Life Fellow member Louis-Philippe Loncke embarks to breaks records in the Simpson Desert
Louis-Philippe Loncke
Last week Life Fellow member Louis-Philippe Loncke (47, Belgium) arrived in Sydney and flew a few days later to Alice Springs. Louis-Philippe (LouPhi) has been a TEC member since 2010 and his sponsor was Australian Chris Bray.
LouPhi first visited Australia 20 years ago (NZ in 2002) as backpacker and toured Australia and New Zealand scuba diving and hiking all around both countries. He came back for a year in 2006 in Australia and did his first 3 expeditions including an epic traverse of the Wilderness Area of Tasmania, unsupported for 49 days and climbing 19 mountains underway including Federation Peak.
LouPhi got into international news in 2018 after his world first second crossing of Tasmania. That year he traversed the entire state from Penguin to the South Coast resupplied, in winter, starting with a backpack of 62 kg. In the links further you can see the ABC television news on his YouTube channel. He has been called since then The Mad Belgian.
Best link: https://sleekbio.com/lonckelph
Fast forward he is here for his 20th expedition, 7th in Australia and will attempt the longest ever journey in the Simpson Desert: a double crossing of Australia's Dead Heart from Old Andado (NT) to Birdsville (QLD) and after a resupply he will try a long diagonal route back to Alice Springs trying to link for the first time 2 towns by walking with his desert cart alone and off track across the Simpson Desert. The entire expedition might last over 60 days and above 1000km as the crow flies with a D+ of 11000m.
His desert cart with water, food and equipment will weigh around 160 kg at the start and 260 kg at the start of the return journey or second leg of the expedition.
He will work for the 4th time doing cognitive science research for a Prof of psychology based in Paris. The program is called: Decision taking under stress in extreme environement.
You can find more about it on his expedition site (route, LIVE tracking, Objective, brochure):
https://simpson-desert-trek.blogspot.com/
Direct link to the tracker: https://eur-share.inreach.garmin.com/louphi
LouPhi has carried 2 Flags in the past:
2013 - Flag 134 - Expedition to Clipperton island.
2013 - Flag 117 - Expedition TitiKayak, first circumnavigation of lake Titicaca by kayak.
No flag (too late to ask) this time although he has 2 logos on his expedition shirt: The Explorers Club badge and the aboriginal flag.
After his expedition, he's staying in Australia (must go out after 90 days but will return) with several plans:
* Meet Explorers and Adventurers. He's slowly building a show where he interviews people on his show MeetExplorers on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@meetexplorers
* He wants to visit PNG for 2-3 weeks (Mt Wilhelm, Kokoda...)
* He wants to complete the State8 challenge (visit the highest peak of each state/territory): he's missing WA, VIC, ACT and SA. For SA, Mt Woodroffe, no more climbs/permits are allowed since 2019. He's trying to convince the elders to open the APY lands 1 day per year for the climb like pre-pandemic times. He believes this is necessary as some people might go without permit, without telling anybody and the first rule of the Outback is to tell where you go. He will of course not go without a permit.
* His desert cart will remain in Australia with 3 potential objectives: to be used by someone else for an expedition (First LOW to HIGH unsupported of Australia); for himself if guiding rich clients in the Simpson Desert for a 2 weeks experience; or to be shown in a museum with photos, film or VR film. After all, he's currently the person with the most experience of off track walking in the Simpson Desert (600+280 km as the crow flies) and if he succeeds, he will add +1000km to this.
Finally, LouPhi has a passion the expeditions of everyone. He has collected over 12 years information about over 2000 people and expeditions to create the first online Encyclopedia of Expeditions. The aim is to hire a new developer in the near future to add new functionalities to the ExpeditionDatabase.com and open it freely in the coming years. He will need to get funds, donations, and hire a team to validate the expeditions. Because he found and exposed a few liars; one was the subject of a debunking TV program in Switzerland.
You can see a quick demo here: https://www.berrycast.com/conversations/fb1f0843-ab03-5351-aa90-fd5d8746d927
You can get priority news here (link for TEC members): https://expedb.com/
He will try to post LIVE on Instagram when arriving in Birdsville: https://www.instagram.com/LonckeLPh/
God Speed LouPhi
All Links: Press, Photos for the press, About me, Social Media Links and Projects, Newsletters, Adventure CV
ANZEC Chapter Chair and Louis-Philippe Loncke - July 2024
