Translator: eric vautier Reviewer: Cristina Bufi-Pöcksteiner
To dare is to win.
Have you ever gone out of your comfort zone once?
Have you ever tried to push your limits?
Is the notion of surpassing oneself,
does it speak to you?
I introduce myself: Rémi Camus,
I am an adventurer-explorer.
Maybe your kids will ask you this question:
“Daddy, mom, what do you do to become an adventurer? “
Well, I dared; I dared things,
and tonight I’m going to share my adventures.
Before starting, I need to tell you my story,
because my real job is butler.
After a very long school –
a technological bac in restoration –
that’s it, it’s done –
I started traveling a little bit everywhere in France.
I took the opportunity to combine work with the pleasure of tourism.
But I still faced a problem.
When there were foreign customers,
I was unable to take the order in English; I did not understand anything.
So, suddenly, I dared:
I went to England,
in a small town in Surrey, Guildford.
I was employed in a French establishment,
then I met an Englishman, Gary Nichols.
And at a party a little bit watered –
really watered, the English like to drink –
Gary confided in me and said:
“Remi, at your age, I was already gone to New Zealand,
at the other end of the planet. “
This conversation disturbed me a little,
and a month later,
I arrived at the door of his office with my letter of resignation.
And why do I talk to you about all this tonight?
Simply because I dared.
I dared things, I ventured the adventure, I dared the unknown, I dared to surpass myself.
So if you do not mind, we’ll do something this afternoon,
all together.
When I say to you, “According to you? “
you will say, “I dared. “
Okay ? We do it together? According to you ?
Audience: I dared.
I did not hear anything. You can start again. According to you ?
Audience: I dared.
Here ! That’s it !
In November 2007, I went to New Zealand.
I arrived in Auckland.
Everyone was going to the bus stop.
I did like everyone else,
I made the sheep.
We got on the bus; he dropped us off downtown.
I took a room in a guesthouse, the hotels for travelers.
I met David from the Czech Republic.
We discussed and asked him
if it was possible for me to leave, with him, to travel.
He told me yes.
Five days later, we bought a truck together.
We went around New Zealand.
We worked together in the orchards,
we collected the grapes, we did the harvest.
I spent my first Christmas in shorts in Christchurch.
I spent my December 31st at Mount Cook Village.
And eight months later, I left New Zealand with tears in my eyes,
so much had this country upset me.
I went back to Europe, to France, and then I went back to England,
because I had found a job.
And there, I met a Polish woman,
who says to me:
“Come with me, come to Poland. “
According to you ?
Audience: I dared.
Effectively ! I went to Poland.
(Laughter)
I worked in an Italian restaurant,
I was the only Frenchman who did not speak a single Polish word.
Moreover, the customers each time laughed to ask me this question:
“But why is a Frenchman in Poland?
Usually, it’s the Poles who leave.
– The reason is simple: it’s because she’s Polish. “
And the reason was enough for them, apparently.
But for six months, I persuaded my friend to go with me to Australia,
to make a road trip together.
And so we left.
We landed in Sydney,
we bought an old truck,
and we went around Australia.
We went to the Great Barrier Reef where we could swim;
we saw the sunrise and sunset on Uluru-Kata Tjuta,
this big red monolith in the middle of Australia;
we saw dolphins and turtles;
we drove in the bush, straight lines as far as the eye could see.
After nine months of adventure, we sold our truck,
and with the money from the truck, we went to Asia.
We went to Thailand, then we went to Laos.
This is where we first saw the Mekong River.
Then we went back to Thailand, and we left Malaysia,
and we went back to Europe.
And after, I decided to end our relationship –
I think we had gone around.
So she went back to Poland.
And I went to work in a restaurant
next to Geneva, in Thoiry,
a star in the Michelin Guide,
and I became butler.
It’s not over, do not worry, wait.
A winter morning,
I get a phone call from my mom, who tells me:
“Rémi, I have a nice thing for you:
take a vacation, come to Brittany,
I rented a small house, it will be really nice. “
I’m going to Brittany,
and the same evening, I ask her about our holiday program,
and she said to me:
“There is a big flea market, tomorrow there are 700 exhibitors,
we must do it. “
“You made me cross France for a flea market? “
“Yes, but you’ll see, that’s good. “
” A flea market ? “
Indeed, she was right.
The next day, I let my mom leave and hunt on her side,
and I’m leaving mine.
I come across a woman who sold her entire collection of books.
And I come across a book, which completely caught my eye.
It was Jamel Balhi, a Frenchman of Moroccan origin,
who ran across America.
He left Alaska to Terra del Fuego,
which is about 24,000 km in a year and a half.
I bought the book, I read it in one night.
The next day, a project was born.
“If he, he managed to do that, why not me?
It can be interesting. “
So, suddenly, I matured my project.
And according to you?
Audience: I dared.
Indeed, I dared.
It took me eight months to build my project, to train every day.
I knew how to run 10 km, but I had to do a lot more.
So for eight months, I trained 40 km a day,
to mount my project,
be it at the administrative level, get the permissions,
build a suitable equipment to be able to do that.
Then, when my project was well put together, I still informed my mom.
“Do you remember the book I read? “
” Yes. “
“Well, I, too, will cross a country running,
and it will be Australia. “
And his first remark, it was:
“You could not have chosen Luxembourg?
In one day, it was over and we did not talk about it anymore,
and you had crossed a country. “
“And yes, but it’s not the same thing, anyway. “
And so, in October 2011,
here I am in Australia,
with a homemade trailer,
to try to cross the continent,
from Melbourne to Darwin,
which is about 5,400 km.
So, the goals were multiple.
The first was for me.
Since just now, I tell you to dare things.
Well, I wanted to see if I could surpass myself, surpass myself,
to go forward, to go to the unknown.
The second thing,
it was also to raise funds
and publicize Lowe’s syndrome,
genetic disease, which mainly affects boys.
And finally, I wanted to meet the aborigines, the real ones,
those who are in lost communities in the middle of the bush.
So, suddenly –
Ah, the equipment! It’s fantastic !
This house, my trailer, it was a day.
(Laughter)
Thank you dad !
It does not matter, we put that aside.
And galleys, I got some.
I had a lot during my expedition.
I drank my urine, not to die dehydrated in the desert,
I had no choice.
I cut up a kangaroo.
He was alive just before,
a truck passed at the same time and hit the kangaroo.
It was nine o’clock in the morning,
breakfast was served, it was perfect.
I opened the kangaroo,
I got the blood I drank, and I ate the meat.
Simply, it’s raw, like a tartare, it’s very good.
I left and a few kilometers further, a lady in a car stops,
leave the car a little fast, a little distraught,
and ask me:
” Everything is fine ? Is everything all right? “
” Yes everything is fine. “
As I stoop down, I see my T-shirt covered with blood and kangaroo hair.
(Laughter)
I simply tell him:
“Do not worry, do not worry, it’s not my blood – it’s not my blood. “
(Laughter)
She got into her car, she left very quickly,
and I said to myself:
“In my opinion, I will have the police in a short time. “
Nothing happened, I assure you,
but I did not think about that. Good.
I continued my adventure.
In the middle of Australia, I met a Bushman, an Ozzie,
who says to me:
“If you continue the road, you will find a caravan on the left,
you can go inside, you can sleep, it belongs to me, rest. “
Cloud cover was important, the storm was imminent.
“It’s good, I’ll go there, I’ll enjoy it. “
I enter the caravan, I was so tired
that I do not look at anything, and lie down on the bed.
And the next day,
unfortunately, I get bitten by a spider, a Redback,
not very big, three cm in diameter; it looks a bit like a black widow,
except it has the distinction of having a red line in the abdomen.
I looked everywhere in the caravan, there was everywhere, in fact.
You know what ? It takes more to stop Remi. So, I continued.
I continued and arrived in the desert.
I met the aborigines, [one of whom] who was called Poconbè, who told me:
“Remi, you’ll come and hunt with me. “
“Okay, we’ll hunt together. “
So suddenly, he said to me:
“You come tomorrow morning; we ride in the 4×4 and off we go. “
I ride in the 4×4, I look around:
where is the spear?
The aborigines, the skins of the beast, the spear.
Where is the spear? No spear!
We start to roll.
He may have a rifle to kill kangaroos.
At the same time, a kangaroo passes in front of us.
He retrogrades, accelerates and rolls on it.
(Laughter)
He says, “There he is dead. “
“It’s still pretty radical. “
“You have to live with your time. “
(Laughter)
It was expeditious.
(Laughs) (Applause)
I continued my adventure,
and 300 km from the arrival,
my mom called, as every three days, to see if it was ok.
Sometimes it was:
“Rémi, are you all right? ” ” Yes. ” ” Where are you ? “
“There is sand, shrubs and a dead kangaroo. “
Three days later: “Where are you? “
“Sand, shrubs. “
“But it never changes? “
“Yes, unfortunately, it’s always the same thing. “
“I heard the information
a hurricane was about to fall on the shores of Darwin. “
“No, he did not fall on Darwin’s shores,
he is there, above my head. “
(Laughter)
And the communication has cut,
the cloud cover is too important.
And she stayed six days without news,
with the anguish of “Where is my son? “
But I arrived in Darwin after my adventure.
100 days to make 5 400 kilometers.
(Applause)
What marked me the most in this expedition,
it’s lack of water, thirst.
I will not be able to describe it to you,
you have to have lived once in your life to know what it is,
the thirst.
We could kill, to have water.
I came back to France.
I thought it would be interesting to push on this theme, on the water.
So, I thought about another project.
I did something running, so why not swim?
I like swimming.
I knew how to do 50 meters without flowing.
I like to swim: we will do that swimming.
According to you ?
Audience: I dared.
Indeed, I dared.
I mounted my project.
It took me a year and four months to set up this project,
to swim from 50 meters to 10 km per day,
to obtain all necessary authorizations, visas, permits,
to build something suitable to be able to do my expedition.
And in October 2013,
I was standing [on the bank] of the Mekong River on the upper part of Tibet,
to be able to travel the 4,400 km of this river,
to its mouth in Vietnam,
to swim.
And galleys, I had, really, I had many.
I was arrested on the third largest dam in the world,
They had Kalashnikovs.
Thanks Google Translate for helping me find a solution
because I did not know at all what I wanted to do.
They arrested me for red tape,
in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, for a month and three days.
They grabbed everything, they left me with a seven mm combination,
a lifejacket on the back,
and they said, “We’ll call you later. “
Fortunately, there were tourists
to help me move forward and not lose my head.
I continued my adventure after.
Infected by the quality of the water, I had a huge foot,
I could not put on my fins anymore,
but I continued.
In the Mekong Delta,
I had to fight the rising and falling tide,
because it affects the river up to 300 km inland.
I was swimming 6 hours, I slept 6 hours, I was swimming 6 hours, I slept 6 hours,
because it does not follow the course of the sun, so we swim by day, by night.
And I succeeded.
And on April 14, 2014,
I arrived at the end of my expedition.
Six months of adventure
(Applause)
Six months of adventure for 4,400 km of swimming.
Projects, I have others, many others,
which one I would like to share with you tonight.
We are only at the beginning.
It is a project that is simply the logical continuation of the Mekong.
It is an environmental project, more ecological.
In fact, we realize that in the Mekong Delta,
there are quantities of waste
which, unfortunately, are on the surface of the water.
Most of the waste is made from plastics.
We know that most plastics are derived from hydrocarbons.
Is there not a process to transform this plastic?
and give it back its market value, its initial value of oil?
Well, yes!
It’s called depolymerization.
The project would be a floating barge,
with, on board, a machine that turns plastic into oil.
It would allow the local population to improve their habitat,
its environment, the quality of the water too,
but also to create a circular economy
by asking the local people
to collect waste for remuneration.
I know it’s a difficult project, which is ambitious.
But you know what ? I will dare!
I will dare things.
I can crash, it does not matter, but I would have tried.
If I’m here this afternoon, to tell you all these beautiful stories,
my adventures, my expeditions,
it’s to show you that I’m not so different from you.
I just dared things,
I dared the adventure, dared the unknown, dared the extreme.
I wanted to see if I was able to surpass myself, to surpass myself.
You all have in you this ability to do it.
You just have to grab it.
We’ll do something; it can be very nice.
Instead of saying, “I dared! You will say very loudly: “I will dare! “
Please, say it!
Audience: I will dare!
Exactly! It will be necessary to tell you the day, where you will have a new project,
because “To dare is to win! “
Thank you.
(Applause)
To dare is to win.
Have you ever gone out of your comfort zone once?
Have you ever tried to push your limits?
Is the notion of surpassing oneself,
does it speak to you?
I introduce myself: Rémi Camus,
I am an adventurer-explorer.
Maybe your kids will ask you this question:
“Daddy, mom, what do you do to become an adventurer? “
Well, I dared; I dared things,
and tonight I’m going to share my adventures.
Before starting, I need to tell you my story,
because my real job is butler.
After a very long school –
a technological bac in restoration –
that’s it, it’s done –
I started traveling a little bit everywhere in France.
I took the opportunity to combine work with the pleasure of tourism.
But I still faced a problem.
When there were foreign customers,
I was unable to take the order in English; I did not understand anything.
So, suddenly, I dared:
I went to England,
in a small town in Surrey, Guildford.
I was employed in a French establishment,
then I met an Englishman, Gary Nichols.
And at a party a little bit watered –
really watered, the English like to drink –
Gary confided in me and said:
“Remi, at your age, I was already gone to New Zealand,
at the other end of the planet. “
This conversation disturbed me a little,
and a month later,
I arrived at the door of his office with my letter of resignation.
And why do I talk to you about all this tonight?
Simply because I dared.
I dared things, I ventured the adventure, I dared the unknown, I dared to surpass myself.
So if you do not mind, we’ll do something this afternoon,
all together.
When I say to you, “According to you? “
you will say, “I dared. “
Okay ? We do it together? According to you ?
Audience: I dared.
I did not hear anything. You can start again. According to you ?
Audience: I dared.
Here ! That’s it !
In November 2007, I went to New Zealand.
I arrived in Auckland.
Everyone was going to the bus stop.
I did like everyone else,
I made the sheep.
We got on the bus; he dropped us off downtown.
I took a room in a guesthouse, the hotels for travelers.
I met David from the Czech Republic.
We discussed and asked him
if it was possible for me to leave, with him, to travel.
He told me yes.
Five days later, we bought a truck together.
We went around New Zealand.
We worked together in the orchards,
we collected the grapes, we did the harvest.
I spent my first Christmas in shorts in Christchurch.
I spent my December 31st at Mount Cook Village.
And eight months later, I left New Zealand with tears in my eyes,
so much had this country upset me.
I went back to Europe, to France, and then I went back to England,
because I had found a job.
And there, I met a Polish woman,
who says to me:
“Come with me, come to Poland. “
According to you ?
Audience: I dared.
Effectively ! I went to Poland.
(Laughter)
I worked in an Italian restaurant,
I was the only Frenchman who did not speak a single Polish word.
Moreover, the customers each time laughed to ask me this question:
“But why is a Frenchman in Poland?
Usually, it’s the Poles who leave.
– The reason is simple: it’s because she’s Polish. “
And the reason was enough for them, apparently.
But for six months, I persuaded my friend to go with me to Australia,
to make a road trip together.
And so we left.
We landed in Sydney,
we bought an old truck,
and we went around Australia.
We went to the Great Barrier Reef where we could swim;
we saw the sunrise and sunset on Uluru-Kata Tjuta,
this big red monolith in the middle of Australia;
we saw dolphins and turtles;
we drove in the bush, straight lines as far as the eye could see.
After nine months of adventure, we sold our truck,
and with the money from the truck, we went to Asia.
We went to Thailand, then we went to Laos.
This is where we first saw the Mekong River.
Then we went back to Thailand, and we left Malaysia,
and we went back to Europe.
And after, I decided to end our relationship –
I think we had gone around.
So she went back to Poland.
And I went to work in a restaurant
next to Geneva, in Thoiry,
a star in the Michelin Guide,
and I became butler.
It’s not over, do not worry, wait.
A winter morning,
I get a phone call from my mom, who tells me:
“Rémi, I have a nice thing for you:
take a vacation, come to Brittany,
I rented a small house, it will be really nice. “
I’m going to Brittany,
and the same evening, I ask her about our holiday program,
and she said to me:
“There is a big flea market, tomorrow there are 700 exhibitors,
we must do it. “
“You made me cross France for a flea market? “
“Yes, but you’ll see, that’s good. “
” A flea market ? “
Indeed, she was right.
The next day, I let my mom leave and hunt on her side,
and I’m leaving mine.
I come across a woman who sold her entire collection of books.
And I come across a book, which completely caught my eye.
It was Jamel Balhi, a Frenchman of Moroccan origin,
who ran across America.
He left Alaska to Terra del Fuego,
which is about 24,000 km in a year and a half.
I bought the book, I read it in one night.
The next day, a project was born.
“If he, he managed to do that, why not me?
It can be interesting. “
So, suddenly, I matured my project.
And according to you?
Audience: I dared.
Indeed, I dared.
It took me eight months to build my project, to train every day.
I knew how to run 10 km, but I had to do a lot more.
So for eight months, I trained 40 km a day,
to mount my project,
be it at the administrative level, get the permissions,
build a suitable equipment to be able to do that.
Then, when my project was well put together, I still informed my mom.
“Do you remember the book I read? “
” Yes. “
“Well, I, too, will cross a country running,
and it will be Australia. “
And his first remark, it was:
“You could not have chosen Luxembourg?
In one day, it was over and we did not talk about it anymore,
and you had crossed a country. “
“And yes, but it’s not the same thing, anyway. “
And so, in October 2011,
here I am in Australia,
with a homemade trailer,
to try to cross the continent,
from Melbourne to Darwin,
which is about 5,400 km.
So, the goals were multiple.
The first was for me.
Since just now, I tell you to dare things.
Well, I wanted to see if I could surpass myself, surpass myself,
to go forward, to go to the unknown.
The second thing,
it was also to raise funds
and publicize Lowe’s syndrome,
genetic disease, which mainly affects boys.
And finally, I wanted to meet the aborigines, the real ones,
those who are in lost communities in the middle of the bush.
So, suddenly –
Ah, the equipment! It’s fantastic !
This house, my trailer, it was a day.
(Laughter)
Thank you dad !
It does not matter, we put that aside.
And galleys, I got some.
I had a lot during my expedition.
I drank my urine, not to die dehydrated in the desert,
I had no choice.
I cut up a kangaroo.
He was alive just before,
a truck passed at the same time and hit the kangaroo.
It was nine o’clock in the morning,
breakfast was served, it was perfect.
I opened the kangaroo,
I got the blood I drank, and I ate the meat.
Simply, it’s raw, like a tartare, it’s very good.
I left and a few kilometers further, a lady in a car stops,
leave the car a little fast, a little distraught,
and ask me:
” Everything is fine ? Is everything all right? “
” Yes everything is fine. “
As I stoop down, I see my T-shirt covered with blood and kangaroo hair.
(Laughter)
I simply tell him:
“Do not worry, do not worry, it’s not my blood – it’s not my blood. “
(Laughter)
She got into her car, she left very quickly,
and I said to myself:
“In my opinion, I will have the police in a short time. “
Nothing happened, I assure you,
but I did not think about that. Good.
I continued my adventure.
In the middle of Australia, I met a Bushman, an Ozzie,
who says to me:
“If you continue the road, you will find a caravan on the left,
you can go inside, you can sleep, it belongs to me, rest. “
Cloud cover was important, the storm was imminent.
“It’s good, I’ll go there, I’ll enjoy it. “
I enter the caravan, I was so tired
that I do not look at anything, and lie down on the bed.
And the next day,
unfortunately, I get bitten by a spider, a Redback,
not very big, three cm in diameter; it looks a bit like a black widow,
except it has the distinction of having a red line in the abdomen.
I looked everywhere in the caravan, there was everywhere, in fact.
You know what ? It takes more to stop Remi. So, I continued.
I continued and arrived in the desert.
I met the aborigines, [one of whom] who was called Poconbè, who told me:
“Remi, you’ll come and hunt with me. “
“Okay, we’ll hunt together. “
So suddenly, he said to me:
“You come tomorrow morning; we ride in the 4×4 and off we go. “
I ride in the 4×4, I look around:
where is the spear?
The aborigines, the skins of the beast, the spear.
Where is the spear? No spear!
We start to roll.
He may have a rifle to kill kangaroos.
At the same time, a kangaroo passes in front of us.
He retrogrades, accelerates and rolls on it.
(Laughter)
He says, “There he is dead. “
“It’s still pretty radical. “
“You have to live with your time. “
(Laughter)
It was expeditious.
(Laughs) (Applause)
I continued my adventure,
and 300 km from the arrival,
my mom called, as every three days, to see if it was ok.
Sometimes it was:
“Rémi, are you all right? ” ” Yes. ” ” Where are you ? “
“There is sand, shrubs and a dead kangaroo. “
Three days later: “Where are you? “
“Sand, shrubs. “
“But it never changes? “
“Yes, unfortunately, it’s always the same thing. “
“I heard the information
a hurricane was about to fall on the shores of Darwin. “
“No, he did not fall on Darwin’s shores,
he is there, above my head. “
(Laughter)
And the communication has cut,
the cloud cover is too important.
And she stayed six days without news,
with the anguish of “Where is my son? “
But I arrived in Darwin after my adventure.
100 days to make 5 400 kilometers.
(Applause)
What marked me the most in this expedition,
it’s lack of water, thirst.
I will not be able to describe it to you,
you have to have lived once in your life to know what it is,
the thirst.
We could kill, to have water.
I came back to France.
I thought it would be interesting to push on this theme, on the water.
So, I thought about another project.
I did something running, so why not swim?
I like swimming.
I knew how to do 50 meters without flowing.
I like to swim: we will do that swimming.
According to you ?
Audience: I dared.
Indeed, I dared.
I mounted my project.
It took me a year and four months to set up this project,
to swim from 50 meters to 10 km per day,
to obtain all necessary authorizations, visas, permits,
to build something suitable to be able to do my expedition.
And in October 2013,
I was standing [on the bank] of the Mekong River on the upper part of Tibet,
to be able to travel the 4,400 km of this river,
to its mouth in Vietnam,
to swim.
And galleys, I had, really, I had many.
I was arrested on the third largest dam in the world,
They had Kalashnikovs.
Thanks Google Translate for helping me find a solution
because I did not know at all what I wanted to do.
They arrested me for red tape,
in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, for a month and three days.
They grabbed everything, they left me with a seven mm combination,
a lifejacket on the back,
and they said, “We’ll call you later. “
Fortunately, there were tourists
to help me move forward and not lose my head.
I continued my adventure after.
Infected by the quality of the water, I had a huge foot,
I could not put on my fins anymore,
but I continued.
In the Mekong Delta,
I had to fight the rising and falling tide,
because it affects the river up to 300 km inland.
I was swimming 6 hours, I slept 6 hours, I was swimming 6 hours, I slept 6 hours,
because it does not follow the course of the sun, so we swim by day, by night.
And I succeeded.
And on April 14, 2014,
I arrived at the end of my expedition.
Six months of adventure
(Applause)
Six months of adventure for 4,400 km of swimming.
Projects, I have others, many others,
which one I would like to share with you tonight.
We are only at the beginning.
It is a project that is simply the logical continuation of the Mekong.
It is an environmental project, more ecological.
In fact, we realize that in the Mekong Delta,
there are quantities of waste
which, unfortunately, are on the surface of the water.
Most of the waste is made from plastics.
We know that most plastics are derived from hydrocarbons.
Is there not a process to transform this plastic?
and give it back its market value, its initial value of oil?
Well, yes!
It’s called depolymerization.
The project would be a floating barge,
with, on board, a machine that turns plastic into oil.
It would allow the local population to improve their habitat,
its environment, the quality of the water too,
but also to create a circular economy
by asking the local people
to collect waste for remuneration.
I know it’s a difficult project, which is ambitious.
But you know what ? I will dare!
I will dare things.
I can crash, it does not matter, but I would have tried.
If I’m here this afternoon, to tell you all these beautiful stories,
my adventures, my expeditions,
it’s to show you that I’m not so different from you.
I just dared things,
I dared the adventure, dared the unknown, dared the extreme.
I wanted to see if I was able to surpass myself, to surpass myself.
You all have in you this ability to do it.
You just have to grab it.
We’ll do something; it can be very nice.
Instead of saying, “I dared! You will say very loudly: “I will dare! “
Please, say it!
Audience: I will dare!
Exactly! It will be necessary to tell you the day, where you will have a new project,
because “To dare is to win! “
Thank you.
(Applause)
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