Louis-Philippe Loncke is a Belgian

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

, adventurer and motivational speaker. In 2008, he achieved the world first crossing on foot of the length of the

Simpson desert The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Deserts of Australia, Australian desert, with an area of . The desert ...

, which was a North to South traverse passing through its geographical center. In 2018, he traversed

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

during the austral winter without resupplies and was nicknamed the ''Mad Belgian'' by some Australians.

Early life and education

Loncke was born in

Mouscron, Belgium Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropoli ...

to a family of furniture makers. He studied engineering in Brussels at

ECAM ECAM may refer to: * Electronic centralised aircraft monitor, a system that monitors aircraft functions and relays them to the pilots * ''Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine'', a medical journal * École Catholique des Arts et M� ...

, a master in Industrial management in

KU Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

and treasury management at the

University of Antwerp Management School The Antwerp Management School ( nl, Antwerp Management School) is the University of Antwerp's autonomous business school. It is located in the historical center of the city of Antwerp. The school offers eight full-time master programs and more ...

Career

Management consultant

Loncke started his career as

logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

manager. Since 1999, he has built experience in over 10 corporate companies in various positions. He has been working as management consultant since 2007 mainly in IT. The skills he acquired in the corporate world allowed him to efficiently plan his expeditions. He is also self-taught in

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

SEO Seo or SEO may refer to: * Search engine optimization, the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines Organisations * SEO Economic Research, a scientific institute * Spanish Ornithological Society (''Socied ...

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

and

communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

. From 2006 to 2013, he was volunteering at NGO ''Art in All of Us'' and was elected member of the board of directors in 2010.

Adventurer and explorer

Loncke started traveling alone in 2000. In 2002, he was sent to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

for work and learned

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...

. To fulfill this passion he traveled for a year in

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

between 2004 and 2005. He started hiking and heard about adventurers and explorers; and became interested after seeing the world acclaimed film ''

Alone across Australia ''Alone Across Australia'' is a fifty-two-minute documentary released in 2003, which is based on adventurer Jon Muir's solo and unsupported journey across Australia in 2001. The motion picture introduces Muir and his exploits all over the wor ...

''. Back in Belgium, he met author and adventurer

Sylvain Tesson Sylvain Tesson (born 26 April 1972) is a French writer and traveller born in Paris. He has engaged in a number of unusual travels and expeditions which are the basis for his books. Among his most successful works are '' The Consolations of the F ...

who encouraged him to continue. Loncke left again in 2006 to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

to start his first three expeditions. His first solo unresupplied traverse of the

Tasmanian Wilderness The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, abbreviated to TWWHA, is a World Heritage Site in Tasmania, Australia. It is one of the largest conservation areas in Australia, covering , or almost 25% of Tasmania. It is also one of the last ex ...

brought him the first sponsors and recognition among Australian explorers. After a year in Australia, he went back to Belgium and started planning for a series of several world first expeditions, the first being to attempt crossing the

at its longest distance. He has organised charity expeditions involving media buzz including the highest chocolate tasting, on

Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heigh ...

. In July 2010, he trekked across

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

between its extreme latitude from North to South. He spoofed an Icelandic promotional video that got viral in Iceland. He has announced a return to Iceland to attempt doing the journey during the winter. Both his Simpson and Iceland expeditions involved a science program of the MSH of Paris named ''Stress and decision taking in extreme environment''.

Expeditions

World firsts

* 2006 - Unsupported crossing of the

West MacDonnell National Park Tjoritja / West MacDonnell is a national park in the Northern Territory (Australia) due west of Alice Springs and 1234 km south of Darwin. It extends along the MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice Springs. The popular extended walk, the Larap ...

* 2006 - Unsupported traverse of

Fraser Island Fraser Island (Butchulla: ) is a World Heritage-listed island along the south-eastern coast in the Wide Bay–Burnett region, Queensland, Australia. The island is approximately north of the state capital, Brisbane, and is within the Fraser ...

* 2007 - Unresupplied crossing of the

* 2008 - Unsupported crossing of the

Simpson Desert The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Deserts of Australia, Australian desert, with an area of . The desert ...

from North to South and passing through the center. * 2010 - Unsupported traverse of

in the Summer * 2011 - BelgiKayak expedition, touring by

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

the Belgian waterways. * 2012 : Crossing of Poland by human power from Mount

Rysy Rysy (; ; german: Meeraugspitze, hu, Tengerszem-csúcs) is a mountain in the crest of the High Tatras, eastern part of the Tatra Mountains, lying on the border between Poland and Slovakia. Rysy has three summits: the middle at ; the north-wester ...

across the

Tatras The Tatra Mountains (), Tatras, or Tatra (''Tatry'' either in Slovak () or in Polish () - ''plurale tantum''), are a series of mountains within the Western Carpathians that form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. They are the highe ...

Mountains by foot, then by kayak on the

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

to the Baltic sea. He spoke about the expedition at TEDxWarsaw 2013. * 2013 - TitiKayak expedition with Gadiel Sánchez Rivera. Full tour by kayak of lake

Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; es, Lago Titicaca ; qu, Titiqaqa Qucha) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, i ...

. Creation of the first geotagged photographic inventory of the lake: they took GPS coordinates of the location of the limit between the water and the ground and alongside photographs of the background. They also took underwater photos on the Northern

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

n coast to locate the living habitat of the giant frog

Telmatobius culeus ''Telmatobius culeus'', commonly known as the Titicaca water frog, is a medium-large to very large and endangered species of frog in the family Telmatobiidae. It is entirely aquatic and only found in the Lake Titicaca basin, including rivers th ...

. He told the purpose of the expedition at TEDxFlanders. * 2015 - Unsupported traverse of

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka ...

from North to South * 2016 - Salar trek 2. Unsupported traverse of

Salar de Coipasa __NOTOC__ Lago Coipasa or Salar de Coipasa is a lake in Sabaya Province, Oruro Department, Bolivia. At an elevation of 3657 m, its surface area is 806 km². It is on the western part of Altiplano, 20 km north of Salar de Uyuni and south ...

and

Salar de Uyuni Salar de Uyuni (or "Salar de Tunupa") is the world's largest salt flat, or playa, at over in area. It is in the Daniel Campos Province in Potosí in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes at an elevation of above sea level. The Sal ...

on foot. These two

Salt flats Salt flats, Salt flat, Salt Flats, or Salt Flat may refer to: Geology *Salt pan (geology), a flat expanse of ground covered with salt and other minerals * Dry lake, an ephemeral lakebed that consists of fine-grained sediments infused with alkali sal ...

are located in the

Altiplano The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at the ...

and are the remains of

Lake Tauca Lake Tauca is a former lake in the Altiplano of Bolivia. It is also known as Lake Pocoyu for its constituent lakes: Lake Poopó, Salar de Coipasa and Salar de Uyuni. The lake covered large parts of the southern Altiplano between the Eastern Cordi ...

. *2018 - Tasmania Winter Trek. North to South traverse of Tasmania during the austral winter, without food or gas resupplies, without using roads and only sleeping in a tent. *2020 - HRP2020. Crossing the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...

from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, without supplies, without assistance and sleeping only in a tent; and climbing the summit of Pico

Aneto Aneto (''pic d'Aneto'' in French language, French, formerly ''pic de Néthou'') is the highest mountain in the Pyrenees and in Aragon, and Spain's third-highest mountain, reaching a height of . It stands in the Spanish province of Huesca (provi ...

. Its route follows a variant of the

Haute Randonnée Pyrénéenne The Haute Randonnée Pyrénéenne (HRP) is a high-level long-distance trail in the Pyrenees joining the Atlantic and Mediterranean. It approximately follows the French and Spanish border and passes through Andorra. Like the GR 10 and the GR 11, ...

* 2021 - He walks and packrafts the entire

Kungsleden Kungsleden (King's Trail) is a hiking trail in northern Sweden, approximately long, between Abisko in the north and Hemavan in the south. It passes through, near the southern end, the Vindelfjällen Nature Reserve, one of the largest protected ...

trail unsupported, climbing underway also Skierfe and the

Kebnekaise Kebnekaise (; from Sami or , "Cauldron Crest") is the highest mountain in Sweden. The Kebnekaise massif, which is part of the Scandinavian mountain range, has two main peaks. The glaciated southern peak used to be the highest at above sea leve ...

North and South summits.

Charity and cultural expeditions

* 2009 - Chocolate Sherpa expedition, walking 400 km from Kathmandu to Everest Base Camp and back to

Lukla Lukla ( ne, लुक्ला ) is a small town in the Khumbu Pasanglhamu rural municipality of the Solukhumbu District in the Province No. 1 of north-eastern Nepal. Situated at , it is a popular place for visitors to the Himalayas near Mount Eve ...

distributing chocolate.

Scientific and other expeditions

* 2013 - Cordell expedition to

Clipperton Island Clipperton Island ( or ; ) is an uninhabited, coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is from Paris, France, from Papeete, Tahiti, and from Mexico. It is an Overseas France, overseas state private property of France under direct authori ...

. Scientific and

DXpedition A DX-pedition is an expedition to what is considered an exotic place by amateur radio operators and DX listeners, typically because of its remoteness, access restrictions, or simply because there are very few radio amateurs active from that pl ...

with callsign TX5K. * 2013 -

Marañón River , name_etymology = , image = Maranon.jpg , image_size = 270 , image_caption = Valley of the Marañón between Chachapoyas ( Leimebamba) and Celendín , map = Maranonrivermap.png , map_size ...

expedition. Joined for 6 days the 1 month rafting and kayaking of the upper part of the river. * 2013 - Salar trek expedition. He attempted, but failed, to traverse

and

on foot without any resupply. * 2016 - Unsupported partial crossing of the

from West to East from Old

Andado Andado Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the Alice Springs region of the Northern Territory. The traditional lands of the Arrernte people before European settlement, the first pastoral lease was granted in 188 ...

Poeppel Corner Poeppel Corner (known as Poeppel's Corner in Queensland) at latitude 26° S and longitude 138° E is a corner of state boundaries in Australia, where the state of Queensland meets South Australia and the Northern Territory. Geography Poeppel ...

and passing through the center.

Challenges

* 2020 - The Everest Bueren Challenge, climbing up and down the stairs of the

Montagne de Bueren Montagne de Bueren is a 374-step staircase in Liège, Belgium. The staircase is named after Vincent de Bueren, who defended Liège against an attack by the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold in the 15th century. It was built in 1881 to honour t ...

135 times with a 15kg backpack. * 2021 - Confined in my Tent, living 1 week on a 5m² platform hanging 10m above the ground. * 2022 - Unsupported speed record on the

GR 70 The GR 70, also known as the Chemin de Stevenson or the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail, is a Grande Randonnée (long-distance footpath) that runs for approximately through the French departments of Haute-Loire, Lozère and Gard in a generally north ...

Stevenson hiking trail.

Films

From 2021, he started to produce films about his expeditions and challenges. The films are released online or screened at festivals. * 2021 - The Mad Belgian: Keep walking * 2022 - The Mad Belgian: Confined in My Tent

Awards and recognition

* In 2009, he was awarded young talent of the year by the Baillis of Mouscron. * Outer Edge magazine has selected in its February–March 2011 issue Loncke's Simpson desert crossing being in the top 10 Australian expeditions to the edge of reason. * Accepted as member of the

Explorers Club The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904, and has served as a meeting point fo ...

in 2010 and elected to Fellow in 2014. * Becoming

Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

in 2011 * In September 2011, the

Jane Goodall Institute The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is a global wildlife and environment conservation organization headquartered in Washington, DC. It was founded in 1977 by English primatologist Jane Goodall. The institute has offices in more than twenty-five coun ...

Belgium nominates him as goodwill ambassador for the

Roots & Shoots Roots & Shoots was founded by Jane Goodall, DBE in 1991 with the goal of bringing together youth from preschool to university age to work on environmental, conservation and humanitarian issues. The organization has local chapters in over 140 count ...

program. * Selected by the

LOCOG The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) was the organisation responsible for overseeing the planning and development of the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. It was jointly established by the UK Gov ...

to carry the Olympic Flame through

Choppington Choppington is a large village and civil parish in Northumberland, England. It is situated 5 miles to the south-east of Morpeth, and north of Bedlington. It was at one time part of the three big mid-Northumberland collieries (Ashington, Bo ...

on 15 June 2012. * Finalist Photoshoot Awards contest OCEAN 2013, category Pollution. * At the European parliament in Brussels, on 7 May 2014,

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best know ...

made him ''Jane Goodall Institute Knight for Youth, Animals and Plants in the Order of the Iguana''. * A the ISPO fair in Munich, he is awarded ''European Adventurer of the Year 2016''. * He is enthroned Honorary Bailli of Mouscron in October 2017 *Ranked #3 of the Top 10 expeditions of 2018 according to ExplorersWeb

References

External links

* of Louis-Philippe Loncke {{DEFAULTSORT:Loncke, Louis-Philippe 1977 births Living people Belgian explorers Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Fellows of the Explorers Club People from Mouscron