Charley Boorman Iom Tt - Motogeo interview

I came here two years ago and I came with Richard De Aragues who made Closer to the Edge, you know the Isle Of Man TT Documentary which was just phenomenal you know as we were walking through, he was kid of, this god that had made this wonderful movie so it was a great kind of entrance into the TT and I think like a lot of things, the first time you come here it gets into your blood and all you want to do is come back, you of all people know that, but then watching the guys go round is just, its a brutal race, you know the seniors today 6 laps 2 hours. You know a lot of people say to you that when you go to the TT for the first time, it is going to blow your mind, its indescribable, the experience and you go, yeah well sure whatever but we went down to ago's leap down here and it's amazing because to get to this lady's little place, which is a gate with concrete walls everywhere and then there is a foot pavement with a curb that is just about that high and the riders are going bombing past anyway so you go through people's gardens, you know you go through five or six gardens, we walked though and there was a couple eating their lunch and you sort of go hi, anyway so you end up in this girl's driveway and she gives you a pint of lager and you sit there and we're all chatting about walking and someone says, ok there coming and you hear this noise and they come down Bray hill and around that little right hander which looks like nothing but when you are going fast and they come and i swear to god that where you and I are, this far away from you and I comes John McGuiness on the back wheel just screaming past at 170 (274kph), 180 (290kph) miles per hour that was the first time and I was in shock absolute shock my hand was shaking, I couldn't believe what I had just seen, I just think its Bonkers. It's great being a spectator here as well isn't it. A lot more relaxing. And if you don't mind me asking, what is it about motorcycles that you love? I don't know, it's funny because my dad and his dad never rode motorbikes and my mums side, no one ever rode motorbikes and I suppose I can bring it all the way down to my mate Tommy Rockford in Ireland where I grew up and he had a Maaco, I think it was a Maaco 400 and those were the bikes in the day and I convinced him, I was only tiny and I convinced him to let me go on the motorbike and I heard this 2 stroke engine and I was too small to touch my feet on the ground so he put me on the bike and stuck it in first gear and I went around this field a few times and then fell off and that was it, I was hooked for life but I think when you travel on a motorcycle, do long distances on a motorcycle, you go to other countries, I think it's an amazing way to use it. Yo go to Africa on the motorbike and you stop in a village and you are part of the environment, so to stop and ask directions, you are in their environment, so people are immediately interested in who you are, where you are coming from, where you are going and all that kind of stuff and if turn up in a land rover or a jeep you stop and you have to get out of your environment into their environment, you are already one removed, so I think your experience on a motorcycle is much richer and that it is harder, when it rains, it rains, when it is dusty, you really feel it, I just love it, can't think of anything better.