Last updated: 05-Feb-19
By Dan Stinton
It’s a hard world here at RunUltra. Editor, Alice Morrison, simply misplaced a couple of apostrophes, it got spotted by the powers that be and… boom… she hasn’t been seen since. I’m now sitting in her shoes and nervously brushing up on my grammar with one eye over my shoulder.
Seriously though, just where is Alice Morrison? Somewhere in Morocco is probably a reasonable answer, or for a little more accuracy, somewhere along the 1,200 km long Draa river. Alice and a caravan of camels (fantastic collective noun) are walking for 81 days along the full length of the river from source to sea. Just in case it all gets a bit much, she’s decided to give herself one whole day of rest during the whole expedition.
Her journey takes her “from the El Mansour Eddahibi dam, through the rich agriculture of the Draa valley, to the arid desert dunes and salt lakes of the south and across to the Atlantic at Tantan.”
She’s asking a key question during the expedition – what happens when nature’s water supply runs out? Even with modernisation happening around the country there are previously inhabited areas that have been left deserted due to a lack of water.
Walking 15-25km per day she’ll be travelling through varying landscapes from the most fertile valley in Africa and into the harshest desert. So, whilst most of us are still gently updating our 2019 training plans and tentatively staring out of the window at the weather, Alice has already survived a mountain drought, found a lost city, loaded up innumerable camels and velcro’d her hair to her tent.
I’ve received a little update from Alice – “Walking all day across the mountains of drought, bivouacking under the shade of the one acacia tree, learning how to load a camel, eating bread baked on hot stones under a sky filled with a million stars and having my mind bent by riddles from my Berber guides…yep you’ve guessed it, I’m hating every minute!”
After spending a small fortune at the Apple shop, she is of course documenting her journey and you can follow her progress at: –
- Web: www.alicemorrison.co.uk
- YouTube: alice morrison
- Insta: aliceoutthere1
- Twitter: aliceoutthere1
- Fbook: Alice Hunter Morrison Adventures
So that’s why I’m here, taking on the Interim Editor role until Alice safely returns in April. We’re all thinking of you Alice and we’re loving hearing all about your journey so far – we wish you all the best!
The Draa Expedition has been organised by Jean-Pierre Datcharry of Desert et Montagne Maroc and sponsored by Craghoppers, Epic Morocco and NTT Data.
All photos credit Alice Morrison
