Nokia have decided to help intreprid explorers Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman indulge their mid-life crises by giving the pair a Nokia 6110 Navigator phone for their latest around the world on a motorbike trip.

The pair famously went from London to New York on a motorobike in 2004 in a trip they called the Long Way round. They're now aiming to follow on from that trip by travelling from John O'Groats in Scotland all the way down to Cape Town in South Africa in what they're calling the Long Way Round.

Nokia failed to ask the pair quite why they're doing this!

More details after the jump.

"During Long Way Round we kept getting lost and had to rely on anything from landmarks to advice from locals in all sorts of languages to find our way, so getting a proper navigational tool for Long Way Down was a real priority" said Ewan McGregor.

"We've been playing around with the Nokia 6110 Navigator before setting off and it's just what we need to stay on track".

It's interesting that Nokia chose to give the pair a Nokia 6110, rather than its flagship Nokia N95, both of which come with Sat-Nav abilties, but the N95 really does do an awful lot more. Nokia aren't saying whether battery life had anything to do with this decision, but I reckon it's a fair assumption.

From the press release:

About Long Way Down

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman will take to the road together once more as they bike through Europe and Africa taking the Long Way Down. Along the way they will stop to experience African culture, meet local people and visit UNICEF sites. Starting at John O'Groats and finishing in Cape Town, Ewan and Charley plan on going down the East coast taking in such countries as Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Namibia before reaching South Africa. www.longwaydown.com contains all the latest information on the trip. Producer/ Directors Russ Malkin of Big Earth and David Alexanian of Elixir films will produce the six part TV series for the BBC.

About the Nokia 6110 Navigator

The Nokia 6110 Navigator offers instant and easy-to-use maps, routing and voice guided navigation available with the click of the phone's one-touch Navigator key. Consumers can quickly and easily view their current location on the map, search for destinations, find specific routes, or locate services such as restaurants, hotels or shops that are nearby. Featuring full turn-by-turn 3D navigation, the Nokia 6110 Navigator suggests the best route to follow to reach a location by car or on foot. The Nokia 6110 Navigator also features AGPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) to ensure greater performance and faster positioning.

The Nokia 6110 Navigator comes with a local map pre-installed on the memory card ready for immediate navigation. Additional maps and content - such as traffic information, weather services and travel guides - can be purchased online and transferred to the phone. The maps also show thousands of points of interest, such as restaurants, hotels, shops or other services nearby the location.