From the Mountains to the Ocean
InspirationAn Interview with Joffrey Maluski
Written by Marie Audemard // Photography by Joffrey Maluski
From the mountains to the ocean, French traveller and photographer Joffrey Maluski, together with his friend Loïc Forques, navigated the polluted River Adour in a boat made from recycled plastic bottles – following our waste on the water.
Sidetracked: Firstly, what made you want to do this trip?
Joffrey: I was coming back from Iceland, and I had the idea of doing a trip by bike. I talked about it with my friend Loïc, who was just coming back from Africa, where he had worked with an organisation – their idea was to build a sailboat from recycled plastic. They went to several schools to talk about what they were doing and how polluting plastic is for the earth, and also for children. So the main goal of our trip became to show, through photography and video, how our waste travels through the mountains before reaching the oceans.
How did you create the boat and how much time did the preparation take?
We got the idea of doing the trip approximately one month before we left, so it was a bit last-minute. A specialist helped us make the base from bamboo. Then we went to the Ham Festival in Bayonne, and during the night we checked all the bins to collect the soda bottles we needed. We got approximately 700 bottles in three hours! Then we spent days just choosing the bottles, cleaning them, finishing the base of the boat, and attaching the bottles to it. The whole process of building the boat took no more than about a week.
Was it hard to design and build the boat?
It was, yeah. It was our first boat and especially challenging as it was made of plastic bottles. We wondered a lot about how to make it stable – we thought about creating floaters to put on both sides, and, when we put it on the water for the first time, it was floating far too much, so we had to change a few things.
Were there any problems with the boat’s structure during the journey?
It was mainly fine. It wasn’t stable at the beginning, so we had to remove some bottles at the bottom and put them on the floaters. After that it was fine. It was also super strong – great to know when we pulled it over the rocks, especially when there wasn’t that much water. The only downside was that it was really heavy and not so easy to control.
You capsized once – can you tells us a bit more about that?
The river was becoming narrower, and we were going a bit too fast. We could see a 90° turn on the right coming up, so we decided to paddle – knowing the size of the boat, I thought it would be a difficult turn. We headed straight into the brambles and the boat capsized. Both of us ended up in the water with a 150kg boat overturned. Loïc was stuck under the boat for a few seconds which was pretty scary, but it all happened so quickly. We didn’t lose our kit because everything was well secured and strapped to the boat. It was difficult but we managed to turn it the right way up again, and soon we learned how to anticipate a turn to prevent it happening again.
What was the route that you chose and why?
We chose to navigate the Adour River; like every river, it is polluted by plastic. It was also a strategic and emblematic river to tell a story about pollution as its source is in the Pic du Midi in Bigorre and Col du Tourmalet, which are both well known in the Pyrenees and lead all the way to the ocean. We wanted to stay on the same river from the beginning until the end. In total, we did 128km along the Adour to the ocean.
Your best memories?
After the capsize, we were wet and it was so cold so we stopped in Grenade-sur-l’Adour and moored the boat at a kayak club. No-one was there so we put our clothes out to dry, but then Jean, an 87-year-old member of the club, arrived and asked us a lot of questions about the project. He loved the idea so much that he gave us the keys to sleep there so we could be warm for the night. A family from the club invited us to eat at their home, and the next day we were invited on a kayak trip with all the children from the club. We were so amazed by how kind and spontaneous these people were.
What did you take away from this trip?
We found the filmmaking and photography aspects incredibly interesting, and this trip made us want to develop our skills further. We realised how powerful it can be to communicate ideas and values, especially while creating our film. Of course, we also decided that we wanted to do more and more of this kind of adventure!
Joffrey and Loïc’s short film, Plastiqu’Adour, documents the team’s eco-adventure and you can view their journey via komoot here.
Written by Maire Audemard // @marieaudemard
Photography by Joffrey Maluski & Loïc Forques // @joffreymaluski