Long Way Home (2025) s01e04 Episode Script

1
[theme song playing]
[Ewan] Across 20 years,
and three incredible adventures,
we've traveled to some of
the farthest flung corners of the world.
This is us on the road, Charley.
This is us on the way, man.
Yet we've never properly explored
the countries on our own doorstep.
- Okay, here we go. Into Europe.
- [Charley] Let's do it.
So, we're spending
the summer riding a spectacular loop
through 17 of our closest neighbors.
[Ewan] Starting at my house in Scotland,
we'll cross over to the continent,
travel up through the Nordics,
and into the Arctic Circle,
down to the Baltics before winding our way
through the Alps and across France,
returning home about two months later.
[Charley] And we're gonna throw
caution to the wind
by doing the journey
on temperamental 50-year-old bikes
that have been given a new lease of life.
[Ewan] My bike's making a funny noise.
[bike clangs]
[Russ] Riding alongside them
on a third motorcycle
are cameramen Claudio and Max.
And the guys will also be taking
personal diary cameras.
[David] Russ and I will be following
with a small crew and two electric trucks.
Only meeting up
with the guys when necessary.
[cheering]
[Ewan] So, this summer,
Europe is our playground.
- Wow!
- [blowing]
[Ewan] And we're gonna follow our noses
and see what we find on the open road.
[wind whistling]
[engines revving]
["Something to Remember Me By" plays]
- [Ewan] It's so beautiful here.
- [Charley] Yeah.
[Ewan] It's unbelievable,
the scenery we've seen
since we got into Norway.
The scale, I didn't expect it
to be so monumental.
- It's Valhalla, isn't it?
- [Ewan] Yeah.
[Charley] You know, the land of the gods.
[Ewan] We're well underway now,
having made it from Scotland
all the way to the Norwegian fjords.
We want to reach the Lofoten Islands
in the Arctic Circle
in time for Midsummer's Eve.
First, though, we've got a two-day ride
through the mountains,
heading for the city of Trondheim,
with an overnight camp in Fortun.
[Charley] This is a tricky old road.
I'll shout if a car comes.
[Ewan] Very high alt over this wall.
[Charley] It's a very low wall as well.
I mean, you know
[Ewan] Just enough
to catapult you straight off.
I think the bike would be okay.
- But, you know, you'd go straight over.
- [laughs]
[chuckles]
[song continues]
- [horn honking]
- [song ends]
[David] Hey, guys. Look out.
Somebody's trying to overtake.
- [Russ] Nutcase!
- [Charley] What?
Oh, [bleep] me. There's a car.
Okay, it's coming.
[Ewan] I know. It's, like, overtaking.
[Charley]
Look at that. He's all over the place.
[Ewan] I'd really like to get away
from this guy. He's dangerous.
[Charley] Jesus, that was close.
[Ewan] Watch, he's Watch, there he goes.
Idiot.
These roads are dangerous enough.
That guy was a madman.
Completely mad.
[Charley] We should stop. Get a coffee.
- Oh, what's this?
- [Russ] Viking camp.
[Ewan] Do you wanna have a look?
See if there's a
Do you want to see if there's a café?
[Charley] Yeah. Okay.
"Viking Experience"!
Oh! That was better.
- Hello. How are you?
- Hello.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Seweryn.
- Hello. Charley. Nice to see you.
What, er What time frame are
is this village from?
Viking Age is around, like,
from 9th century till 11.
- Eleven. Nine to 11. Okay.
- Nine to 11. Okay.
- Oh, that's the, uh
- Should I put it on?
- Do you mind? Okay, let's see.
- [Seweryn] Yeah.
- It's a bit tight on the nose.
- [Charley] Bit tight, is it?
Oh, yeah. Looks good, Ewan. Looks good.
My sword's a bit different, though.
- Mine kind of lights up.
- [Charley] Yeah, little bit
Got a light lightsaber sword.
- [Charley chuckles]
- What do you think?
I make a good Viking?
[drumming]
[Ewan beatboxing]
[Charley] Just shows you
how bad I am at drums.
My drum teacher once told me
He said I was wasting my mother's money.
- [people chuckling]
- He did.
Do you know a lot about Vikings?
You probably
- I married one.
- [Ewan] Did you?
[Charley] You sound very English.
Where are you from?
[Angela] Essex.
[Ewan] How'd you find yourself here
doing this?
Well, I was on the beach one day,
walking the dog
- Yeah.
- and this Viking ship came up.
And before I knew it, you know,
this big Viking came out
and he threw me over his shoulder.
- And I'm here.
- Here you are.
- That's it, you know.
- Wow.
[Ewan] And you're just trying
to find your way back.
- That's it. [chuckles]
- [Ewan] I'm sorry.
Well, we'd take you back, but we haven't
got any back seats on our bikes.
- [Angela groans] Okay.
- So you're bit stuck as it is.
[Ewan] Okay, watch out, everyone.
Stay back.
- Could go anywhere.
- Stay back.
- [groans] Rubbish.
- [Charley] You ready?
- [Ewan, locals exclaim]
- [Seweryn] No.
- [Ewan] That was brilliant!
- [Charley] Good luck, that was.
- [Seweryn] Look at this.
- Look at that. Right in the red.
- [local] Well done.
- [Seweryn] Yeah.
- Nice one, Charley.
- [Charley] Well, you know
- [chuckles]
- [Ewan] One more time. One more time.
- It's not my sport, is it?
- Come on. Let's get out of here.
There's something wrong with that ax.
- There's something wrong with that ax.
- [Ewan] Not my bag.
[Charley]
Onward to our camping spot in Fortun.
This tunnel is 24 kilometers.
[Ewan] Oh, yeah. Look at that.
[Charley] I don't think
we're gonna see daylight for half an hour.
[electronic music plays]
It's changing colors.
Little disco down here.
[Ewan] Well, here we go. The green bit.
Oh, the blue bit.
[sirens wailing]
[Ewan imitates siren]
[Ewan, Charley chuckling]
[Ewan] I love my siren.
- [horn honking]
- [Charley] That's all I got.
[Ewan chuckles]
[electronic music ends]
[Ewan] Wow, it's like a new day.
[Charley] It's much nicer.
I tell you, actually, I feel very good
about not being in there.
[Ewan chuckles]
Hold on.
Oh, there's something in the road.
[Charley] Oh, it looks like they're
stopping people going up the mountain.
Here. We want to go Yeah, we want to go
To Fortun?
Yeah, to Fortun.
We wanna go over this pass.
- Is that open?
- The Tindevegen. That's closed.
You'll have to stay here.
We have to go over a mountain pass.
We've got a [stammers] place
on a river that we thought
might be a nice place to camp.
It's called Fortun, and we
If we left now, we'd get there
about 7:30, 8:00 p.m.
But the road is shut.
This guy's telling us the road's closed.
[Charley] It's closed during the day
for repairs,
so we won't make it
past the mountain tonight.
We could camp up the road here.
[Ewan] So, in the morning,
we have to get on it before 8:00
or over it before 8:00?
[Charley] I think we have to
get on the road before 8:00,
so we need to leave at around 7:00.
Still have to find a camp spot though.
Okay, let's see what's happening here.
There's a big field over there
which is probably, maybe, for tents.
Looks very boggy in there.
[Ewan] What about here?
What about this one?
[Charley] That's a walkway for people.
[Ewan] What about
There's people camping in there.
- Shall we have a look in there?
- [Charley] Yeah, can have a look.
[Ewan] I think we can just do it here.
[Charley] Yeah.
[Ewan] It doesn't say "No camping."
[Charley] Yeah, that's perfect.
- [sighs]
- [Charley] This is the spot, man.
[Ewan] Home from home.
[Charley] There we go.
[Ewan]
Beautiful free camping here in Norway.
I'm just so attuned to
[stammers] somebody turning up
going, "You can't do that here!"
Makes such a massive difference.
Look at this. Come on.
This is lovely.
Spectacular.
I'm a lumberjack
And I don't care ♪
I'm a lumberjack
And I don't ♪
Oh.
That's straight into the water.
[Charley, Max chuckling]
- Okay.
- [Max speaks indistinctly]
[grunts]
Don't need to tell anybody.
But just keep that between us, okay?
- [Ewan] From my fall the other day.
- [Claudio] The other day before.
- [Ewan] Bit yellow.
- [Claudio] Yeah.
[Charley stammers] Is that your bruise?
Oh, yeah. Wow.
And then that lump there.
- [Claudio] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Ewan] See the lump?
- [Claudio] You were lucky, huh?
- [Charley] Well, considering
- [Ewan] Yeah.
- [Charley] couple of bruises, not bad.
Bit hot, eh?
[Charley] Cooked on the fire.
[grunts]
Mmm.
It is It's 10:30 in the evening
and it is quite bizarre because it's now
It really doesn't really get dark
because the further north you go
I mean, look at it,
it's absolute daylight.
- [Ewan grunts]
- [Charley] Good night, guys.
[Ewan] Night, Charley.
[Charley] It's still so light. [chuckles]
I hope I can get to sleep.
[Ewan] See you in the morning.
[Ewan] What a spot.
This has to be up there
in one of our top camping spots, Charley.
[Claudio] So, what's the mission?
The mission today is to get to, uh
Tama Tama
Tala "Tamalamadingdong."
"Tamalamadingdong" ♪
Never know where we're going ♪
Never ♪
[Ewan] We're going to Trondheim,
where we'll catch a boat
up the Norwegian coast
so we can make it
to these beautiful islands
in time for Midsummer's Eve.
This ride should take us past
one of the best examples
of a wooden Viking church.
Our first challenge is to get through
the road closure area before 8:00 a.m.,
or else we won't get over the hill
and we'll have to go all the way round
the long way round.
Wait a minute.
Reminds me of something,
but I can't think what it is.
[imitates Viking] Trondheim.
Trondheim.
["Fa-Fa-Fa" plays]
[Ewan] And we're off.
We can head off to our little adventures.
[Ewan] Look at that, "Closed 8:00 a.m."
[Charley] Phew. Made it.
[Ewan] Is this where we're going up?
[Charley] That's a great start, isn't it?
This is the Tindevegen pass, which will
take us up through the mountains.
Another must-do road for a biker.
Just ticking these boxes.
There are some famous biking roads here.
So, there's an element of a pilgrimage,
and to experience it for ourselves
is really nice.
[song continues]
[Ewan] Whoo. Okay.
[Charley] Oh, yeah.
They're quite sharp, aren't they?
Nice. Lovely. Uppity-up-up.
[Ewan]
We're so high up already. Look at that.
[Charley] Wow.
Beauty.
[Ewan grunts]
These old bikes,
you just gotta really get them in
Gotta be in the right gear.
You have to really ride them, you know.
- [Charley] Yeah. Yeah.
- Sort of nice. I love that about it.
And they're not so forgiving,
are they, anymore?
No. You have to be more precise.
[engine revs]
[Charley] Oh, this is delightful.
I don't wanna stop. [chuckles]
One of the nicest pieces
of tarmac, this, actually.
[Ewan] That was good, wasn't it?
[song ends]
[Charley shudders]
[Ewan] Chilly, isn't it? Chilly.
[Charley]
I've got my little summer gloves on.
[chuckles]
- [Ewan] It's snowing.
- [Charley stammers] Snowing. [chuckles]
That's all we need.
[Ewan] Oh, it's really snowing. [laughs]
Didn't anticipate this
when we woke up this morning.
[Charley] I mean, come on, Norway.
Whew.
We're gonna try catch up with the others
and join them in Trondheim.
Some sort of Mad Max experience.
Uh-oh, has he gone down
the side of the hill?
- Hi.
- [driver] Hello.
We are stuck here.
- And, uh, we tried to pull it out.
- [Russ] Okay.
Do you want me to help?
[onlookers chattering]
[Russ] Okay, you ready?
[onlookers clamoring, cheering]
[Russ] Well, these roads
are clearly slippery.
I just hope the boys are okay.
[Charley] I'm so glad we can see.
It's beautiful up here. [chuckles]
[Ewan] Oh, there's something in the road.
Cyclists? No way.
- [Charley] No way.
- [Ewan] Get outta here.
- [Ewan scoffs]
- [Charley] Two of them.
- [Ewan] Wow.
- [Charley] Yeah. Good for them.
[Ewan] Hi, guys.
Just when you think
you're sort of hardcore
[laughs] you pass a couple of cyclists.
[Charley]
Holy moly, this is a lot of snow.
It's getting worse.
You're doing a very good job
out there in the lead, Ewan.
[Ewan] Well, I hope you'd
I'm just a bit nervous of ice,
so I hope you don't mind
I'm tiptoeing around.
[Charley] No. No, no, no.
My beard feels like it's freezing up.
[shudders]
Well, boys, well, this is, um
This is certainly as
as extreme as we would want it to be.
[Ewan] My hands are freezing.
[Charley] Do you want to stop?
[Ewan exhales heavily]
Another Get my warm gloves out of here.
This is the coldest we've been
on this trip.
- [Max speaks indistinctly]
- Freezing.
I mean, I think it's
might actually be freezing.
- [Claudio] Hello. [chuckles]
- [local 2] Hi.
[Claudio] What a road, huh?
- Yeah, it's crazy.
- Yeah, it's incredible. It's incredible.
What a cool idea to get a coffee
out here in the wilderness.
- Do you want a coffee?
- [Claudio] Ah, seriously?
They're saviors.
- Yeah. [chuckles]
- [Claudio chuckling]
[sighs] Can't believe I can't believe
I didn't put these on this morning.
What an idiot.
[Claudio chuckling]
- [local 2 speaks indistinctly]
- Very good, thank you.
- Thank you very much. Delicious.
- [chuckling] You're welcome.
- Perfect.
- Thank you. [chuckles]
[sighs, shuddering]
[Claudio]
Thank you very much. Cheers. Thank you.
Oh, my gosh.
It's cold Oh!
[Ewan exclaiming]
[Claudio] You okay?
[Charley] Yeah, I'm all right.
I'm all right. I'm all right.
Hey, let's get the bike.
[Claudio] Oh, yeah, yeah.
[stammers] The fuel is going out.
[straining]
- [Claudio] Oh, no.
- One, two, three.
[metal clanking]
- Oh, shit. The-The fuel goes
- [Charley] Okay. What?
[Claudio] Wait, wait, wait.
[Ewan] Let's get something
under the side stand, all right?
- Yeah, slowly.
- [Claudio grunts]
- [Claudio] Here too.
- [Charley] No, no. Don't touch it.
- [muttering]
- [Charley] It's just gotta be cleaned.
Okay. Okay.
Okay. [sighs]
That's the little reservoir for the
for the carburetor.
- Okay.
- [Ewan] Whoo.
- You all right, Charley?
- [Claudio] Look at that.
- You okay?
- [Charley] Yeah, it's all fine.
It was so slow motion.
Thought you were gonna roll
all the way down the hill.
[Charley] Okay.
Here we go.
Let's see if I can get it started.
[sighs]
[exhales sharply]
[engine sputters]
[engine starts, revs]
All right.
Oh.
Oh, that's better.
[Charley] Thank you, guys.
[Ewan] We were so optimistic
and unrealistic
about what the weather would be
'cause we didn't really spend any time
looking into it.
But it's a very, very
northern part of the world.
Of course it's gonna be cold and wet.
What did we really expect?
- Shall we get to the church?
- [Charley] I hope it's warm.
Just come out of the mist.
- [Charley] Oh, look at that. Down, down.
- [singsongy] Down, d-d-d-down, down.
[Charley]
It's getting better, the weather, guys.
No, it definitely feels warmer.
[Ewan] Oh, look, here's the road closure.
Thanks, guys.
Imagine if he turned us back.
Imagine if he said,
"No, back over the top."
Sheeps.
- Beep, beep, beep.
- [sirens wailing]
[Charley]
We've gotta get down the mountain.
[stammers] Oh!
[laughs]
[Ewan] Beautiful church.
[Charley] But what I love
is all these shingles
- [Ewan] Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [Charley] look like dragon's skin.
Look at the door.
[chuckles] Look at the size of it.
They were big, these Vikings,
back in the day, weren't they?
They were huge.
- [door opens]
- [contemplative music plays]
- Oh, my gosh.
- [door closes]
That is beautiful, isn't it?
The painting's really interesting,
isn't it?
The way it's just painted
on the wood like that.
Beautiful.
Not such a good view from these seats.
[chuckles] Those are the real cheap seats
over there.
This church was built in 1158
in the very transition
between the Viking Age
and the Christian part of the Middle Ages.
So, they've still kept a lot
of their protective symbols
from the Viking Ages,
like the dragons' heads that you see
on the outside of the church,
uh, to sort of protect them
from evil spirits and such.
[devout choral music plays]
[Charley] Such a pretty place.
Made me think of my sister.
It's always terrible
when people die young, you know.
My sister was only 36 years old,
and we lead such busy lives.
And it's very difficult [clears throat]
to sit still
and, you now, have time to think.
And that's why, always when I do
these trips with Ewan,
you have time to think
and-and, um, you know
and it's nice to think about your friends
that aren't here.
You know, they live inside you.
So, anyway.
To my little sister, I love you.
[Charley] Right, on to Trondheim
to catch the boat.
[Ewan] Once more unto the breach,
dear friends, once more.
- [Ewan] The sun.
- [Charley] Oh, I can feel it, yes.
Ah. [chuckles]
Ooh. [inhales sharply]
We're on the motorway.
We've got an hour to go.
I've got the Chemical Brothers playing
in my ears.
- [Charley] Oh, yeah.
- ["Escape Velocity" plays]
[Ewan, high-pitched]
One, two, three, four.
[Ewan] Life is pretty good. [chuckles]
[laughs]
[song continues]
[Ewan] Let's slow it down, lads.
We're in town.
This is Trondheim, ladies and gentlemen.
[Charley] Well, that was, uh
That was a big ride today, Ewan.
[Ewan] That was a big ole schlep
to get here, wasn't it?
My arse is so numb.
Oh, my gosh. [chuckles]
[Charley] Well, it's been a pleasure
riding with you today, Ewan.
It's been a pleasure
to ride with you too, Charley. As always.
[Charley] Oh, this is it here. My God.
Very nice, this.
Antoine is there waiting for us.
[Ewan] "Ah, Mr. Boorman,
we've been expecting you."
[Charley] Look at that.
Hello, everybody.
It was an amazing ride.
- How are you?
- [Max] Good, how are you?
Sorry for shouting.
And what a beautiful-looking hotel.
So, uh
- Maybe we shouldn't film the hotel.
- [Max chuckles]
Cause I think this is Is this
the youth hostel that we're staying in?
[both chuckling]
[Ewan] Do you think it's got a bath?
[Max] Oh, dude,
there's something so much better.
I agree to do this of my own volition.
Nobody has pushed me into this.
[Russ] Aim for the soft seaweed.
[Ewan] Three, two, one.
[exclaiming, cheering]
[Max gasping, chuckling]
[Ewan] Charley, I've got our dinner.
[seagulls squawking]
[Ewan]
Oh, this hotel stay has been really nice.
Getting to Trondheim that last morning
was so, um, hard,
going over that hill, over that mountain.
Yeah, it was fantastic fun yesterday,
but I'm excited for the rest of the trip.
We're in Trondheim,
and in order to get to the islands
for Midsummer,
we're gonna take a shortcut
and travel by boat overnight
all the way up here
into the Arctic Circle.
So it's gonna be an exciting little while.
And, uh
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
I feel like a new man.
[engine revs]
[Charley] Let's do it.
What a day.
[Ewan] Beautiful.
It's like a whole new experience.
Riding in the sun.
[engine sputtering]
This bike shouldn't be so, like, blatty.
[Charley]
She's really spitty and poppy, isn't she?
See there, it clicks into
its normal sound.
- [sputtering stops]
- There. That's it.
There we go, yeah.
[Ewan] Before the trip,
it would always feel like this.
It wouldn't do that blatting thing.
- [Charley] There's our boat.
- [Ewan] Oh, yeah. Look at that.
We're going up that ramp?
That's pretty cool, man.
At low speed, it's like
[imitates sputtering]
And then, once you get up to, you know,
fifteen [stammers]
1,500 revs or 2,000 revs,
then it suddenly finds its sound.
So I think it's, like, slightly out.
Something's off.
[in cockney accent]
That's not going anywhere.
[in cockney accent]
It's not going nowhere, mate.
- [Ewan] All right. Let's go.
- It's good.
[Charley] Over the next 24 hours,
two boats trips will take us and our bikes
up the coast of Norway.
Whew.
[Ewan] Look at the scenery.
[Charley] My golly gosh.
The nicest day we've had
is when we're not riding the bikes.
- [Ewan chuckles]
- [Charley] Yeah. Quite extraordinary.
[Ewan] It's not very hardcore.
It's not very Long Way Round.
It's a bit like Soft Way Round.
[announcer] Attention all passengers,
we are now approaching Moskenes
on the Lofoten islands.
- Please
- This cloud is sitting, like,
about [stammers]
50 feet above the ground.
[Ewan]
The sun doesn't set here for two months,
so the summer solstice
holds a special significance
and has been marked since Viking times
with bonfires on the beach.
We're officially in the Arctic Circle now.
- Okay, Ewan?
- All right, Charley. After you, sir.
["Rainfall" plays]
[Charley] First off, we're heading
to some traditional fishermen's cabins
our base camp while we explore
the islands.
[Ewan] Oh, I'm so happy to be riding
the bike again.
That was a lot of boat work.
- [Charley] Yeah, lesson learned.
- [Ewan laughs]
[Charley]
They love their tunnels. Holy moly.
[song continues]
[Ewan] Well, here we are, guys.
A whole new world.
[Charley chuckles]
Fishing must be a big business here.
Look at all those boats.
And one of those huts must be
our bed for the night.
Might be this place here.
[engine sputtering]
It's It's not a nice sound.
[Ewan] Just sounds terrible.
I just realized why
my bike's making funny noise.
- [Charley] That That was close.
- [Ewan laughs]
Looks like a machine gun
- [Claudio] Ay, ay, ay.
- doesn't it?
- [Claudio] It's all coming out.
- [Ewan] Oh, wow.
[all laughing]
It's like [exclaims, chuckles]
[Charley] I'd been looking at it.
I was looking at it before.
[Claudio] You were waking up
the whole town
- [Ewan] I know.
- by the sound you were
- [Ewan] That's even since Amsterdam.
- [Claudio chuckles]
I realized it since Amsterdam
- its been broken.
- [Claudio] Yeah.
Because running around
those little streets in Amsterdam,
it was like [imitates sputtering]
- [Claudio chuckles]
- I was thinking, "This isn't right."
[sucks teeth] Man, that's funny.
[Ewan] I feel like almost getting it off
and taking it to a welder
- in the morning or something.
- [Charley] Yeah.
[Ewan] See if we can get it welded
up here. That'd be fun, wouldn't it?
[Charley] Yeah, let's do that.
[Ewan] Oh, look. In here.
[Charley] There's two beds in there.
- Just every day, a different
- [Charley] Different environment.
place to sleep. Oh, I've got a bit
of sea legs there. Did you feel that?
[chuckles]
I'm still wobbling around a bit.
[breathing heavily] I was a little kid the
last time I slept in something like this.
You sure you're gonna be
all right up there, Charley?
[Charley] Yeah.
[Ewan] All right, mate.
See you in the morning. Love you.
[Charley] All right. Good night, guys.
[seagulls squawking]
[Ewan] Good morning. It's beautiful here.
It smells like the highlands
of Scotland here. [sniffs]
It's that sort of mossy,
grassy, sheepy smell.
Just smells so familiar and so beautiful.
It reminds me a bit of Jaws, this place.
Like, the town in Jaws.
Look at these.
There's shipbuilders everywhere.
So, we're gonna try and find a welder
or some metalworker
who can fix my exhaust pipe.
And we'll try and get that done
before we get to the beach this evening.
So that's the plan.
These islands Oh, my gosh.
They're so beautiful.
See if I can be reminded
of what they're called.
Chaps, what are these islands called?
Loft something?
- [Charley] Uh, Lofterton. Is it?
- [Max] Lofterton.
- Lofterton?
- [Charley] Hang on.
- I'm gonna show you here.
- [chuckles] That's not right.
- [Max] Sounds very Norwegian.
- Sounds like, uh, Bridgerton.
L-O-F-O-T-E-N.
- [Ewan] Oh, Lofoten.
- Lofoten.
- [stammering] The Lofoten Islands.
- [Ewan] The Lofoten Isles.
- [Charley] Vikings made those.
- [Max] Yes.
[both chuckling]
[Ewan] Is this a Viking piece of
[Charley] That's an early Viking painting
of what they thought the future
was gonna look like.
[Ewan] They were dead on.
These are Viking artifacts?
[Charley] No, that's just cheap IKEA.
But the Vikings invented
the flat pack as well, so
'Cause they [stammers] sailed a lot.
So, um, they had to, you know,
make everything sort of fit
in those little boats. So
- [Ewan chuckles]
- You can't knock 'em. I mean
[Ewan] Your knowledge is amazing
about the Vikings, Charley.
I've always been fascinated
by the Vikings.
- [Max chuckles]
- Good.
Good. Great. Thanks for those words
of wisdom, guys.
Okay. Yeah, wisdom. [chuckles]
It's in the Book of Boorman.
[Ewan] Right. Off to our welder.
Are we ready to heave ho?
- You ready?
- Yeah.
[Ewan strains]
[Charley] And again.
[grunts]
[Charley] Jesus.
I've no idea where we're going.
Going around in circles.
We were going [laughs]
[Ewan] Maybe like a clown boat.
[stammers] Okay, go. One
[grunts]
- Hang on. I don't think Because
- Why is it going like that?
- [Ewan] Because what?
- Don't pull so hard.
- Don't pull so hard?
- Yeah.
- [Max laughs]
- Okay.
[Ewan] Too much of a Viking.
[Charley] Too swole, man.
On second thought, let's walk.
- Look, that place is open.
- They might have a welder.
- Shall we try this one first?
- [Charley] Yeah. Door open.
[Ewan] Door open.
Oh, my God.
They look so tiny in here, don't they?
Hello?
Can I ask a favor?
I wondered if you had a welder
- that I could ask to help me
- [tapping metal]
- to help me weld that back on.
- [shipbuilder] Erm, yes, yes.
How long have you worked here?
22 years.
- No way.
- Hmm?
You don't look old enough
to work here 22 years.
Ah, thank you, thank you.
[all chuckling]
That's good.
22 years.
And you work on all [stammers]
fishing boats mainly or
- Passenger boats.
- Oh, okay.
I'm certificated.
- Yeah, yeah.
- [Charley] Oh, I see.
We've been traveling
on quite a lot of those.
- Mm-hmm.
- Haven't we? One way or another.
[Charley]
I love it. It's the international thing.
- Well, if it doesn't fit, we can jus
- [Ewan] Just hammer it.
- Just smack it!
- Smack it.
- Totally right, man.
- [Charley] It always works.
Oh, I'm quite excited to get it done.
[exclaims]
- It's gonna be good, isn't it?
- [Ewan] Yeah. Such a good feeling.
- Oh, I was looking at it.
- Don't look at the arc.
Don't look at the arc.
You so want to look at it, don't you?
- Ain't never coming off again.
- That's never coming off.
- Never coming off.
- Not in a million years.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- Perfect, yeah.
- Um
[exclaims]
- Ride!
- Back on the road, my God.
- There.
- Thank you so much.
Can we owe you some money for this?
- [Jørn] No.
- Are you sure?
- Yeah.
- Oh, thank you, brother.
- Thank you so much.
- That is amazing.
- That's great. Look at that.
- I don't think that's going anywhere.
- No, that's perfect.
- That's perfect.
[Claudio] So
- Ready?
- moment of truth.
Here we go.
[engine sputters]
[engine revving]
That sounds better, doesn't it?
Ah, yeah. Brilliant.
[Ewan] And it's, uh,
riding absolutely lovely now.
At low speed.
[sighs] God, what a difference.
Thank you, welders.
[Charley] It's nearly Midsummer,
but before that local tradition,
we've got time to check out another.
Stockfish,
an ancient Viking delicacy
that they're still making here today.
[Charley grunts]
- I'm Ewan. Hello.
- Hello.
- Hello. Nice to meet you.
- How are you?
- Nice to meet you. What's your name?
- Katharina.
- Katharina, nice to meet you. Charley.
- Katharina.
- Hi, Katharina.
- Charley, hi.
[Charley] We'd love to have a look around,
if that's possible.
[Katharina] Yes. I would just suggest
that, uh, stockfish has a nice smell.
- Ah.
- It's a good smell that's a perfume.
- You know? So for
- Oh, okay. Yeah.
We'll be wearing that smell for the
rest of our lives if we don't wear this.
- Yes, you will.
- Okay, so we'll put this on then.
- Okay. Sounds like a good idea.
- For me that would be perfect.
If it's okay for you.
- [Charley] Okay.
- [Ewan chuckles]
[Katharina] Okay.
- You see all these racks?
- [Ewan] Yeah.
[Katharina] It's for drying codfish.
They are full in the wintertime.
And then you can feel the smell
of the fish in the air.
We clean it, take off the head,
and we put it on the racks for drying.
We go into the stockfish house.
- Okay. Wow.
- [Charley] Look at that.
[Ewan] Wow.
No wonder there's no fish left in the sea.
They're all in here.
[Charley chuckles]
Last week,
we took all the stockfish inside.
- Mm-hmm.
- And now it has to mature
inside this building for a month.
- Okay? Inside.
- Right. Okay.
- Okay. And you don't smoke them or
- [Katharina] No.
- [Ewan] It's just raw fish you hang up?
- They are natural. Yeah.
[Ewan] And why doesn't it rot?
Why wouldn't they just go off?
[Katharina]
The climate here in Lofoten is special.
It's the only place in the world
where actually we can hang up this fish
- and take it down
- [Ewan] Yeah.
to soak it and make it become
natural product. Did you taste this?
- No, I have not tried it like that.
- You have never tried this?
- I've never come across it in my travels.
- No?
We've prepared something for you
if you'd like.
- [Charley] Perfect.
- [Ewan] Wow.
Okay. So stockfish was used also by the
Vikings when they went around the world.
Mm-hmm.
And they used this 'cause it was dry.
It was easy to preserve.
And it was a lovely taste of it.
- [Charley] Mmm.
- This is dried stockfish. You see?
- [Ewan] Nothing else has happened to it.
- [Katharina] Nothing else.
God, it's really good.
It's just nothing has happened to it.
There's no processing.
Nothing. No salt. No nothing.
Just hang it up, dry it and eat it.
Okay. We must follow the tradition.
- The Norwegians, they use the beer.
- Oh, the beer. [chuckles]
This is without alcohol
because you're driving, of course.
- Good. Thank you very much.
- Yes. Brilliant.
- Okay.
- Chin chin.
- We should do chin chin.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
- So nice to meet you.
- Thank you. Lovely.
- Thank you.
It's just hard to believe that
they hang the fish up in January,
and it stays there till June.
- [Claudio] And it's out here?
- On these rods, yeah.
It's just funny, isn't it?
You just think, it can't be
You just think
we must be much more complicated nowadays.
But still,
they're doing it this old-fashioned way.
You just take the head off the fish,
gut it, split it and then hang it up.
I got my fish.
[Charley] Thank you very much.
Well, that's dinner sorted.
Let's head to the beach.
[driving rock music plays]
Wow. A very moody place, isn't it?
With these clouds.
[Ewan]
Look at that mountain in the clouds.
[Charley] Amazing.
[Ewan] It's like a
It's like a volcano that's spewing ash.
Wow.
[Charley] I've not really seen
anything like this, to be honest.
[Charley] Gosh. Quite a place.
[Ewan] It really is, isn't it? Dramatic.
Everything's that color. Everything's red.
[rock music continues]
[Ewan] Whew! Midsummer. [laughs]
[Charley laughing] It's turning out
to be a real pig of a day, isn't it?
Okay. So this is it here.
[Charley] It's quite
the dramatic backdrop, isn't it?
[Ewan] It certainly is.
It's a nice beach, though, isn't it?
[Charley] Beautiful.
[Ewan] Should we go on the rocks?
Oh, oh. Hang on.
- [Charley] Oh, yeah. This is the
- One second.
We got dinner.
My starter.
Appetizers.
I really like it, though. It is good.
This is the peas of the sea.
[groans]
Anyone fancy a bit of a nibble?
Go on, Tim. Have a bit.
Here.
I'll give you a few balls.
Ah.
- Oh.
- [Ewan] It's fine, isn't it?
- It's more the thought of it.
- [Ewan] Is it? Yeah.
- [Charley] It's tasty.
- It's all right.
Look at that guy.
Spoiling our hardiness.
Well, it's actually not that cold.
- It's just quite windy.
- Go on then.
In you go. Come on.
- Oh, look. What's that?
- [Ewan] Surf's up.
- Back to the fire?
- [Charley] Yeah.
[Ewan] Whew.
Well, that's some heat coming off it,
isn't there?
- [Charley] It's nice, isn't it?
- My eyebrows are melting.
[laughs]
Wow. That really is something else
when the wind comes this way.
I mean, I don't know quite how summer
this Midsummer moment feels,
- but
- [wind roars]
[bleeps]
There's Charley on fire,
walking in the background.
- [both laughing]
- My hair is going all over.
As hardy as these islanders are,
the dark winters must be punishing.
So you can see why they'd wanna make
the most of the longest day of the year.
[Ewan]
Oh, it's a lovely place, man. I love it.
- This is your place, is it?
- Yeah. It's my place.
What's about
this Midsummer Night festival?
What usually happens on Midsummer Night?
Midsummer Night, you know,
the family and the kids are out.
We are having the bonfire.
And you usually have a smaller fire
on the side,
- where we are barbecuing sausages.
- Yeah.
And also a porridge called rømmegrøt,
which is sour cream porridge.
- Ah. Sounds good.
- Ooh. Good.
Sausage wouldn't go amiss right now,
would it?
Well, there's a nice dog.
- [all laugh]
- [Ewan] Husky. That's beautiful.
[sniffing]
[Ewan]
What a place to have your campsite. Wow.
This part of the Lofoten Islands
is some of the oldest mountains in Europe.
- Oh, really?
- Do you know how old they are?
No.
Four billion and 35 years old.
Four billion and 35.
That's very precise, the 35.
- Yeah, yeah. Do you know how I know?
- Why?
Because when I came to Lofoten,
they were four billion years.
[laughing]
Well, strangely, that's so funny.
- Perfect.
- [Charley] That was brilliant.
[Ewan gasps]
[imitates choir]
[Charley] Blue sky.
[Ewan] Now we can
Look, you can see the mountains now.
When we got here,
they were all covered in clouds.
But it's a beautiful, beautiful spot.
And it's nice
having a big bonfire on the beach.
Well, happy Midsummer, Charley.
Happy Midsummer.
[Ewan] We're heading to Svalbard, which is
this amazing island in the Arctic Circle.
- We're here.
- [Ewan] We are at the top of the world
- and on top of the world.
- Here we go.
Wow. This is quite something.
[exclaims]
Look at that.
[hunter]
It is a very much polar bear area.
[Ewan] How do we do that
without worrying about the bear?
[chuckling]