International Women’s Day 2025: How Alice Morrison became an explorer – and how you can too

‘How to become an explorer’ is a topic I could never have imagined writing about earlier in my life – I would have laughed at the thought. So, how did I get here?

I definitely had an adventurous start. When I was just six weeks old, my Mum and Dad left Scotland and sailed to East Africa to spend the next eight years teaching in the shadows of the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda.

My early childhood was full of wonder and freedom. I collected tadpoles in a field full of crested cranes, encountered lazy snakes sunning themselves on the red earth and once got hideously stung by a swarm of wild bees. I ran everywhere freely and at weekends, my parents would drive down to the Queen Elizabeth National Park and I would watch the lions hunting, using our car as a hide.

Then came a big change in the form of St Denis and Cranley’s Academy for Young Ladies in Edinburgh and a proper education. Beige ankle socks, two pairs of pants and a green velour hat replaced shorts and flip flops and my wings were clipped.

I made a bid for freedom again at university where I studied Arabic and spent six months in Syria and a further two years in Egypt when I left. The Arab World stayed with me as I came back to London and worked in the Arabic media and then the BBC but I was very much on a UK-based career path, which I loved.

Spool on to my mid-forties and I was happily living in a Victorian terrace in the Peak District overlooking the village cricket pitch with a nice car and nice clothes, a healthy bank balance and a wonderful group of friends. I was CEO of a successful media development quango (quasi non-governmental organisation) and had a fine life.

At the weekends and in my holidays, I would slake my thirst for the outdoors with mountain biking and hiking and far-flung adventure holidays which almost always involved sharing a two-person tent with someone I had never met who became a dear friend.

Then, the Tories came to power and David Cameron announced he was abolishing all quangos (he went on to found three times as many but I ‘m not bitter…). If you have ever had to make people redundant or been made redundant, you will know that my next months were bruising.

Enraged and disillusioned, I did what any sane person would do and signed up to race across Africa on a bicycle, a return to my roots. I left the rat race for a bike race – the Tour d’Afrique (TDA), 1200km and 10 countries in 120 days.

That changed everything and broke my chains for good. After four months of waking up to an African dawn, cycling through shin-high mud or 50C heat and being chased by a wild elephant, I couldn’t go back to my old life. I had been infected with adventure fever.

I took my first steps in to trying to make a living as an adventurer and signed up to run the Marathon des Sables, which called itself the toughest footrace on earth. It is six marathons across the desert in six days carrying all your own food and gear. Oh, and the middle marathon is a double. I moved to Morocco four months before the race so that I could make it a bigger story than just a week killing myself in the desert. I had no idea that I would fall in love with the country and still be here eleven years later.

Money was a problem. I drastically reduced my expenditure and went back to flat sharing, no new clothes and taking the bus but with Moroccan mini adventures every day. I started pitching my stories to editors and wrote my first book, ‘Dodging Elephants’, about TDA. No-one was interested in publishing it, so I published it on Amazon. I started signing off my email, Alice Morrison, Adventurer.

Then, I got a break. Working with Scottish company, Tern TV, I did a series for BBC2 called Morocco to Timbuktu when I followed the ancient salt roads from Tangier right into Timbuktu which was surrounded by UN peacekeepers and gangs of Al Qaida. The BBC called me an explorer in their trailer and I decided to ignore my imposter syndrome and embrace it.

It became a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Because I said I was, I started to look for things to make it true. I became the first recorded woman to walk the length of the Draa River in Morocco and found a lost city, giants’ tombs and dinosaur footprints. I wrote three more books and kept pushing out stories to an often-disinterested press. I looked for sponsors for expeditions and found partnerships with great brands like Intrepid Travel and Craghoppers.

Now, discomfort and being ignored and rebuffed loom large in my life. I am outdoorsy but am not athletically gifted and I hate training so each expedition creates some serious pain. Pitching stories and looking for sponsorship both involve large amounts of rejection and it is hard not to take it personally.

Joy looms even larger. I love what I do. I feel truly alive when I am out there walking across a country, discovering pieces of history left behind by those who came before and revelling in the vastness of nature. I get to spend time with people who are totally different to me and then become friends and enjoy our shared humanity.

Sharing is the key. Both the exploration itself and the stories from it.

I am currently just under half way through my attempt to become the first recorded person to cross Saudi Arabia north to south on foot. It took three years to plan and I started on 1 January on what has been a magnificent adventure so far.

Everything on the expedition has exceeded my expectation from the landscapes and the historical finds to the shenanigans of Juicy and Lulu my two camels. Most of all, though, I have been overwhelmed by the friendliness and the extraordinary hospitality I have been shown by the Saudis I have met.

Perhaps, that is the key to it. The world at the moment feels dark and troubled but exploring shows you how kind people can be and your own strength. Most importantly it allows you to really feel our precious planet and our shared human experience.

Alice Morrison’s tips for a modern-day explorer

1. Everything can be an adventure from a local hike to a world-first, it’s all about going into it with an open mind and open eyes.
2. Get comfortable with discomfort: physical, emotional and mental.
3. Every setback is a win. Build your resilience and recognise that you are getting stronger, not just physically but also in dealing with people and companies.
4. Become a specialist. This is a crowded field and if you are an expert in something it will help.
5. Be financially prudent. It is really hard to make a living at this, so make sure you can cover the basics.
6. Work with the people in the places you want to explore. Thankfully, exploring is no longer about going along and planting a flag, it is about discovering the reality of today where you are.
7. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Telling people what you are doing is as important as doing it.
8. Find supporters and make friends everywhere.
9. Never give up even if you are really disheartened. You can lose the battle but still win the war.
10. Life is simple. You either do it or you don’t. So, do it and good luck!

Alice Morrison is one of Wanderlust‘s new contributing editors. You can follow Alice’s adventures on Instagram (@aliceoutthere1), tune into her podcast Alice in wAnderland (alicemorrison.co.uk/podcast), or visit her websitealicemorrison.co.uk.