Way Up (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Ushuaia - full transcript

♪ Got sun on my face ♪

♪ Sleeping rough on the road ♪

♪ I'll tell you all about it ♪

♪ When I get home ♪

♪ Gonna roll up the sidewalk ♪

♪ Gonna need letting up ♪

♪ Comin' round to meet you ♪

♪ The long way up ♪

[Ewan] We're gonna ride 13,000 miles
through 13 countries.

From Ushuaia, in and out of Argentina
and Chile, to the Atacama Desert,

heading up to La Paz
before we cross Lake Titicaca,



continuing along the Andes to Colombia,
over to Panama,

through Central America and Mexico,
arriving in Los Angeles 100 days later.

We're gonna give these guys video cameras,

and they're also gonna have cameras
with microphones on their crash helmets

so they can film themselves
as they're riding along.

[Ewan] Is this a road? Oh, my God!

[David] A third motorcycle
will travel with them,

and on it will be Claudio, our cameraman.

In addition, Russ and I will travel
in two electric pickup trucks,

along with cameramen Jimmy,

Anthony and Taylor,
who will also help with logistics.

We'll be filming the guys
from the vehicles,

linking up with them at borders,

but otherwise,
the motorcycles will be on their own.



- It doesn't look warm.
- Doesn't look very warm.

They've all got snowboards.

But as we came in, all the snow was,
like, more than halfway up the mountain.

And all the roads are down in the valleys.

So, I don't think
there was snow lower than...

- Right.
- ...the top third of the mountains.

Oh, yeah.
There's literally snow out there.

Or is it just white concrete?

[both] No, it's white concrete.

- Yeah, don't... [stammers]
- Okay, I'm not... I'm not paranoid.

I'm not panicking.
I'm not panicking. I'm calm. I'm calm.

This is the hard bit, getting this trolley
to the car, not getting the bike to LA.

- Oh, look. There's a Rivian. Quiet.
- Oh, it's so quiet. Nice.

[David] It's a miracle
these cars are here,

considering they were
only being put together last week.

[man] How's it going?
How was the flight in?

- All right, mate. How are you?
- Fantastic.

[Ewan] Oh, my God.
You got some tech in here.

It was great to see
and get a ride in the... the Rivians.

It was nice to see how excited
David was with the cars

and how amazing those guys are
that put those cars together

sort of super quick for us.

[David] No one has ever
driven one of these before.

This is a total prototype.

Rivian built these two electric trucks
especially for this trip.

We going in with you, Dave?

He does not want to be filmed
because it's his first time.

[David] Do I move immediately
or do I have to hit the brake?

- You have to hit the brake.
- All cameras all the time.

[David] Okay, so brake and hold it.

- [Ewan] Talk to me. What are you thinking?
- I'm losing my Riv-ginity right now.

- [all laughing]
- Can you believe it?

So what were you saying, Bhush?
This is the truth.

This is the very first car of Rivian.
VIN number 000001.

And I am glad to be picked up
in Rivian that I built...

- [Ewan laughing]
- ...four days ago. [chuckles]

- [Ewan] Park, reverse, neutral and drive.
- [David] What is this?

- [Ewan] We're here! [laughs]
- [Charley laughs]

- Let's warm up the tires.
- [horn honks]

- Oh, who's that?
- [Ewan] Was that you?

- No.
- [Charley] Yes, I think it was.

- [man] It was.
- I didn't touch the horn.

[Bhushan]
The horn is near your right knee. So...

[all laughing]

- Oh, it's right here.
- [Ewan] The horn's on your knee?

- [Bhushan] Yeah.
- [horn honks]

- [Ewan] That's awesome.
- [all laugh]

[Ewan] This heavy snow
is not what we were hoping for.

[dog barks]

[Charley] We've come down
at the end of winter,

and then it's just dumped.

Oh, man. That's ice.

[Charley] And we're in a predicament now

where we're not even sure
if it's safe enough to ride the bikes.

And it makes Max, our local producer,
really nervous about starting the trip.

I guess I don't even think
that they really know...

what they're gonna face
with the performance,

especially the wind against.

I mean, there's some stories
of cars flipping with the winds.

And perhaps they haven't realized that
the wind can be against you all the time.

So the performance of these bikes,
plus, I don't know,

the type of roads,
ice, snow, cold, altitude

could make the whole game different,
right?

Yeah.

- [Ewan laughs] My dad yesterday.
- [David] What did he say?

"Well, you might have looked at the...

You might have looked at the weather
before you went down there."

- [David chuckles] We did look!
- I just started lying to him.

I went, "Yeah, we looked.
It was spring, and it is spring here.

It was just a freak snowstorm."
Lying, just lying.

'Cause I felt, "He's right.
Should've looked at the weather."

[Ewan] So many people do this trip,

you know, from north to south
and they end here.

And it's like, uh,
they talk about this funny town

that they get to the end of the journey
and they're here, you know.

You walk around. It's an odd little place.
It's cool, though.

You don't happen upon this place
by chance.

You know what I mean? You're not...
You don't bump into Ushuaia by accident.

So it's got a funny, interesting vibe
about it, which I really like.

We're super excited to see the bikes,

which, like the Rivians, have been shipped
thousands of miles to meet us.

[Ewan] Dos, tres.

[Ewan] Cool, they're brilliant.

Well, here we are in South America.
Unbelievable.

[Charley] Thank you, by the way,
for all that effort.

- It's been quite a journey.
- It's been a journey.

- They left Milwaukee on, uh...
- [Charley exhales]

- ...a week ago Wednesday.
- Wow.

Oh, my God! It's so great, isn't it?

It's so nice to be working on something.

I think that's good.

We are in Ushuaia. Ooh, yeah. First time.

It's taken me about three weeks
to be able to say Ushuaia properly.

- [Charley] Winging the other one over.
- [Ewan] This is it.

- [Ewan] Oh! All right.
- [Charley chuckles]

- She's alive.
- [Rachel] Okay.

[Ewan] Watch the paint.

[Ewan] Okay. [grunts]

Oh, they make it look so easy
on television, don't they?

If you're trying this at home, uh,
what I would recommend to do [chuckles]...

...is walk away, have a cup of tea,
and then sneak up on it...

[man chuckles]

...when it's not expecting it,
and then get it on.

If the bike doesn't know you're coming,
it will go on much easier.

- So I took, Ewan... these come off.
- Oh, you have to take that out.

- We did this just for shipping.
- Okay, That's why I'm...

- Yeah, yeah.
- That's why.

I was thinking, "Am I stupid here?"

Nobody answered that question.
No, it was very quiet.

This Sprinter's cutting edge and is gonna
help carry some of the filming gear.

- It's so cool, man.
- It's just amazing.

Watching the solar panels come out.
Oh, my God. That is amazing.

I'm positioning my bell.

This is a good luck bell
that we were given

by the chief designer for Harley-Davidson
in, uh, Milwaukee.

It's to dispel the road demons, you know.

The road nasty demons.
But I wanna put it under here.

- [Ewan] Okay, let's make a little wager.
- [Charley] What? Who's gonna break this?

Now, how many days riding will it be
until this indicator is hanging down?

How long will it take me
to break an indicator?

- What do you think?
- I'm gonna say...

- an hour. [laughs]
- [Ewan laughs]

- [Charley] Looks good, Ewan.
- I've seen them all my life.

Couriers in London, you know?

[Charley] I'll tell you what.
With that snow outside, you know...

Oh, I'm gonna be so thankful.
[inhales] That was my idea.

- [Charley] I...
- [David laughs]

[Ewan] Just want that to go on the record.

So every day
when your hands are nice and warm

- you can say, "Aw, Ewan."
- Aw, I love you, Ewan.

"Mate, thanks for that.
Thanks for the warmer idea."

- [Charley] Thank you.
- [Ewan] The bikes look great.

So we're gonna celebrate with a meal
Argentina is famous for, asado.

[both laughing deeply]

[sizzles]

- [waiter] Here we go, men.
- [Ewan] Oh, my God.

- [Charley] Mm.
- [waiter] There you go.

You have the lamb here,
a little bit of each part of the animal.

- Wow. Okay. I'm just going in, Charley.
- Go in.

Wow. Melting in your mouth.

Some sauces, typical sauces.
The green one is chimichurri.

- Okay. All right.
- Exactly. Yeah.

And the other one
is a mix of onions and peppers.

Bon appétit.

Did he say chili?

- [stammers] Chimi chimi churri churri.
- Churri chili. Chimi churrie.

Did Charley tell you he was runner-up
in Celebrity Master Chef?

- Oh, yeah.
- And he did the Dakar Rally.

[chuckling] Oh, yes, I did.

[Ewan] We're gonna talk to Rachel
about charging.

The bikes need a level-one charge,
the basic charge off a household plug,

to really make the trip work.

Oh, God, it's snowing again. That's great.

[dog barks]

"Salon de Eventos."
Sounds like us, doesn't it?

[Charley] That sounds like us.

[Rachel] So these bikes,
we have multiple connectors.

Turn this on. Charger in there.
And so it's going to a level three.

So we have two of these,
so one for each bike.

But when we... When we don't have...

When we're not with you guys,
and we don't have the box.

This is gonna go with you.

[Charley] We can't lug this thing
all the way to Los Angeles.

It's gonna be impossible to put it
on the back of the bike.

For us, just... just to be transparent,
if we can't...

If we don't have level one,
then the bikes don't suit us for the trip.

You know, we were coming here in the taxi,
having a bit of a giggle and a laugh,

and, you know, having a nice afternoon.

And we were gonna test the bikes
this afternoon.

But, you know, they were...
They had other things...

They needed to do stuff
and get things done.

And so we came over here.

And in the classic kind of sort of,
you know...

let's not worry anybody [chuckles]
by not saying anything to anybody.

The whole idea of choosing to go electric
was so difficult for us

because we wanted to preserve
the experience of the trip

without it becoming only about charging
the motorbike and the cars.

But we decided to push ahead because
we thought, well, we'd have options and...

Yeah, we always knew we'd mainly
be charging from people's houses,

or cafés or, you know,
just plugging into a wall somewhere.

That was the main way
we were gonna charge,

with the opportunity to fast charge from
these stage-two chargers now and again.

But if that doesn't work,
if the stage one doesn't work...

on these bikes, we can't do the trip
on those bikes. I mean, we can't.

Today it just got a little nutty
because, you know,

Harley doesn't wanna say,
and I understand why...

They haven't done proper testing.

They don't wanna say that
level-one charging is 100% reliable yet.

It's too early.

They haven't started
selling these bikes yet.

So, [stammers] I know, I mean...

I know Charley and Ewan are both...
They're concerned anyway.

Even if they were going on, you know,
petrol or gasoline bikes

they'd be concerned just because
of the nature of a trip like this.

But there are just so many variables here,
you know. Everything is a prototype.

The team is trying to put it together,

but maybe it's just too early
to pull this off.

I can't sleep.

I'm having all these,
like, second thoughts.

Like, maybe we should've
gone with conventional bikes.

It would be so disappointing
if we couldn't make the electric.

[sighs]

[whispers] Three twenty-two now.
Still can't sleep.

The guy next door is snoring like a...
Listen.

- [man snoring]
- [whispers] You can hear him.

In the middle of the night,

things just go around your brain,
don't they?

They just roll around.

What if the bikes don't work?
What if we can't charge the bikes?

What if it snows tomorrow? Ugh.
Just wanna go to sleep.

[Ewan]
Things could be going our way today.

Harley might have a solution.

There's one little part
of the Harley's charging system

that they want to replace,
just to make it more robust.

But it's not here in Ushuaia,
so we've got to wait for that part.

[David]
It's like the key to the motorcycle.

It makes no sense, I know,
but it's this little piece...

It's an upgrade to the bike
to allow it to charge, right?

These are electric motorcycles,
as you know.

And without this little piece,
we can't start the trip.

And the guys
are starting to lose their minds.

[Ewan] Can you see me now?

[Charley] I think it's old guys
with modern technology,

but it does feel quite heavy.

- [Ewan] It is heavy, yeah.
- Yeah, it does feel very heavy.

[Ewan] You just have to take
that teaspoon full of, um, cement...

- Ah, that's what she said.
- ...and harden up.

[Charley] Held up another day.
So we're gonna go check out the town.

I bet they're gonna have things
that keep you warm.

They're not gonna
do any shorts here, are they?

[Ewan laughs]

- [Ewan] That's a nice color.
- I've not got a hat color.

I'm not a hat man. You know what I mean?

And I've got a short neck.

- You can get this one with diamantés.
- Ooh!

[Ewan] Let's see. That's quite good.

- That gray good?
- Yeah. That's a nice color on you.

Brings out your eyes. Let's see your eyes.

Ooh, wow. Look at those steely blues.

I've noticed this the other day.

- Cake shop. Look. [indistinct]
- What are those called? Chimichurris?

- [Charley] Uh, chi... chimichurris, yeah.
- Um...

Chimichurri, yeah.

But isn't [stammers] the sauce you put
on a meat called chimichurri as well?

Oh! No, they're not chimichurri.
These are those things...

- You get them in Mexico as well.
- Churi-chimmies.

Chewy churi-chimie.

[Charley chuckles] I think...
I think they're called churros.

- [Ewan] Doughnuts in a line.
- Yeah.

[Ewan] Let's head back.
Rachel's got something to show us.

Last night, we got the level-one parts
and we tested them.

Everything went spectacularly.

First thing we did
was test using the juice box.

It's a level-one AC charge for us.
Good news is, it works.

- [Charley] Oh, well done.
- [Ewan] Thank you.

- Thank you for everything you've done.
- My gosh. You've done an amazing job.

- [Ewan] Yeah, thank you very much.
- [Rachel] Thank you.

[Ewan] We've got different options
for charging.

We can charge the bikes in a fast charger,

and there are some being put
in along our route,

which will remain there as a
sort of Long Way Up legacy, if you like.

The sort of, um,
crises of the charging system on the bike,

I think it's lessened today.

I feel a bit embarrassed,
to be honest, that, um...

I made such a, sort of...

I have to be calm in these situations,

and I feel like yesterday I was
a bit not calm in that situation, and...

I think a lot of our, um, anxieties
are just being driven by the fact

that it's a bit of the unknown, you know?

I want to start the journey.
I want to get cracking now.

[Ewan] We're in Ushuaia here,

and we have to ride
to the end of the road.

There's a car park, which is where
most people who are going north to south

end their journey.
It's the end of the road, really.

And by lunch time, by midday,

we're gonna push off and, uh,
get this trip started. Whoo-hoo!

Happy as Larry.

I don't know who Larry is
or why he's happy. I have no idea.

But in Britain, that's... When we're happy,
we're happy as Larry.

Give him a mission. He loves it, you know?

I think we might actually be heading out.

[chuckles] We might actually
turn a wheel on this bike.

[David] Bhush, push.

You're mobile.
You're the first person mobile.

- Can you hear me, Ewan?
- Yep, I can hear you.

[Charley] Okay. Brilliant.

My kids gave me this before I left.
Jamyan and Anouk. That's for good luck.

The great thing about having to deal
with all of the other things

is you never have to think
about the thing you have to do.

So, like, five... five minutes ago,
I was like, "Oh, holy shit.

You also have to drive
the very first Rivian

that's ever been made."

[Charley] Okay.

[Ewan] It feels good to be moving.

[Charley] Oh, God, it does.
I feel very, as you say...

Oh, this feels very squirmy at the moment.

[Ewan] We went down to the very bottom
of the road in Tierra del Fuego,

we drove southwest
and we went all the way to the car park.

And the car park that I've seen
so many times in blogs and trip logs

of people who have done
this Pan-American Highway

from Alaska to South America
and who have done it north to south.

That's the car park
where they end their trip.

- How's my... How's my hair look?
- [Claudio chuckles]

Where is makeup and hair, by the way?

- [man] Here we go.
- [Ewan laughs]

It's a bit like we've made it
to the end of the trip.

It feels like a celebration.

But we actually just made it
to the beginning of the trip.

[Charley] So, Ewan, so we've got, um...

- We've got like 15,000 miles to go.
- Yeah.

And, uh...

Well, I feel like
we've sort of achieved it, you know.

We got down here.
We rode to the end of the road.

- I'm good. So good luck.
- Okay. Thank you.

And I'll see you back up there.
I'll get the kettle on.

- Oh, see you in LA. Okay. Bye.
- Okay, cheers.

[Charley chuckles]

[Charley] This is the proper start.

So we're in the bottom
of the world where...

Look at all the kids. Look.

- [girl] Good luck!
- [Charley] Hi!

- [children chattering]
- [Charley chuckles]

[Charley and Ewan chuckle]

- [Ewan grunts]
- That's hilarious, isn't it?

It feels like we've achieved something
by getting here.

But, um... And we have.

Because it's quite difficult
to get down here.

We've been waiting three
or four days, but... Yeah.

- But now we gotta do the trip.
- [woman] Si.

- Good luck, my good friend.
- You too, Charley. Good luck.

I couldn't be happier than to be doing
another one with you. It's great.

- [Charley] Aw. I know.
- I just think it's great.

Here we go, mate.

- [Charley] Okay, here we go. Oh, yeah.
- Unless you wanna do a little handshake.

[Charley] Oh, yeah. Uh, oh. Well...

- [Ewan] Oh.
- [Charley laughs]

- [Ewan] I was gonna stop.
- [Charley, indistinct]

- [Charley] I love you, my good friend.
- I love you too, babe. Let's go.

- [Charley] Okay.
- Let's do it.

- [engine whirring]
- [Charley sighs]

[Ewan] Got the visor open.
That beautiful fresh air in my face.

- [Charley] Yeah, it's lovely.
- Feels so good to be moving away.

Well, this is us on the road, Charley.
This is us on the way, man.

[Charley] I know. My God.

All those months
of sort of thinking about it and...

- [Ewan] Yeah.
- ...wondering what it would be like and...

- [Ewan] Yeah, here we are.
- And here we are.

[Ewan] It's like an enchanting start from
the very beginning, um, of the journey.

Surrounded by snowy mountains,

and little sea inlets
and beautiful forests.

It couldn't have been
more enchanting, really.

It was absolutely beautiful.

[Ewan] That mountain ahead is like from
the Alpen cereal package. Remember that?

- [Charley] Oh, God, yeah.
- Looks like that.

[Charley] Jesus. Look at that. Alpen.

[Ewan] Well, here we are.
We're on the way. We're out of Ushuaia.

We're on the road, the open road.
We're climbing up and up.

[Charley] The mountains are
just extraordinary. Just extraordinary.

We're on an island,
which makes it even more interesting.

[Ewan]
It's cold, but it's pretty beautiful.

And the road feels good under the bike.
And I'm just full of...

the joys of being on the trip at last
and having broken away.

And the scenery is spectacular.
Oh, my God.

[Charley] I felt really, like,
such excitement today and it was awesome.

And then we got this new cabling system,

which looks like it's gonna be
much easier for us.

So we've got real possibilities now.
Real possibilities.

[Ewan] Well, it looks pretty amazing

that we start the journey
with all this snow around.

- I mean, it's crazy.
- The places that we end up, eh?

- [Ewan] I know.
- You know?

[Ewan] I'm just thinking I've never been
somewhere on my motorbike

where people are skiing before.

[Charley] Wow.
What a beautiful part of the world.

[Ewan] It really is gorgeous, isn't it?

It's so funny.

I'm just looking at you in this landscape
on the back of your bike. [chuckles]

- Just like old times, Charley.
- [Charley chuckles]

[Ewan]
I mean, we've never charged these bikes.

- Not ever, Charley.
- No, never.

[Charley] And we don't even know
if they're gonna work.

- [Charley] All right, look at that.
- [Ewan] It does look awesome.

Look at that.

[Charley] Hope that this works.

- [Ewan] Bikes off.
- [chuckling] This is the first one.

- The first one, man.
- [Charley chuckles]

[Charley] That's amazing, isn't it?

Is that we're gonna, you know...
Oh, look at that bread lady there...

- [Ewan] Wow.
- [Claudio] Ooh.

It's that little, um...
It looks like a Cornish pasty.

Sorry, I just got lost with the food.
I must be hungry.

[Ewan] Do you think we just plug in,
or we have to ask someone or what?

- Do you just think we do it?
- [Charley] Think we should do it.

Let's just see if everything is, uh...

everything is up.

Huh. Those are down.
Those should be up as well.

Well, let's see. Fingers crossed.

- [Ewan] It's going up. Look. It's working.
- [Charley] It's working.

"Estimated time to full."

[Ewan] Oh, here, look.
Six hours and 56 minutes to full.

- [Charley] Oh, to full.
- [Ewan] Well, that's all right.

- [man, indistinct]
- [Ewan] How are you? Good to see you.

- [Ewan] Claudio.
- That's Claudio.

- Claudio.
- [Claudio chuckles]

- Oh, Claudio as well.
- [all laugh]

- Your father started the bakery?
- Yeah, my father alone.

He came from...
From Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires.

I give the idea to my father to put this
in this new world that it's coming.

Healthy things
to the [speaks Spanish], to the...

- [Charley] To the planet, yeah.
- To the planet.

- We need to make something.
- We need to change.

We need to change it.

- Ah, yes. Yes, yes. Terrific idea, yes.
- I want, I... Terrific idea.

So do you think maybe
it's the first time...

- It's the first time it's been used? Ah.
- Yes. Yes.

- [Ewan] Oh, yeah.
- So this is vegetarian.

And that is...

baked chicken.

And that is fried chicken.

Meat oven. Pretty cool.
Isn't that amazing?

I mean, it really helps you out
if you're a foreigner like us.

Ladies.

- [Charley] Hola. [chuckles]
- Hola.

[Ewan whistles]

Just wish we knew more Spanish.

It's, like, very clear that
that's gonna be an issue.

But I have been dreaming of a hot coffee
for quite a long time. It's quite cold.

- Like, we did 50 miles. Pretty cold.
- [Claudio] Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, that's the cheese one. Mm. Mm, okay.

Every time we go charge,
we want to put a little sticker.

- This is the name of our show.
- [Franco] Like...

- [Charley chuckles]
- [Franco] Okay.

[Charley] Here we are on our way to Chile.

Um, we've got the border crossing,
uh, just to come.

[Ewan] And this landscape today
has been really flat and open.

And we've been lucky
that we didn't get the winds,

'cause apparently it's very, very often
that it's very windy.

But it wasn't for us today.
And it's just freezing cold. That's all.

But we're all bundled up
as best we can be.

- [Russ] This is how we pack.
- [Jimmy grunts]

We're in Argentina.
We're in, you know, an archipelago, right?

There's a series of islands down here

and we're hopscotching
from Argentina into Chile.

Then we'll come back
into Argentina soon enough.

But we're heading to, uh,
a town called Punta Arenas.

Look, we got two plugs here. So...

We could get them through the window.

[sniffs] That should do the trick.
Un momento.

Here we go.

Argentina with Chile,
our first border crossing.

I'm gonna switch my baby off.

- [Charley] Good to see ya. Good.
- [Russ] How are you?

- [stammers] How are your toes?
- You all right?

Yeah, fine. I'm all right, actually.

[Ewan] Cool.

All right. Let's go, then, to Chile.

Do you have a passport?

Is that a Chilean cat
or an Argentinian cat?

- [laughs]
- [Charley laughs]

Stamp my card now, stamping Ewan McGregor.

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

- How many more times...
- Four.

...will we go in and out... Really?

- [woman] Yeah.
- Yes.

[David] We're going to enter Chile
four more times?

- [David] That can't be possible. No.
- No. We are going to enter Chile...

- [David] Twice.
- We are entering Chile now, one.

We're exiting Chile.

So we will meet him at the border again
when you enter in Argentina.

- That's what I was counting.
- [David] I understand.

Then we will get out and get in.
Yeah. Two more entering to Chile.

- And we have to see Claudio each time?
- [Nati] Couple more.

- Can't get through to Superman...
- The true hero.

...can't get through to Batman,
you call Claudio.

[Nati] Let's go, Claudio.

- I know, it's really nice. Very nice.
- [man] Si. Big one.

It's got a very, uh... There you go.

And apparently you have to pass it
on the left. Sure. Oh...

[Ewan] Oh, yeah. Look at that.

This comes from the Misiones province.

[Ewan] Gracias. Oh, yeah.

From Misiones, on the Brazilian border.

Over there we drink a lot of maté tea.

[Ewan speaking Spanish] En Brazil?

Yes. Lots of maté.

You put in the leaves,
pour hot water and then you drink it.

It's a symbol of friendship.

[Ewan] Gracias.

Up here, along this road,
is, um, a gravel road.

And we've been on concrete roads so far,
tarmac roads...

all the while.

And, uh, now we're about to go
onto gravel roads for the first time.

[Claudio] A little bit of gravel action.

[Charley] I know. Isn't it crazy? Okay.

[Charley] What I was always told
on this gravel

is to have light hands on your handlebars.

Light grip. [stammers]
Almost as if you can play the piano.

You know, you should be able
to wiggle your fingers a little bit.

'Cause you gotta let the bike move
a little bit underneath you.

The more you hold it, the more it fights.
The bike wants to move under you.

So if you're gripping really hard,
then... [stammers]

The bike has to try
and move you as well, you know?

And then, you know, look ahead,
far ahead as you can.

[Ewan] We're gonna go
and see some penguins today,

which I'm so excited about

because I've never seen penguins
in the wild for reals.

[Charley] Ah. This is kind of
what I was sort of hoping for, really,

when I was thinking about Patagonia
and Chile and Argentina

and all these places.
They're just beautiful.

Real conundrum,

'cause we're going to see the penguins
and we're down to 40 miles.

And then after we've seen the penguins,

we've got, like, 60 miles plus to get
to the place where we get the ferry.

We didn't plug in the bikes straight away
when we got to the border.

We're gonna charge the bikes
down here off the Sprinter van

when we're looking at the penguins
for maybe an hour or two.

But it's already four o'clock
and that makes it, like,

six o'clock by the time we leave.

And when the sun goes down,
it's really, really cold here.

I think we definitely miscalculated
our charge.

But the penguins will be amazing to see.
So, you know, there's that.

- [Charley] Yeah.
- Whoo-hoo!

- Clump in here, right?
- [Taylor] So we're gonna disconnect this.

We're plugging into here
'cause we got a solar panel here.

So all the electricity that goes
into this comes from the sun.

And then we're popping this puppy in here.

And that goes in.
And hopefully it's charging.

[Ewan] If we don't get a charge now,
we won't make the ferry,

and we're gonna be stuck out here
in the cold.

[Charley] It's not charging, guys.

No, no bueno. No bueno.

I thought I lost my hat.
That would have been a disaster.

Bad hair never looked so good.

Yeah, that's the plug. Uh,
the fuse is tripping in the plug.

- Yeah.
- [Charley, indistinct]

No, no. I just tripped the plug.
Now it should be.

- Charging now?
- [Charley] No.

[Ewan]
We couldn't charge off the solar panels,

so let's see if we can charge
off Shirly's research station.

This is our home here.

Well, these are beautiful.

It's a really lovely, uh, bike to ride.

- It's quiet. No... No noise.
- Yeah? It's quiet?

- Yeah?
- And, um, it's smooth. It's very nice.

In ten years, no problem.

- [Shirly] It's no problem.
- I think it's no problem.

'Cause everybody will have
electric vehicles then.

- But now...
- Yeah. Only starting.

It's just starting, yeah.
We're a little ahead of the game.

- Oh, this is nice.
- [Charley] It's nice, isn't it?

[Ewan] Tiny house.

- [Charley] Well, it won.
- Where are you?

- Here.
- Oh, you're there?

Remember we spoke about Chilean, um...
Pick up a Chilean adapter.

Yeah.

And we said, "Nah, we won't need one
because there'll be one at the hotel."

Tell me when.

- [Charley] Okay.
- Good?

Boom. Whoo! Shake the room.

[Charley] Ewan, I don't think
those bikes are gonna charge.

The power is... It's all solar.

So they're just running
off batteries as well.

[Ewan] Pingüino Rey Natural Reserve
is a conservation initiative

and the only colony of king penguins
in Latin America.

[woman] This is king penguin.

Because of the very long breeding cycle,
we can see them here the entire year.

They have predators out there?
What eats them?

They have not many predators
because it's not a very deep, uh, bay.

- [Ewan] Okay.
- [Charley] Aha.

- [Charley] Wow.
- Aw, little guys.

Wow.

[Charley chuckles]

That looks a bit like how I feel
on the bike in the cold.

'Cause they're so...
They're like so, like, full of feathers.

And I'm like,
that's how I feel on the bike,

'cause it's like all these layers.

Look at that baby one in the back.
It just looks all plumfed up.

Plumfity-plumf.

[Charley] So...

Yeah.

We're gonna have to manage ourselves
a lot better than this.

We got here. That's all that matters.
We're here.

It's not getting there that's great.
[chuckles]

- So here's a little present from us.
- Aw, gracias. Thank you so much.

- You're welcome, Ewan.
- Thank you. Thank you.

That's very kind.
I'll put it in my pocket.

- Yeah, don't forget us.
- Gracias.

[Ewan] The bikes haven't taken a charge,
so now we are a bit stuck.

Time is of the essence
in terms of the heat.

- Where were you guys going?
- We would have stayed here.

- [David] Yeah.
- I would have liked to, actually,

'cause it would be
such a bonkers place to find yourself.

- [Charley] Oh, it would be lovely.
- But, um...

There was no charge going
in the bike at all.

- Are the ferries not every hour then?
- [Russ] No.

So there's only one... [stammers]
What times are the ferry?

There's one at 7:00 tonight
and one at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow.

But we're finding out
if there's one before 2:00 p.m.

[Charley] Okay. All right.

There's a little hotel that's shut,
but it's ten miles up the road.

Do you remember when we were coming down?

I said, "There's a sign for a hotel."
It's that one.

[David] Because we lost three days in
Ushuaia, we have to get back on schedule.

The trucks are gonna try
to make the ferry tonight.

The bikes are hopefully gonna
find a place to charge en route.

[Ewan] It was next to a big barn, right?
This place?

And hopefully we can get
this hotel opened up for us,

and then we can get a charge there.

[Charley] Yeah.

I'm running out of battery on my charger.
We're running out of battery on the car.

We're running out of diesel
in the Sprinter.

And we're running out of options
to where to stay.

And the ferry goes in one hour.
That's a perfect storm.

- [Charley] What a great outfit.
- [man, indistinct]

[Ewan] Ah, gracias. Gracias, amigo.

- It's okay?
- It's okay.

- [Charley] Perfect.
- [Ewan] Okay.

And Carlos is inside waiting for you.

- [Charley] Thank you.
- [Ewan] Oh. Carlos.

- [Charley] Oh, the smell of fresh paint.
- Please.

- Gracias. My name is Ewan.
- [Charley] Oh, Carlos.

[Ewan] Nice to meet you. Charley.

Nice to meet you.
What a beautiful place you have.

If we ride at 50 miles per hour,
we will just make it on time

if we get the time
that I'm trying to buy from them.

[Russ] Talk to them on the radio.
But the radio is, like, almost out.

[Ewan] It's Los Angeles.

Can you tell him we're very appreciative?
'Cause I know that you are not open.

So we really are grateful
that you can put us up.

[door closes]

- [Charley] Okay. We need two.
- [Carlos] One...

One there and there, okay.
I mean, go through the window?

- [Carlos mumbles]
- Okay.

[Ewan] Any joy?
All right, Charley. Give it a go.

- It's better that this goes inside.
- Directo.

- Si, directo. Si.
- [man speaks Spanish]

What was your name?

- Nur. Tami Nur.
- Nur?

- Yeah.
- Nur. Gracias, Nur.

Yeah! We got a charge!

Yes. Okay, good. Good.

- May the Force with you.
- Thank you, sir.

May the Force be with you.

This gentleman very kindly
let us stay in his hotel,

which is, in fact, shut right now.

And, um, he's opened it up for us
and we've...

Here, we've got Charley's bike
plugged in...

and my bike plugged in.

But the truth is I'm not sure
whether they're very good charges,

and I feel like probably they're not.

[Bhushan] You know what is
the cool part of being in a car

that is about to die without battery
at this place of the world?

That it makes you feel an explorer.

[Russ] Yeah.

[Bhushan] What's your percentage?

- I'm at nine, ten.
- [Russ] We're one.

- [Bhushan chuckles]
- So should we tow first, yeah?

[David] Yeah, Russ,
you get the first tow charge.

[Ewan] It sounds like Dave and Russ
have their hands full

and we're stuck in this very quirky hotel.

[slow Spanish ballad playing]

That's the issue. There's doing it
for the good of the electric vehicles,

and there's doing it for, um,
the experience of, um, you know,

adventure travel and, um, there's the rub.

[Charley] I don't think
we're gonna get out of here.

- [Ewan whispers] Alive.
- Alive.

[ballad continues]

And this does have this kind of
slight feeling of, you know,

of a horror movie, you know?

Well, we've all run out of petrol,
and we've run out of battery.

[chuckles] With ten miles to go.

Then why don't we tow this one
that's dead?

And I follow as long as I go and if I die,
you come back and get me.

[man] Okay.

I'm just saying I came on
this big multi-country adventure

without a travel plug.

All this talk of electricity for years,
and I didn't come with a travel plug.

- [Claudio chuckles]
- What an idiot.

At the moment, Ewan and Charley have
only got one Chilean adapter like that.

I mean, we're learning.

You know, we're taking a risk
with all this electric stuff and,

you know, clearly, we've all run out
in the middle of nowhere.

If we can get that back to the boys,

then they can charge
their bikes up for tomorrow.

[engine rumbling]

- Yeah, it's cold, huh?
- [Nur] Yeah.

And it's really, really cold.
It's amazing how cold it is.

[in Spanish] A little bit cold.

Yes, it's freezing.

But you've got to breathe calmly.

[inhales deeply]

[Charley] We cleared it of the ice here.

[Ewan] I think this is far trickier
than we thought.

The guys are stranded out there
in the cold,

and we aren't having much luck either.

I mean, I'm from Chicago.

[laughs] I shouldn't be cold,
but this is really cold.

[David] Really didn't think we'd have to
try out the emergency tow charge

on day one.

[grunts] Okay.

[Charley] That's interesting.
It's not coming out now.

- [stammers] No, it's shut down again.
- [man] How's it going?

Yeah, we're trying to understand
the limits of the vehicles.

So we put them to the test.

Not surprisingly, we're now
at the very bleeding edge.

And, uh, you know,
we're 11 miles away from our destination.

[man on radio] A slight incline coming up.

[in Spanish] One goes there
and I'll bring in the other one.

If you've got a...
If there is a blow heater, uh,

put the blow heater
up towards where the tank is.

It's the cold that is, um,
that potentially could be bad.

Okay.

You think it's the cold?
That's why it won't charge?

[Ewan] Never say never. Yes, we will.

Well, are we ready? Is there two... No.

What about this carpet?

- Yeah, they pull the carpets down, is it?
- Is it?

- Yeah. I think so.
- Oh.

Do you want his bike on this carpet?
It's okay?

[Nur] It's okay.

- Oh, it's very high for me.
- Yep, yep, yep.

[motor grinds]

- [Ewan] Two, three.
- [Charley] Yeah.

- [Ewan] Okay. Okay.
- [Charley grunts]

- [Ewan] You're in. You are in.
- [Charley] Okay.

Okay.

[Charley] Okay. Yeah. I've got it here.

- [Charley] Beauty.
- [Ewan] Well done, everybody.

Well, it's not fully frozen.
But it's quite frozen.

[Charley] Coffee as well?

There you go.

Think that's all I got.
So much for my optimism.

- [man] I'll let them know.
- Yeah, Bryan, I think that's it for me.

Yeah, I'm out of charge.

Do we need to put some...

Something underneath so that when
the ice melts it doesn't ruin the floor?

Or are these carpets enough?

[stammers] Let's plug it in
on this other circuit.

They both came up, so they both turned on.

- [Charley] God, they're warming.
- [Ewan] Look, it's already melting.

[Charley] It's already warming up.
It's extraordinary.

[Ewan] Come on. Mine's 28%.

If it works, then we... then we can
charge them from the house

while the house is asleep, if you like.

- [Charley] Yeah.
- All night.

And then by the time
we take them out in the morning,

- it might be a bit more juicy.
- Yeah, okay.

I didn't want to take her to zero,
to be honest. But I did.

And I guess, you know,

relationships are defined by
how you handle difficult times,

not by how you handle the good times.

[sighs] Chances are Ewan and Charley
aren't gonna be able to get a charge.

It's now dangerously cold,
and our cars have just died.

So, uh...

So we know that it is
an extreme cold problem.

So that when they're very, very cold,
they won't take a charge.

[Ewan] And that if you pull everything
off one circuit...

That's why he uses two cables
and two different circuits.

But the thing is, how do you know?

How do you test a circuit?
How do you test...

[Charley] Well, ideally, what you would do
is you'd probably do it here,

and then [stammers] the other one
would be a plug-in in the kitchen.

You know, maybe...

- Oh.
- [Ewan] Uh-oh.

- Mm, the power's just gone.
- [Ewan] Oh, shit.