Wife to join McGregor on motorbike adventure
EWAN McGregor’s wife Eve Mavrakis has been learning to ride a motorbike at full throttle - so she can join her husband on the last leg of his epic, two-wheeled journey to South Africa.
The mother-of-two will leave her young daughters Clara Mathilde and Esther Rose at home in London and join Ewan and pal Charley Boorman, riding on a powerful 500cc bike for the last leg of their journey, at Malawi.
The pair are currently in the eighth week of their epic journey, which is being recorded for the BBC series Long Way Down, while raising awareness for the children’s charity UNICEF.
French-born Eve, a set designer who married Ewan in 1985, vowed after her husband’s last world trip, The Long Way Round, that she’d learn to ride a motorcycle so that she could become part of the new experience from John O’ Groats to Capetown.
“Eve used to feel that a motorbike was an ultra-macho mode of transport and not for her,” said a family friend.
“But she has been converted after buying a £2,200 Piaggio 125cc scooter, which she has used for learning purposes.
“She is doing this mainly because she finds being apart from Ewan is so horrible. She is missing him terribly.”
Writing for his latest post on the BBC blog, Ewan admits that he is panicking about keeping Eve waiting in Malawi because of constant delays in their journey south.
“My only worry is to meet up with Eve at the top of Malawi when we’re there,” he said.
“I don’t want her to be hanging around for days and days and days.
“Because I’m just, mainly, so desperate to see her, you know? It’s been eight weeks since we were at home and I just... I’m very lucky that she’s coming out, I’m aware of that, that I feel I just can’t wait to see her.”
Long Way Down is the latest motorbike adventure with Ewan and Charley. They are travelling down through Europe, and then Africa from Tunisia to South Africa, via countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia.
It is a follow-up to the Long Way Round trip in 2004, where the pair rode their motorbikes from London to New York, travelling east across Europe, Russia and the United States.
As on Long Way Round, they will be accompanied by a film crew charting their adventure.
