Meet the expedition leader - Eric Hebert, Madagascar

Eric Hebert , one of the expedition leaders for the Matsiatra descent

Eric was born in 1958 in Canada. Eric studied Marine Engineering then began sailing ships in the great lakes and on the east coasts of the U.S. and Canada. Eric sailed in the summers while at university and then spent three years working full time on ships. While he enjoyed the Great Lakes, Eric was ambitious to see more of the world and, since Canada had no deep sea fleet, he bought a backpack and set off on his own to travel around the world.

Eric’s first destination was Kenya, where he fell in love with Africa. His ‘round the world’ trip turned into a 20 month African odyssey below the equator. One of the highlights of his trip was rafting the Zambezi River, On his return home Eric was determined to become a rafting guide and began his training.

After a couple of years guiding rafting trips in Canada, India, the U.S. and Australia, Eric joined a square rigger in Australia for a 14 month voyage of Australia and across the Pacific around Cape Horn to South America. Since then he has continued to pursue both rafting and sailing whenever possible. He has represented Canada in rafting competitions and during 2003-2004 participated in the Borobudur Ship Expedition where he teamed up with Pioneer Expeditions director Philip Beale. He has recently led rafting trips down the Firth river in the Artic Circle in northwest Canada and the Grand Canyon. When not on expeditions (which is rare), Eric finds time to teach and to be a draughtsman and engineer in the marine field.

Questions and answers

Interests

Travelling, rafting, square-rigged sailing ships, photography, American football.

 

Favourite place

Killarney, Ontario.

 

Most memorable trip

Africa 1986/87.

 

Person I’d most like to meet

Nelson Mandela.

 

Favourite word

Eh. ( “I am Canadian!”)

 

Greatest fear

Dying in a car crash.

 

Meet the other leader, Gilles, too!

 

To find out more about the Matsiatra river descent, Madagascar expedition, click here, call us on +44 (0)845 0047 801 or email us at info@pioneerexpeditions.com