Following a three-month trip motorbiking around the world with film star Ewan McGregor, actor Charley Boorman is keen to get back on the road.

"We're hoping to do the Paris-Dakar race this year and then, if all goes well, Ewan and I will go from London to Capetown through Africa," he said at last Thursday's opening of the Borders store in Brent Cross shopping centre.

"We went round the world going east, through Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia and then travelled to Alaska," said Charley, who arrived back in Britain in August.

"So by the time we got to New York we'd gone all the way through America and the western world."

The pair were keen to do the journey alone, travelling with only a cameraman on a bike and meeting up with their support vehicle every week or so but authorities in Kazakhstan had other plans.

Charley said: "Everywhere we turned up there'd be a policeman waiting who would insist on escorting us.

"We were led like lambs to the slaughter once, to a fairly big town where about 150 media were waiting."

Police in Ukraine led to another surprising encounter. "We were stopped for speeding and the policeman invited us to stay at this guy Igor's house," said Charley.

"He came down the stairs holding a Kalashnikov and a guitar saying Make Love Not War' and singing a song I don't know if he was the mafia or not but there were a lot of guns."

Visiting Unicef projects in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Mongolia showed a more sombre side of the countries they visited.

"There are lots of children suffering out there and when you see it for yourself it's quite devastating, especially if you have children of your own," he said.

Now Charley is on the promotional trail for the Long Way Round book and DVD about the journey, recently appearing at the MCN London Motorcycle Show at Alexandra Palace. "It was amazing," he said. "But it Long Way Round isn't really all about bikes, it's really a human story."