On the way to French Guiana

December 5th was the day of the departure for Christian Clot and the first part of the climatonauts. They woke up at dawn and headed tp to Orly airport to fly to Cayenne in French Guiana. “Some” bags to check in, a few last photos and the whole team boarded the plane to officially kick off the first Deep Climate mission. 

After a little more than nine hours of flight, they landed as planned at Cayenne-Félix Eboué airport. The following day, December 6, it was the turn of the second part of the climatonauts, joined by two scientists of the team, Margaux Romand-Monnier and Dr. Stéphane Besnard, to make the trip. 

When they got off the plane in French Guiana, Christian Clot and the climatonauts were able to start getting accustomed to the local climate with a temperature approaching 30°C and a humidity of more than 80%. A first glimpse of what they will experience during their journey. Then they moved to the CEFE, the French Army’s Equatorial Forest Training Center in French Guiana, where they found a well-equipped and stable place to finish preparing all their equipment. The humidity being omnipresent, any item left unprotected becomes very quickly unusable. 

During these first days, the team worked to distribute and pack everything, especially the food, so that each person had the reserves he needs and that they could be transported. This stay at the center, which is located in the middle of the forest, also allowed the climatonauts to follow additional training in the environment by CEFE instructors and to carry out the first scientific protocols in situ before beginning their 40-day journey.