From source to sea

Earlier this year, TV adventurer Alice Morrison became the first woman to walk the length of Morocco’s longest river. She tells Caroline Lindsay more about this incredible journey

Back in early January, when the rest of us were recovering from Christmas and New Year and making resolutions for a healthier lifestyle, TV adventurer Alice Morrison was setting off on a 1,200km journey of a lifetime.

Between January 9 and March 28, she walked the full length of Morocco’s longest river, the Draa, from source to sea, with camels carrying her supplies, and with just one day of rest.

The spirit of adventure is at Alice’s very core which comes as no surprise – four months after Alice was born in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, her parents, Fredi and Jim, boarded a ship to Africa to become teachers.

“I had a wonderful childhood,” Alice, who presents BBC’s Morocco to Timbuktu series, recalls. “When I was sent back to Edinburgh aged 11 to go to boarding school it was a horrible shock. I missed Africa terribly but at that age you do what your parents tell you.”

Over the last 10 years, Alice, now 55, has cycled 12,000km from Cairo to Cape Town, which involved being chased by elephants and surviving malaria and typhoid.

Not content with that, she ran the toughest footrace on earth, the Marathon Des Sables, 250km across the Sahara Desert.

“That was six marathons in six days and one of them is a double. The temperature was in the 40s and you have to carry your own food and kit,” she recalls.

2015 saw her first “world first” with the Atlas to Atlantic trek from the highest point of North Africa, straight

across the Atlas Mountains to the sea. And last year she took on an ultra race around Everest.

“Well, who could resist 160km with 15,000m of climbing around the world’s most iconic mountain?” she smiles. “It was exhausting but very beautiful.

“I came last but I did it – signing up for something like that inspires you, and gives you a goal.”

Alice set up home in the Moroccan mountains to train for the ultra race and still lives there.

“That early childhood experience of living in Africa was amazing and when I came back to Morocco I felt so at home – the smell, the landscapes, the red earth – they all spoke to me,” she reflects.

The Draa expedition saw Alice accompanied by three Amazigh guides: Brahim Boutkhoum, Addi Bin Youssef and Brahim Ahalfi, and five camels – Alasdair, Hamish, Callum, Sausage and Murdo.

“I gave them all Scottish names,” she laughs. “They love orange peel so I made sure I fed them some every day,” she adds, before revealing that camels are

The big open landscapes of Morocco remind me of Scotland and the people are like Scots too – hardy and no nonsense