The Boys From Brazil: Overland From Beijing to London

The Olympic host city baton is being passed from Beijing to London at the end of this week. To mark this, three Brazilians – Richard Amante, Edgar Scherer and Paulo Scherer – have decided to drive the 20,000 kilometers from China’s capital to England’s, taking in Central Asia on the way. We caught up with them on the road, although their car didn’t make it across the Chinese border.

Whose idea was this trip?
The idea came up while we were drinking on a barbecue, in december 2010. edgar had the idea.

What are you bringing with you?
We are bringing the olympic spirit with us, and a ball. There is this torch that we are using to represent this spirit, and we intent to run with it all the time, in every place we stop. And we also would like to play football in every place we visit.

What songs do you have on your iPod playlist?
ACDC is the main playlist. “Highway to hell” is our song.

What will you do if you get lost?
We got lost almost everyday since we left. No GPS and no printed maps. Quite an adventure. We stop and ask, or just see where the road takes us.

Do you expect any difficulties getting into any of these countries? Are you at all worried?
Our biggest worry was not leaving china with the car. And it happened. They say there is nothing against a foreigner leaving the country with a chinese car, but no one did it before, so they had no idea what kind of papers we needed. We spent almost 3 months talking to more than 40 different departments in Beijing, Suzhou, Nanjing, Urumqi, Alashankou, Huoerguosi and nobody had an answer. On the last day, we found a company in Huoerguosi that made some contacts and told us they could do it, but it would take more than one month. So, we gave up and crossed on foot.

What countries are you most excited about seeing?
We plan sightseeing a lot in every country. I'm excited about Iran, because it's history and rich culture, and Turkmenistan, because is one of the most 'closed' countries in the world. Without Thunder Love, we have less time for sightseeing, but we'll find a way to go to all the places we'd like to visit.

Do you have tickets for the Olympics?
No tickets at all. We'll try to buy there on the black market. We would like to see football and swimming.

Why do you think Brazilians are so popular?
Because of football, for sure. Everybody likes it. Every place we go, people talk about football with us. Even the guards in Kazahkstan wanted to take pictures with us because I was wearing our football shirt.

Are all Brazilians as crazy as you guys?
We are the good kind of crazy. Some are like us, and some ever crazier., And I'm sure many people would like to do something like this.

When this gets turned into a movie what actors would play each of you?
Good question. I think about it every day. Edgar: Robert De Niro. Paulo: Al Pacino. Richard: Jack Black.

Click here to see the Beijinger July issue in full.

See our weekly posts that have been tracking the guys progress here.

Photos: OlympicExpeditition.com