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Episode 3 continues to show the obstacles faced with charging electric bikes in remote places, but Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman start to learn and evolve their process. The risk of cold temperatures is high but they bravely do it anyway. The duo is having a hard time of it out there but, thankfully, the scenery is absolutely stunning. Heading through Patagonia, Ewan and Charley stay at an eco-lodge in one of the world’s remotest areas with people that live off the grid.

Writing itself is 5,000 years old, and for most of that time words were written by hand using a variety of tools. The Romans were able to run an empire thanks to documents written on papyrus. Scroll books could be made quite cheaply and, as a result, ancient Rome had a thriving written culture. With the fall of the Roman Empire, papyrus became more difficult to obtain. Europeans were forced to turn to a much more expensive surface on which to write: Parchment. Medieval handwritten books could cost as much as a house, they also represent a limitation on literacy and scholarship.
No such limitations were felt in China, where paper had been invented in the second century. Paper was the foundation of Chinese culture and power, and for centuries how to make it was kept secret. When the secret was out, paper mills soon sprang up across central Asia. The result was an intellectual flourishing known as the Islamic Golden Age. Muslim scholars made discoveries in biology, geology, astronomy and mathematics. By contrast, Europe was an intellectual backwater.
That changed with Gutenberg’s development of movable type printing. The letters of the Latin alphabet have very simple block-like shapes, which made it relatively simple to turn them into type pieces. When printers tried to use movable type to print Arabic texts, they found themselves hampered by the cursive nature of Arabic writing. The success of movable type printing in Europe led to a thousand-fold increase in the availability of information, which produced an explosion of ideas that led directly to the European Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution that followed.

Across the world, rising demands for food, water and materials have pushed resources to the limit. Many parts of the world have major challenges over fresh water. A lot of soils have a lot of residual pesticides and herbicides. At the same time waste is piling higher. All this demands a new wave of innovation. The challenge is to make more of the things we need without the environmental cost.

Genetic breakthroughs have shed light on how life evolves in real-time. From filling in the missing links to creating a new species, in the last 50 years scientists have solved some of the biggest mysteries of evolution. In this episode, we look at revolutionary discoveries that shook the world and may shape our future.

As the journey continues, there's beauty and danger in equal measure. Charley and Ewan travel through the extraordinary Bolivian desert, but the sandy roads make all more difficult. The duo ride their electric bikes through the exotic and breathtaking countryside and all the way making a challenging ascent. The riders stay in a hotel made entirely out of salt before heading to La Paz. 'Bolivia' also shows some quality work done by UNICEF when it comes to educating and working with the children. McGregor and Boorman spend time with the kids before resuming their journey and ending with a ferry ride over lake Titicaca.

Ewan and Charley swap their e-Harley Davidsons for plane first and follow it up with a journey by ship to Panama. McGregor's bike needs some repairs and will be fixed by the time they reach Costa Rica. The ship they travel in with the bikes looks like a beaten-down vessel that raises genuine concerns about making the journey in one piece. The boat crew looks sharp and proactive while trying to make the show crew's journey as comfortable and safe as possible. The episode also introduces Nuqui, one of the wettest regions in the world where the ship quickly makes a pitstop to fuel up on essential supplies.