Meet the expedition leader - Gilles Gautier, Madagascar

This week we meet Gilles, one of the expedition leaders for the Matsiatra descent

Born in 1958 in Marseille, Gilles spent 20 years between the French coast and the Alps on the sea, rivers and mountains with incursions in the Dolomites, Chamonix and Zermatt. He claims this made him ‘hooked on travelling, its mysteries, beauties, pains too’. Gilles then spent 5 years travelling around North America (mainly between Yosemite and Big Sur Area), central America, and around Africa. He lived in Comoros for some years then, in 1991, settled in Antananarivo where he still lives with his wife, son and three daughters.
As Gilles puts it: “I can feel this land and I know I found what I was looking for!”

Starting from scratch after a rather sudden and rough departure from Comoros,Gilles started a new concept in this country. Outdoors sports were a real alternative to classic tourist development and, combined with eco-tourism, Gilles has found his niche.

“Gilles is your man to float any of 13 rivers in Madagascar's backcountry” Grayson Schaffer, ‘Red Island Revival’, Outside Magazine. January 2005

 

 

 

Questions and answers

Interests

Photography, outdoors, reforestation, human relationships.

Favourite place

I'm living there! Nowhere else have I found such a concentration of natural wonders, humanity, and unexplored spots.

Most memorable trip

Sudan in 1982. Glad I did it in my younger days as it was physically a challenge to cross and spend 3 months in this land.
In Madagascar, it was the National Geographic expedition to Makira last year. Never, ever again on such terrible terrain, bad weather and poor communication between expedition members.

Person you would most like to meet and why?

Bill Gates to present him my reforestation programs and get funding for planting millions of trees ... I do not care about stars and famous people. Most memorable encounters happened with people living alternative life style.
More seriously, I can't remember the name of this brilliant economist advocating "negative growth" as an alternative to our civilization based on permanent growth, but I like his idea of reducing our needs instead of increasing stress and pressure to get more toys and social status BS.

Favourite word

Coooooool! Alternatively the local version "Soa biby".

Greatest fear

Deprivation of outdoors and wilderness areas. Having to live in a big modern city gives me the shivers. I couldn't switch back to the western way of living, ignoring neighbours, lacking respect to elders, sexually frustrated, aggressively violent and mentally lobotomized.

 

Meet the other leader, Eric, 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

“While Jim and I have specific days, hours, and moments of our trip that we would single out as favorites, we both agree that our latest adventure, traveling for nine days down the Benahy River in Southwestern Madagascar, was, as a whole, the best of our travels so far. I organized this trip many months previously through contact with an energetic French man, Gilles, who has been recommended by Outside Magazine as 'the man to float rivers with in Madagascar'...Thank YOU Gilles.” Extract from subtangerine.blogspot.com by Kendra and Jim, Philidelphia, Pensylvania, USA. 5/4/2006