Alice Morrison racing in the Tour D’Afrique from Cairo to Cape Town on a bike; world first trek from the highest point of North Africa to the Atlantic Ocean, and running the Marathon Des Sables

Alice Morrison, is a Scottish Adventurer, currently based in Morocco. After a childhood spent running around the African Bush, she was sent to boarding school in Edinburgh where she learned Latin but no decorum. She studied Arabic and Turkish at University which has led to a long love affair with the Middle East. 

Adventuring had been something she had always done part time until in her mid-forties destiny in the shape of the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, intervened. His cuts made her redundant and she gleefully burned her briefcase, and headed off for a life in the unknown. She has plunged through a number adventures including the Tour D’Afrique when she raced from Cairo to Cape Town on a bike; Atlas to Atlantic, a world first trek from the highest point of North Africa straight across the Atlas mountains to the sea; and the Marathon Des Sables, the toughest footrace on earth, six marathons across the Sahara desert in six days. 

“If I can do it, anyone can,” she says, “You just have to set your sights firmly on your goal and then pursue it with demonic persistence ignoring pain, humiliation and despair along the way. It is always worth it!”

Show notes

• Who is Alice, her background and how she got into adventure
• What her childhood was like growing up in Africa
• The hazards of speaking a foreign language
• Her career path and following a normal path
• Building a company and being a CEO
• Dealing with the company going under and having to make changes in her life
• The Tour D'Afrique is the longest bike race on earth (12,000 kilometres from Cairo to Cape Town)
• Training and preparation for the bike race…
• Cycling in a big group and struggling at the start
• Day to day life on the road and how the tour worked
• Dodging Elephants…..
• Going through a life changing experience and making decisions about her life
• Dealing with the adventure blues
• Trying to find a normal job again…
• Deciding to do the Marathon des Sables even though she’d never run a marathon before!
• Moving to Morocco to train and deciding to become a professional adventurer
• Learning languages 
• Doing her first - World First - the Atlas Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean - 350km
• Why it was so much harder than she though it was going to be
• How she coped with the mental pressure of challenging times and why staying in the moment was so important
• The cultural challenges of being a woman in Morocco
• Loss of status and income and friends and family reaction to becoming an adventurer
• Money and making it work financially
• Corporate sponsors - Craghopper and NTT Data UK
• Not having a typical day or week at work
• What’s been happening since November 2018
• Deciding on a new challenge  - The Everest Trail Race 
• The magical moments on the race
• Not having much of a break before heading of on another adventure
• Walking the length of the River Darr in Morocco (1,200km from the start to the sea at Tan Tan)
• Her new book! My 1001 Nights
• What’s next?!
• Quick Fire Questions
• Final words of advice 

Social Media

New Book just out! My 1001 Nights

 

Website : www.alicemorrison.co.uk  

Twitter: @aliceoutthere1

Instagram: @aliceoutthere1                           

Facebook: @AliceHunterMorrisonAdventures