While the news often makes you want to escape, the explorer and field journalist, Jean-Christian Kipp – also vice-president of the French Explorers Society – makes this possible, without leaving his living room, by having collected around twenty adventure stories in a captivating book (1).
From Cape Horn to the Sahara via the Himalayas, at the end of these challenges and these dreams, above all, the need for an opening towards the unknown dominates. Not always “useful”, However, these expeditions prove that we must not give up, especially in the worst times.
What does it mean to be “adventurous” today?
It all depends on the definition of adventure. For this book, we decided to offer a fairly broad approach, that is to say one that encompasses something other than just exploration. Today, while waiting for travel into the cosmos, the exploration of the Earth is well underway. There are still things to do, including exploring the ocean floor or caves. In fact, what we consider adventure is everything that happens from the moment we accept to put ourselves in danger and are ready to face the unknown.
So adventure doesn't necessarily involve going to the other side of the Earth?
It is not necessarily on the other side of the Earth and it is not necessarily “big”. The constraint of the great adventure is that it is only of interest if it is communicated. That is to say, only if we really undertake an expedition, if we invent something. This then involves communicating. However, often, at the start, it is a fairly solitary process. If it is not revealed and promoted, the great adventure is of no use. It must be spectacular, in the noble sense of the term. It must of course be interesting but it must also make you want it.
Would it not also consist of fleeing the realities of the contemporary world?
Of course. In fact, seeking adventure is a bit like a survival reflex. The contemporary world seeks security, and the precautionary principle has been established as a cardinal value. This somehow leads to accepting one's life as it is. On the contrary, adventure consists of going beyond what we are. The more we move into a secure society, the more a part of the population will not find it and will express this refusal by going in search of adventure. This can be a micro-adventure if needed, like a spiritual retreat, or wanting to live in a cabin. Someone who plays a little guitar and says to himself “I'm going to do a concert”, this constitutes an incredible adventure for him! His guts will be knotted, he will be nervous, he will be afraid of what will happen. But he's going to overcome that and throw himself into something he doesn't know, the outcome of which he doesn't know. A sentence from Blaise Cendrars sums up the adventurer's state of mind well: “As I was locked up, I jumped out of the window.”
So is fear part of the process?
I think everyone has a personal approach to fear. And I find that action annihilates fear a little. When you are in action, you manage to sublimate yourself to do what needs to be done, even to survive. If we're not enough, we die, or we have a real problem. We always end up feeling fear at one point or another. It is often said that the timid is afraid first and the adventurous is afraid afterwards. What is certain is that if you are afraid during, it's ruined! All these actions, all these adventures, are above all battles with oneself. This requires willpower, enormous mental strength, beyond passion. You have to hold on whatever happens. Jean-Louis Étienne – the first man to reach the North Pole alone in 1986 – describes well this evidence that we must not let go, even in the worst moments. If he hadn't felt this survival instinct, he would have died. He tells it very well.
Can uselessness also be the basis of adventure?
Adventure is not necessarily useful. But this usefulness can be found in the beautiful gesture, the panache, and finally in the intellectual or psychological usefulness because it too can influence others and thereby become useful. The Nagalaka expedition, in which I participated, for example, was absolutely useless. But it opened up perspectives. Its goal was to open a new route northward connecting, by a straight line, eastern Alaska to the northern tip of Greenland. This opening was made possible by the genius of Sébastien Roubinet, who invented the tool to make this expedition a success, a light catamaran mounted on two composite tubes armed at their bottom with a Teflon blade ensuring gliding. Certain routes can only be traced by man through the mastery of a new tool. In the same vein, I also crossed South America in a microlight, following in the footsteps of Aéropostale.
From Cape Horn to the Himalayas via the poles or the desert, what guides Man, the quest for the absolute?
It is the quest for the unknown. There is a philosopher who said “man is the only animal who invents problems that do not exist, and that is what makes him move forward”. Adventure is a bit like that.
Is the work of reporting that you know well, in countries at war, also an adventure?
Yes, because you are facing the unknown. Wars are getting harder and harder to cover because you now risk identification by phone and are vulnerable to drones. When we are at the front, accompanying soldiers, we are still confronted with danger, with a form of adventure. You have the impression of living intensely because you know that your life is precarious, that a problem could happen at any moment. These are extremely powerful moments because you have both the best and the worst of the man coming through. There is a sort of positive and negative sublimation which is extremely gripping.
You are now financing expeditions. For what?
I sold my companies in 2022 and then created the Odysseus foundation, for the defense of freedoms. We thus deliver adventure grants. My principle is that if I finance you, I support you. I am therefore obliged to seek out people I know, because I trust them, to make the supported project credible and possible.
Do you consider the Vendée Globe sailors to be adventurers?
That's a big debate between us… Beyond the sport, there is fear, there is loneliness, but they are still professionals who have trained a lot for that. Are they stepping out of their comfort zones? I would say that it depends on the races but it is clear that in the Vendée Globe, given the route they take, there is always an element of unknown which is important. So I answer yes. In fact, I would have dreamed of doing the Vendée Globe.
Adventurers' stories / Travels, explorations and adventures.
By Jean-Christian Kipp and Olivier Weber (Editions de l'Aube). 278 pages, 24 euros.
