Why this female explorer, 61, is walking across Saudi Arabia

CNN

28-01-2025

She's been described as the 'Indiana Jones for girls,' and after becoming the first woman to walk the full length of the Draa River in Morocco, UK explorer Alice Morrison is embarking on a new challenge — walking across Saudi Arabia.
Accompanied by camels and local guides, Morrison will traverse through deserts and mountains during the 2,500-kilometer journey, which will take around five months in total.
'It's a massive adventure,' Morrison, who has been walking around 25 kilometers (15 miles) a day, tells CNN Travel via Zoom.
'I seek challenge, knowledge and connection. And I think you get all of those doing what I do.'
Morrison, who speaks fluent Arabic, concedes that she isn't necessarily a typical explorer, and was actually working as a CEO of a media development company up until 2011.
'I feel like I've had lots of different lives,' she says, recounting how she signed up for the Tour d'Afrique, a 12,000 kilometer bike race across Africa, after a series of events led to her giving up her job.
After completing the race, Morrison went on to enter the Marathon Des Sables, known as 'the toughest race on Earth,' as well as trek across the Sahara Desert.
'I left the rat race for a bike race and I never, ever looked back,' she says.
While Morrison admits that she's never been particularly athletic, she's always been the adventurous type, and would often go on adventure holidays like mountain biking in Guatemala and ice climbing in Peru, during her vacation time.
'It's really odd because I'm not really sporty,' Morrison admits. 'But I love adventure and I love being outdoors.
'So the sporty side has to kind of tag along reluctantly to all the things I want to do.'
According to Morrison, her trek across Saudi Arabia, which will see her become the first person on record to walk this particular route if successful, has been several decades in the making.
'When I was 11, my dad gave me a book called 'Arabian Sands' by Wilfred Thesiger,' Morrison says, recalling how the story of an Englishman crossing the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia struck a chord with her.
'The grandeur of the challenge stuck with me. I've always wanted to explore Saudi because I studied Arabic at university. So those early kind of pointings in that direction really have come to fruit.'
While the prospect of exploring the kingdom in depth had previously seemed unfeasible, everything changed when the country opened up to tourists back in 2019 and Morrison realized that she too could take on a grand challenge across Saudi Arabia.
Determined to make her long-held dream a reality, Morrison set about finding sponsors to fund the epic trip, as well as coordinating with experts on the ground to determine a route.
'People say, 'Oh, exploring is terrible. It's a colonial concept,'' she reflects. 'And I see exactly what they're saying.
'And I think exploring now is very, very different. It is about working with the people of the country you're in to find out about them and to tell other people about them. At least, that's what my exploring is.'
The grueling journey was deemed too long to complete in one season due to Saudi Arabia's notorious hot weather, as well as the fact that the holy month of Ramadan is expected to begin in late February this year, so Morrison has split her trek into two stages.
'I'm finding Saudi Arabia absolutely fascinating,' she says. 'The scenery has been incredible and very varied.'
Since setting off earlier this month, Morrison has discovered two new sets of petroglyphs, including depictions of an oryx and gazelle — different types of antelope — etched into stone, as well as two ancient stone hand axes, along the way.
'The amazing thing about doing long, slow journeys is, you walk and you walk and you walk, and then you get there,' she says, recalling becoming caught up in a camel stampede as well as seeing the moon shift from a crescent to a full moon.
'And, we've seen the most incredible things en route, and that's been very exciting.'
Aside from searching for further new sites and discoveries, Morrison will be 'walking through climate change' and recording her findings, as well as retracing ancient caravan routes.
Morrison, who has been bedding down in a winterized tent, has already been hosted by many locals, who have welcomed her warmly.
'It's quite overwhelming,' she admits, before describing how villages have held huge gatherings to celebrate her arrival, and people regularly stop their cars to offer her water, snacks and encouragement while she's 'trudging along a road.'
'Genuinely, the kindness of people… The enormous warmth which greets me everywhere I go is so nice,' she says.
Although she's very much enjoying the journey, Morrison says she's had terrible blisters since her first day on the road and has been experiencing 'quite a lot of pain.'
'They've just got worse and worse and worse,' she says. 'And because you're walking 25 kilometers a day, they've got no chance to get better.
'So I am mainlining painkillers and trying to wrap them up as best I can and just keep going.'
Saudi Arabia has long been criticized for its restrictions on women, and the kingdom has made some significant changes in recent years, with its controversial ban on women driving finally being lifted in 2018.
The following year, Saudi women were finally allowed to hold passports and travel abroad without the consent of a male guardian.
Being able to connect with women, including Saudi's first ever female wildlife rangers, throughout the journey is hugely important to Morrison, who explains that she's keen to 'see what their dreams and hopes are.'
'I've got an explorer superpower: being a woman,' she said in a statement before embarking on the adventure.
'The view of Saudi women in the West is very one dimensional. As a female explorer, I'm uniquely able to spend time with Saudi women and tell their stories.'
Morrison fondly describes a recent encounter with a young Saudi woman who spoke of her aspirations, declaring that she wanted to 'to be part of this change' currently taking place in the kingdom.
'So many young Saudi women have traveled,' says Morrison, pointing out that women make up at least half of the university intake in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
'Things are really changing for them in Saudi now. I mean, very rapidly. So for me, it's an interesting time to come and to talk to young women and see what their dreams and hopes are.'
At the time of writing, Morrison had reached AlUla, an ancient Arabian oasis city located in the Medina Province, which she previously visited while filming BBC show, 'Arabian Adventures: The Secrets of the Nabateans,' and was hugely excited about returning to an area settled more than 2,000 years ago.
'It's crammed full of history,' says Morrison. 'It's where the Nabataeans and the Dadanites traded through.
'So when I walk into AlUla with my camels, I will be literally walking in the footsteps of people who've traded that path with camels centuries ago.
'And I just love that thought that I will be doing something that people used to do centuries ago.'
Morrison is scheduled to reach Madinah on February 14, just before Ramadan, bringing the first section of the expedition to a close.
During the second leg, which will begin later this year, she'll make her way from Madinah towards the coast and down to Jeddah, passing through Rijal Almaa and the Uruq Bani Ma'arid wildlife sanctuary, before finishing up near Najran at the border with Yemen.
'My real aim is to communicate what I'm seeing and hearing and discovering to people,' she says.
'So I would love it if they see or read about me, that they feel that they're a little bit on the adventure with me.'
Morrison has been chronicling her journey on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok and aims to encourage others 'to visit Saudi Arabia and see for themselves what it's like.'
'I would like them just to be inspired by the beauty of another country,' she says. 'Because we all know there is a negative stereotype of Saudi Arabia.'
Morrison, who stresses that she 'couldn't have attempted this at 25,' as she 'needed the life experience' to get to this point, is also hopeful that her experiences will inspire others to seek adventure whenever possible.
'Adventure can be very small,' she says. 'It can just be going out for a hike or doing something that's outside of your normal experience.
'Anything could be an adventure if you bring the right kind of attitude to it.'