When Olivier Deregnaucourt talks about his journeys with Étendues Sauvages, his eyes light up, a smile crosses his lips, and his voice fills with enthusiasm. “There are things one can regret in a lifetime. Never these journeys to Africa. It’s a wonderful dream that stays in the heart forever.” Once back in Paris — and on the television sets where he works as a technician — Olivier has his own magic recipe for bringing his journeys back to life. He puts on his headphones and plays the playlists he listened to there, in the Okavango, in Rwanda, in Madagascar, or in Zimbabwe. “With my headphones on, I go back and fall right into my African dream,” Olivier continues. Let’s follow him…
Sharing such a moment creates an unbreakable bond
In Rwanda, he spent a few nights at the hotel where the famous primatologist Dian Fossey once lived — the woman who inspired the film Gorillas in the Mist. He likely felt the same emotions she once did, climbing through the rainforest to reach the gorilla sanctuary. “When I got up there, I first saw the small head of a young gorilla, then his brother. I was lost in wonder when the dominant male arrived,” he recalls. A 250-kilo silverback… yet, according to Olivier, remarkably gentle. “He stood right in front of me, four metres away. And I had the feeling he was trying to speak to me, the way you’d speak to a guest in your living room.” Perhaps the high point of the trip. A “moment of grace” in any case, as Olivier likes to call it. “My sixteen-year-old son was by my side… Sharing such a moment creates an unbreakable bond.”
In Zimbabwe, encountering the elephants: “it was Laurent, at Étendues Sauvages, who made me want to go to Hwange National Park. He told me it was one of the few places left in the world, along with Botswana, where large elephant herds still existed,” Olivier explains. Years later, he still speaks of it with genuine excitement in his voice. He remembers the shock he felt when, surrounded by hundreds of elephants, he suddenly realised these creatures experienced emotions just as intense as our own. “You only have to look them in the eye to understand their sensitivity and intelligence. And when the matriarch steps forward, you immediately know who’s in charge!” Seven metres from a rhino in Zimbabwe, Olivier recalls other unforgettable moments. Like the day when, near Victoria Falls, accompanied by an English guide who knew the park inside out, he found himself seven metres from a rhino. “Inconceivable if I had gone with the crowds of tourists you see near Victoria Falls.” Taking the roads less travelled, even close to a tourist spot, can sometimes lead to extraordinary scenes. Olivier certainly won’t say otherwise. “I’m still grateful to Laurent for convincing me to go to Lake Kariba. I wasn’t keen at first… and yet I witnessed one of the most extraordinary scenes of my life there, at Matusadona.” It was the rare sight of a lioness leaping onto a buffalo. Another moment of grace… The most beautiful landscape in the world is right there, Olivier could go on for hours… And one could listen to him for hours!
Isn’t the story of the seven whales chasing a female off the coast of Madagascar wonderful? Or that of the villagers in Rwanda who all celebrated Olivier to thank him for sharing a meal with one of them. Or that of the Cessna pilot, met during a flight transfer, who one day landed in the Okavango Delta and decided never to leave again. Olivier adds: “I understand him, it’s the most beautiful landscape in the world. Even Yann Arthus-Bertrand or Nicolas Hulot, who have seen plenty, agree on that!” It’s only a small step from there to imagining Olivier settling in Africa one day…
In the meantime, he fully intends to keep travelling. “Always with Étendues Sauvages. Thanks to them, each of my journeys has had its moment of grace.”
Conversation with Karine Welter, for expérience Magazine #07, March 2017.
