Sleeping pads, some food supplies and survival blankets. That's roughly what Rémi Camus and his two long-time accomplices Adrien Cavagna and Valentin Lam are carrying on board a raft made from large recycled 200-liter drums and a wooden frame.
After a high five, the team set off on a 12-day expedition, which will end in Orléans. This "micro-adventure," which kicked off on June 8, has dual objectives: to clean the Loire of trash and waste while also raising awareness about the conservation of the river's heritage.
"We left this morning, sailing our way down a [relatively calm] Loire at 4 km/h. Which rather surprised us on our lovely 8m2 raft. It is great to embark on another project that we came up with and wanted to do, and which we're undertaking on our small unidentified floating object," jokes Rémi Camus, who spoke to ETX Studio on day one of the expedition.
Throughout their journey, Rémi and his fellow travelers are collecting all the trash and waste they come across along the way, while reporting more cumbersome through the Trash Spotter application, a partner of the expedition.
Sumber Facebook RemiCamusExplorer
And so, sailing along the water, making stops in big cities and spending nights under the stars, the three friends embarked on their adventure. And the public can also get involved in the project: "Three guys on a raft dressed as pirates, it's eye-catching, it's atypical, and it shows that adventure is possible, right by where you live. Anybody is welcome to join us on board, to do part of the journey with us, to collect waste and even to set up a camp! But watch out, you'll need to bring a saucisson, because a bivouac without saucisson, just isn't a bivouac!," jokes Rémi.
But Rémi, Adrien and Valentin aren't just collecting floating waste. Equipped with small diving tanks provided by a Clermont-Ferrand-based company, they're using a solution halfway between snorkeling and diving, which allows them to submerge up to three meters into the Loire River.
"Floating waste is only the tip of the iceberg. Collecting this is not enough, as only a small amount is visible on the surface of rivers. The rest sinks to the bottom and ends up covered by silt or mud, making it almost impossible to recover," explains Rémi.
A big clean-up is planned June 20 in the city of Orléans, the expedition's final destination. "This journey is a first test to assess the solidity of our raft and to see if we can push the adventure further, this time from the source of the Loire to its mouth," says Rémi Camus.
The adventurer and eco-activist championing access to water
This is by no means the adventurer-explorer's first expedition. A former chef, Rémi Camus has since become a "survival trainer" and has been notching up all kinds of experiences over the last ten years, from swimming around France in 2018 to descending the Mekong River by hydrospeed riverboard in 2013.
"I grew up in a village with very few inhabitants. My father was quite rustic. Even when it rained, activities carried on outside. I always liked to go on adventures and walk in the woods," he says.
In 2012, Rémi Camus was inspired by the experience of fellow Frenchman Jamel Balhi, who ran 2,400 km across America. So he set out to run across Australia for a hundred days to go meet the country's Aboriginal peoples. This adventure saw the explorer face extreme conditions and served to consolidate his commitment to environmental conservation.
"One day, when I was in the middle of the desert near Alice Springs, I found myself without water. I was so dehydrated that I had to drink my own urine! This extreme situation made me realize that people were living this situation on a daily basis. This triggered a change in me and I decided to make the fight for access to water in the world my pet cause," he explains.
Indeed, human contact and environmental protection are at the core of Rémi Camus' missions. His next expedition will be a Calvi-to-Monaco solo swim planned for August 2022, in order to understand how humans survive in hostile environments. "This is both a scientific and an ecological project, once again focused on raising awareness about our beautiful planet," he says.
