‘Adventure is addictive’
When Alice Morrison featured in an article about stepping out of her comfort zone, it was just the beginning of an incredible new life.
Sitting in the make-up chair being transformed for my GH photoshoot six years ago, I could never have dreamed that I’d be where I am now. I was being featured as part of a group of women who had taken their courage in both hands and changed their lives. I’d left my family and job in the UK and gone to Morocco to run the Marathon des Sables, ‘the toughest footrace on Earth’, and liked it so much I stayed.
It is 2020 and I’m still here, but now I’m living in a tiny village in the heart of the Atlas Mountains. My little house is perched on a mountainside, and I look out over a sea of walnut trees to the breathtaking peaks beyond. My days are punctuated by the sound of the muezzin’s call to prayer and the cow that lives under my bedroom bellowing at feed time. Life has certainly changed from my home in the Peak District and job as a CEO in Manchester, but it’s taken a while to get here. Being featured in Good Housekeeping was part of it. It encouraged me to believe that what I was doing was interesting, and spurred me on to try to sell my stories. I settled down and wrote my first book, Dodging Elephants, about cycling from Cairo to Cape Town. I’ll never forget the thrill of holding the first copy in my hand.
It brought me to the notice of Tern TV, and together we embarked on something completely new to me. I made a series for BBC Two, Morocco To Timbuktu: An Arabian Adventure, in which I followed the ancient salt routes from the Mediterranean to the world’s most mysterious city. Now, I faced a challenge of a different kind. It was quite unnerving talking to a camera lens, but the sheer excitement of what I was discovering and the support of the director, Alice Arce, meant I soon overcame the fear and I dived headlong into it.
Adventure is addictive and, after a spell fattening up on the sofa (always fun to do but painful to undo), I ran around Everest in training for the biggest adventure I have taken on to date. I’ve found that what
I really love and, I hope, where I can bring something of value back with me, is exploring the old-fashioned way – on foot – and taking time to investigate what is happening to the world and the people in it right now.
LIVING THE DREAM
With that in mind, I decided to walk from the Mediterranean coast in the north of Morocco to Guerguerat on the border with Mauritania in the south. It’s an enormous undertaking and I have a team of five camels and three Amazigh (Berber) guides who are doing it with me. I’m doing it in stages and am two-thirds of the way (3,000km and six months) through this epic journey and have walked from the Mountain of Doom, through the oases of the River Draa and on to the vast, barren wilderness of the Sahara. I’ve discovered a lost city, tracked desert foxes, survived quicksands and snakes, and spent a week walking with my heart in my mouth through an area of landmines. I’ve seen the African sun rise and set in all its red glory, day after day, and formed the closest of bonds with my team, both men and camels.
I am living my dream and have come a long way from that make-up chair. So, thank you, Good Housekeeping, for the support and to all of you out there who follow and encourage me. I hope you enjoy the stories, and my wish for you is that you get to fulfil your dreams, too. Adventures In Morocco (Simon & Schuster) by Alice Morrison is out now. You can follow Alice’s podcast, Alice In Wanderland, on all major platforms
I’ve discovered a lost city and survived snakes and quicksands