“YOU WILL VISIT THE SISTINE CHAPEL OF THE PREHISTORY OF HUMANITY! »

Dominic Clarisse: Hello Luc-Henri, I am very happy that you have accepted this meeting, so that the clients of Azimuth Adventure Travel Ltd can get to know you better and therefore better appreciate your work. Can I ask you to introduce yourself in a few words?

Luc-Henri Fage: My name is Luc-Henri Fage, I have been a speleologist since the age of 16/17. With my brother, then with a very, very active caving club in Vaucluse, called “Les Darbounes”, we explored large chasms in the Vaucluse mountains first, then in France. And finally, in 83-84, a big chasm in Algeria, which was the first trip I really made outside of Europe. And that gave me a bit of an introduction into the world of exploration speleologists, of which there aren't that many in the end, and which allowed me to go to Papua New Guinea in 1985 and do my first film.

Dominic: I personally discovered your “exploits” in 1992, after my very first trip to Indonesian Papua (which we called “Irian Jaya” at the time). At the time, I was working on writing an article to illustrate my photographic report, and I therefore came across, among other things, your book, “The Memory of the Mists” co-written with Arnoult Seveau, and which had just been published. I remember “devouring” it in one go, fascinated by the description of your adventures and especially by that of the Papuan tribes, which I had also met a few months earlier. What feelings did Papua give you?

Luc-Henri: The discovery of Papua was extraordinary for me. The big forest, inhabitants, Papuans, giant chasms, and above all cinema. From then on, I never stopped traveling with my camera.

(In 1990) we knew that at some point we were going to arrive at the village of Langda, where there were still men making stone axes.

Hey, I have one here. So, they're not axes, they're adzes. We carry them on the shoulder, like that. And then we take them out, and that allows us to cut down a small tree. It's still a beautiful blade. It is a basalt blade mounted on a branch with rattan. And that was a tool that still existed, still made at Una, in 1990.

Dominic: Can you now tell us more about the “The memory of the caves” circuit, which you will run from April 27 to May 14? Is this a way for you to make the hidden treasures of Borneo better known to the general public? Is this also a way to promote a slightly more “intellectual” tourism (compared, for example, to so-called “Instagram” tourism)?

Luc-Henri: The trip is not only interesting, I think, for the people who are going to do it, but it is also interesting for the local populations, who will have economic benefits which are not negligible.

We must develop ecotourism, because if we allow, through an economic activity complementary to local populations, to continue to go to the caves, to continue to go to these limestone mountains, to continue to have economic returns from these mountains, these rock paintings, if the local people know that this is a source of income for them, they will protect them. They will help protect them. So we must protect the caves. And to protect them, we must make them known.

I am sure that it will be a trip that will leave an impression on people, who will agree to get off the beaten track, that's it.

Obviously, there won’t be “lobsters” at every meal, that’s for sure! We must not talk nonsense. (Laughs)

We're going to bring people to visit the Sistine Chapel from the prehistory of Humanity!

So, there are people who go to Rome, people who go to Venice, there are people who take photos in front of “Instagrammable” places, and then there are others who go to museums. Well, they are the ones that interest us.

It is they who will be interested in this visit, because we will both talk about the prehistory of humanity, paleontology, and at the same time, in the evening, we will cook a fish on the embers, which has been sinned by the sons of Tewet at sunset.

When we go to climb towards Tewet, towards Gua Tewet, or towards Liang Tamrin, the people, they will sweat, we are not going to carry them. The principle of this trip is still authenticity... and then, the Sistine Chapel at the end! (Laughs)

Dominic: Thank you, Luc-Henri, for taking some of your precious time to tell us about your passion for Indonesia, and more particularly for the Papuan populations and the cave paintings of Borneo.

REGISTER NOW FOR THE “MEMORY OF THE CAVES” TOUR FROM APRIL 27 TO MAY 14, 2024!