Long Way Down. BBC2 9pm Sundays. Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman hit the road south.

It's getting better now they are moving on but I'm starting to have a real problem with aspects of this programme, the harping on about pressing on to Italy otherwise if they miss the Egyptian ferry to Libya they would have to wait a week, was totally rubbished by the fact that when they arrived at the bottom of Italy they had to wait for a ferry that was booked 'in advance' for the next day!!! Doing some math gives me a few strange figures regarding their travelling, for instance by day 6 they had done just over 1,200 miles in the UK and Europe, now that is less than 200miles a day which even taking into account the pouring rain is ridiculous, I used to do more than that every 5 days as a courier, I once racked up 3,400 miles in the week leading up to xmas one year, in the rain, sleet and snow, also Le Harve to Madrid and back in 50 hours in not very nice weather.
OK, call the trip 9,000 miles, then take 90 days, allow only half of that for actual riding (counts on fingers) I make that an average of 200 a day. Why do I get the feeling I have missed something somewhere? (And not for the first time watching this.) It is not all desert, there are roads or at least tracks for most of the journey and the bikes they are riding are, or should be, capable of handling most terrain. Even taking into account the heat and hostility of the land it's a long time for such little mileage, I think at my age I could handle that mileage per day. Besides myself, I know other people who have done far more than that each day in hostile terrain, without back up and on old bikes (Right Stevie?). Slob for instance was riding over 200miles to work and then back again everyday for 3 months in atrocious weather. There have also been people I knew who never came back from trips.

I'm not dissing the trip itself, it's good television and if you can persuade someone to pay you to do what you love, then fine. I'd certainly do it, and it must be hard work in the heat, just the way it's presented doesn't feel right, yes I know they have to play it up for the masses and it's obviously working because the viewing figures are good.

Charley and Ewan are good together, they are obviously enjoying the trip immensely and rightly so, I enjoyed watching them in the amphitheatre - they reminded me of Slob and myself; Ewan is like an excitable schoolboy and Charley is so manic you can tell he is a real adrenaline junkie! Which is why he likes wheelies, this is another point that seemed contrived for the cameras, "Please don't do wheelies as it's dangerous!" How long have they known each other? You would think by now that the camera crew would understand Charley and how he thinks, telling him not to do wheelies was pointless and just a way of adding a bit of unneeded drama.

Other than that it's pretty good once I take off my biker hat, I really like the views from the helmet cams and the banter between them as they ride, watching them with the locals when they have no idea who they are is amusing as well and the scenery is fantastic, I'm definitely planning a trip with Slob for next year, I have not done a long trip for a while now and this reminds me how much I miss it.

This series has made me more critical, analysing why is difficult, the first series I felt was good and looking back at it on the DVD I found I still enjoyed watching it. I have to reiterate that I still harbour more than a tad of jealousy here. There is a real feel of soap opera to this series which is what I think is taking the edge off it for me (I don't watch any soaps, in fact I watch hardly any television) although I will watch it through to the end just to keep the reviews going (I've started so I'll finish) you have to understand this is a purely personal view of the programme and I don't expect a lot of you to agree with me, those of you who have ridden long distances in adverse conditions will, I trust, have some sympathy with my view, there may be others (yes, you Paul!) who disagree completely, but then if you have never ridden a serious distance or have never ridden in the rain then I won't respect your opinion, as I said this is a personal view of the way 'Long Way Down' has been put together and not an attack on what the guys have done.