4 out of 5 stars
I have never been a fan of running, mostly because at school I couldn’t. The thought of doing the Marathon des Sables which is six, yes six days of running makes me shudder. Yet it was this daunting (insane?) event that brought Alice Morrison to Morocco. She didn’t think she would finish it. Nor did she expect to be still living there a few years later.
Pre-covid it was a popular place for tourists to visit, but they mostly stayed in resorts and carefully curated the experience of life there. Morrison didn’t want to do that, she wanted to meet the people of this country. It is the beginning of a series of adventures that will take her from being thigh-deep in poo, across the mighty Sahara desert, to the city of Fez and walking with a family as they take their flock to the summer pastures.
Whilst this wasn’t quite was I was expecting, I ended up liking it. Morrison has a knack for integrating herself with the people that she meets in her daily life and travels around the country. And I guess because she speaks the language she is able to understand and empathise with the numerous people that she meets on each of these adventures. If you want to read an insider’s view of Morocco seen from the perspective of an outsider who has made it her home, then this is a great book to read.
Ooh, I love reading about ultra running while having completed one, the known-to-be-easiest ultra, myself, and never wishing to do another, and North Africa, too. Onto the wish list it goes!
I liked this, the short essays really work. The ultra running is a small part of the book. I have a couple of running books that I will read and post on to you
Ah, thank you. Do let me know if you fancy any of my recent reads, I’m usually happy to let them go and will say if I’m not.