David Beckham Rides through Brazil's Amazon
by Triumph Motorcycle for a BBC TV Documumentary

June 2015 -David Beckham has admitted that he loved the anonymity of riding through Brazil's Amazon rainforest on a motorbike, but his journey wasn't without its challenges. The football star, who explored the world's largest rainforest on two wheels earlier this year for a BBC documentary, said he was thrilled by the sense of freedom he felt on the trip, but struggled with sleeping in a hammock and not being able to wash as often as he liked.

Speaking to comedian and adventurer Michael Palin in a special interview, the former England player said he wanted to mark his retirement from professional football by embarking on the Brazilian odyssey. 'I retired 12 months ago and my whole life, my whole career has been about having a particular schedule that I’ve always kept to, so we just wanted to be able to jump on the bikes and do what we wanted, wherever we wanted’, he explained.

The star decided to travel with three of his closest friends, Anthony Mandler (a world-renowned photographer and video director), Derek White (an experienced motorbike rider), and best friend Dave Gardner who he has known since they were 14.

'I wanted to do something that we would all enjoy - I'm a big motorbike rider and so are two of my three friends that came with me on this trip. It was the kind of journey that had no schedule.

‘It was important to also find somewhere where I was unrecognisable, and we found that.’

The trip was organised and filmed by Anthony, who didn’t exactly give his fellow travellers a full briefing about what they would be up to: ‘Derek came with a suitcase of ‘going out’ shirts! He wasn’t expecting to camp, he wasn’t expecting to go into the jungle, so it was a whole surprise for him.

‘Dave and I were better prepared but Anthony still didn’t tell us much which is actually what I wanted.’
Beckham admitted that the anonymity riding the bike afforded him was liberating. 'When I have the helmet on nobody knows it's me. When I'm on a bike it's one of the few times that I feel free - so bikes were a big part of it for me.'

But while David looked forward to his adventure, it seems his family were worried about how he would cope. Footage form the documentary shows Brooklyn predicting his dad will struggle with spiders in the jungle, while wife Victoria jokes that he will need to wear a hat 'the whole time' to cover his messy hair.

The program first aired on BBC1 on June 9, 2015, the programme will see the group fly in to the rainforest city of Manaus - where England are set to play Italy - and racking up the miles as they head into the wilderness, bed down in hammocks and even catch and fillet their own fish, before cooking them on the open fire. As Brooklyn predicted, the group discovered a tarantula just three metres into their trek into the jungle. Later, they encountered six-foot long anacondas as they travelled along the Amazon in ‘leaky’ canoes.

In the interview with Palin, himself famed for circumnavigating the globe for various BBC documentaries, Beckham admitted he found sleeping in a hammock quite a challenge and only slept for 30 minutes on his first night in the jungle.
It was only when someone taught him how to sleep comfortably – either diagonally or ‘like a frog’ - that he finally managed to get the hang of it.

‘I’ve been in a hammock before with the kids or with Victoria, but sleeping in a hammock that was going to be your bed for 12 days, that was a whole different thing', he explained. ‘My first night’s sleep in the hammock was terrible, I had about 30 minutes sleep. About two days later someone decided to explain how best to sleep in a hammock and after that it was great.’ However, the star admitted that the lack of washing facilities did get him down: 'I am a clean person, so that was pretty tough for me,' he said.

Despite the hardships, the footballer became a dab hand at making a fire. And he certainly seemed to bond well with the locals, particularly when he met members of the remote Yanomami tribe, who have interacted with very few westerners.

Beckham described the experience as a ‘huge honour’ but admitted he found it nerve-wracking. The tribe greeted him with a special welcoming ceremony and the children were intrigued by the tattoos on his arms, which they tried to rub off.

Another of the tribesmen asked: ‘What do you do? What do you hunt?’ When David explained he was a professional footballer, the man asked ‘What is football?’ ‘I didn’t explain it very well’, says Beckham, ‘the only time I’ve ever had to explain football before is probably to my wife.’

David said the team took quite a difficult route through the rainforest, admitting there were a few 'dodgy roads along the way'.
But the star said the trip was 'exhilarating', and didn't regret anything about the experience, even when he nearly fell off his bike after hitting some ridges on a steep hill, following two solid days of rain. 'That was probably the worst that we came up against, but it was fun,' he told Palin. 'It made me feel like a 17-year-old and I'd do it all over again.'

While some of the roads were dangerous, Beckham said he never felt that the situation was life-threatening, but said he wouldn't want his boys doing it. ‘Not that I could stop them!’ he jokes. And the thing he is most proud of is that he came out of the jungle alive, along with the fact that he got to see more of his friends than he’d ever seen before: ‘Seeing Dave really, really struggle – that was a pleasurable part of the trip!’