Gerald Klamer

Gerald Klamer was born 1967 in a small village. The surrounding forests were his favourite playgrounds. But when he grew older his explorations shift to more distant places. At the age of 18 he undertook his first greater journey. Together with a friend he travelled to the north cape, the northern tip of the european continent. This was the first time he saw the wilderness. The forests and tundras of Lappland were the scene of this meeting with an environment more shaped by the powers of nature than man.

On the track of the forest elephants

After this experience more wilderness trekking trips followed. Destinations were e.g the interior of Bosnia, eastern Turkey or the mountains of British-Columbia. He travelled always off the beaten path, to less known areas. At one point he wasn't satisfied any more with this at most 6-week long trips. He decided to travel across a whole continent. His choice was africa, the dark continent which he wanted to cross from south to north without partner or own vehicle. The journey started in Johannesburg and ended 9-month later in Algers. The numerous encounters with african wilderness were more important to him, than the pure travelling of this long distance. Highlights of the journey were e.g. a three-week trip by dug-out canoe in the Delta of the Okavango, trekking on the Masaisteppe of Tanzania, with donkeys to the Turkana-Lake in northern Kenia and a camel ride to the vulcanic Air Mountains on the edge of the Sahara desert. But the most fascinating country for him was the Congo (At that time still Zaire). There he stayed three month and accompanied two different pigmy groups on theyr hunting trips. Besides the beauty of the wilderness he learned to know the dark sides, too. The sudden attack of two samburu warriors, dangerous diseases like malaria and the struggle to survive when he was lost in the jungle during one week without food and equipment were some hardships on this journey. Although he didn't plan to, he wrote a book about this adventure, several years after. Back in Germany another dream became true: He studied and found a job as a forester. But wilderness trips still remained his great obsession. Once more in Lappland he crossed a trailless area on a 10-day trek. It became clear, that the length of such trips is very much limited by the amount of food which is possible to carry in a backpack. He thought a canoe as means of transportation would give the opportunity to lengthen wilderness journeys drastically. To make this true he bought an inflatable kayak, suitable for whitewater. After some river journeys in central and western Europe he headed again for Lappland. There he negotiated the Ivalojoki, one of the few remaining wilderness rivers in Europe. On this trip he learned to know about the challenges and difficulties of whitewater. Since his great journey, Africa was always on his mind. Soon he planned river trips in the dark continent. But meanwhile he was married and father of a little daughter. Therefore he wanted to avoid the risk of a solo adventure. Finally he went with a partner to the Dja in the remote southeastern rainforest of cameroon. After this trip the idea of "Paddling for the rainforest" was born. An ultralight inflatable canoe would enable to combine the opportunities of running down rivers with trekking through the jungle. His big goal is to contribute in the conservation of the rainforest by describing our adventourus expeditions. Geralds part is to concentate about the conception of the expeditions and to write about them. Even the most remote and therefore to present almost pristine rainforests today face a lot of threads. If conservation does not manage to win the race against the "developers" at least in some regions, there will be no great forest wilderness left in the near future. Then the world would have lost again a part of its beauty.