Original title
Charley Boorman's Extreme Frontiers
Released
11/28/2011
Origin country
GB
Genre
Documentary
Production companies
Black Diamond Television, Big Earth
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
3
Number of episodes
20
Charley Boorman travels the world on his trusty BMW GS Adventure motorcycle.
In the first series of "Charley Boorman's Extreme Frontiers" we follow Charley and Russ Malkin as they attempt to travel 10,300 mile across Canada, the world’s second largest country. They travel across the country mainly on motorbikes as they visit all of the 10 Canadian Provinces, 2 Frontiers, 3 Oceans and 4 Extreme Frontiers from East to West.
In the first episode of Extreme Frontiers, Charley and his team go ice hunting in Newfoundland, Lobster fishing and fresh water diving in Tobermory.
Charley hooks up with the Mounties in on a training mission, before kicking back to enjoy the Canada Day celebrations. Finally he endures a rough ride when he takes part in a rodeo in Saskatchewan.
Charley's task takes him to the peak of his fears. Armed with just a rope and a guide, Charley attempts to climb to the top of Mount Fable.
The concluding chapter of Charley's Canadian campaign sees him head for the Pacific coast. Taking to the skies, Charley pilots a small plane to Dawson City, in the heart of the Yukon. There he visits a goldmine that has been in operation since the days of the gold rush. He learns the art of strip mining and has a go at finding his fortune.
In the second series, we follow Charley and Russ again as they travel 6,000 miles overland in South Africa on BMW GS Adventure motorcycles.
Charley begins in Cape Town and abseils from the summit of Table Mountain before crossing shark-infested waters to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years. At Gansbaai, he cage-dives while great white sharks are fed bait, then makes his way up the coast to the Shamwari Wildlife Reserve, where he is introduced to some of the lions and leopards rescued by the Born Free Foundation.
The intrepid traveller starts his second leg just south of Durban, where he tries his hand at surfing among some of the country's largest and fastest waves, before he and the team take a car up the treacherously steep and extremely icy Sani Pass, which connects Kwazulu-Natal and Lesotho. He then embarks on a challenging trek to the top of Tugela Falls - the world's second-highest waterfall - enduring biting winds before setting up camp on the summit.
Charley samples South African life from three differing perspectives – in the air, deep below ground and in the bush. He starts by taking to the skies as he learns how to parajet. Although delivering some of the most spectacular views of South Africa, this is an activity that requires great skill to master, as Charley finds out. He then heads underground in order to get to grips with one of South Africa’s oldest working gold mines, and tries his hand blasting for the precious metal himself. Charley rounds off the episode by visiting South Africa’s flagship Kruger National Park. Extending over 7,300 square miles, this is the country's largest game reserve. Charley is hoping to encounter rhinos, hippos, elephants, crocodiles and giraffes. On a ‘wilderness experience on wheels’, he spends three days traversing the Lebombo Eco-Trail, enjoying the sounds and scents of the bush, getting up close to Africa's greatest wild animals and enjoying traditional bushveld dinners around the campfire.
This week, Charley meets a research team who study scorpions and risks life and limb learning how to handle one of the world’s most venomous creatures. Heading into the centre of the country, Charley gets behind the wheel of some of the giant trucks and machines used in the open iron ore mines. Moving west, the team spends two nights learning the way of the nomad with the San tribe in the desolate Kgalagadi National Park, before reaching the western coast. Venturing into the ocean once more, Charley goes diving in the open waters for diamonds, before ending the episode, and the series, in true Boorman style – leading a convoy of over 300 bikers from the Meer lust Winery through the beautiful mountains and beaches of Cape Town, to Signal Hill, renowned for its spectacular views.
Charley and the team are underground blasting for gold in Barberton. The stunning Kruger National Park is next, as the team journeys north over several days, enjoying spectacular wildlife, sunsets and scenery as they try to reach the northern point of Crooks Corner. Back on the bikes, Charley and the team ride inland to explore Johannesburg, with the first stop a market with delicious local food. Charley calls in to a luxury hotel to learn how to cook a traditional South African meal, before learning about the history of Soweto, whilst on a bicycle. The episode closes with Charley behind the wheel of a 4x4, taking on some adventurous off-road trails.
Charley meets a Scorpion Expert who studies these venomous creatures and they go in search of them. Heading into the centre of the country Charley gets up close to the enormous machines used in the open iron ore mines and learns what it takes to live and work as a miner. Moving west the team spend two nights in the desolate Kgalagadi National Park with the San Tribe where Charley tracks lions on foot, before reaching the western coast and heading back out into the ocean once more to work on an authentic diamond mining boat. The episode, and the series, ends in true Boorman style as he leads a convoy of over 300 bikers from Meerlust Wine Estate, through the beautiful mountains and beaches of Cape Town, finishing on Signal Hill with spectacular views.
Charley and the boys return in Series 3 for their latest adventure. Starting in Hawaii, Charlie moves to Alaska, then to the Eastern seaboard and down to the Southern states, inland to the Gulf of Mexico, up again to the Rockies and finishing on the Pacific Coast at Los Angeles.
Charley embarks on another epic journey, this time exploring America. He begins by exploring the lava fields of Hawaii Island and then taking to the waters off Waikiki Beach in an outrigger canoe. Charley then heads north to Alaska, where he tries to fulfil a boyhood dream of building an igloo, before sampling life on the high seas when he boards a 100-year-old schooner for a trip off the Atlantic coast
Charley rides his motorcycle to North Carolina, where he takes to the air in a replica of the Wright brothers' historic biplane and dives to the wreck of a First World War U-boat scuttled by the Germans when they realised the war was lost. In Charlotte, he learns about the War of Independence and gets to grips with firing a traditional musket, before heading to the Chattooga River in South Carolina, the location where his father John filmed 1972 thriller Deliverance
Charley heads to Walker County in Georgia and goes potholing with the local fire department's rescue team, before making the eight-hour ride to Mississippi to find out about the logging industry around the state's great river. Charley then rides down to Louisiana to discover more about the formation of modern America in New Orleans, before being taught the art of catching frogs in the swamps of Lafayette. He then tries rodeo-riding at a ranch in Texas and ends this leg of his journey in New Mexico
Charley sets off on the final leg of his journey, scaling a cliff in Colorado before visiting a soda ash mine in Wyoming. He then heads to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and joins Erin Hunter and Andy Sills in an attempt to set a world speed record for three people on one motorbike, and then rides through a surprisingly wet Death Valley in California. Charley eventually reaches the Pacific coast, where a large convoy of like-minded bikers join him on the ride into his final destination of Los Angeles
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