Walking Alone in the Wilderness: A Story of Survival (Part 1) | Nat Geo Live

• One day I was sitting in Australia, in a desert. The land was red. I was next to an old man. An old Aboriginal man. And after we gaze at the horizon, after a few minutes, he looks at me and he said, "Hey little one. You be careful." And I look at him a bit, wondering about what's going on here. "You be careful who you tell your story to. Because this is the most precious thing you will never own."

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my world, it's a really important night tonight. We need to connect and feel connected. I invite you to come with me in my life journey. Let's go walking.

So, let's start actually here in the States. I had this amazing idea, like, I saw this little trail called PCT. Had no idea what was going on there. I read it was an amazing journey going from the northern part of the States, near the Canadian border, crossing all the west, and reaching the Mexican border. I thought, this was for me, right. Let's do this.

Anyway, I start my journey at the Canadian border. In May, 2000, I come from the mountain, right, so I know about snow, a little bit. Anyway, I thought it makes a good time. I start walking, not knowing much about the bear story because I thought there was already a bear story out there about bears, grizzly bear. I thought, I'd better do that on my own way, so I do not get scared.

Right, I start walking into this deep forest. And I had my plan B going on. I thought, if anything goes really wrong, I just jump on the tree. This is a good plan. Anyway, I keep walking over the days, and I look at the tree, it has this funny mark on the side of the tree, and I thought, what is this thing going on there?

I saw this huge claw mark, I thought, oh, holy holy holy God, those things climbing. I can see these marks on the tree, I thought, this is going to be tough one. Anyway, a few days later, I climb a summit full of snow, and, unfortunately, the weather changed. This cold front became a really hot front, a really warm front going on. And that was my first time I nearly... find death.

I was on this slope, going really, really, really like that, on the lateral way of the mountain. Suddenly, I feel my legs going like that. And the snow falling down. The avalanche was nearly taking me. I had this surviving skills of running uphill, finding this big rock, hiding behind a rock. And I've been staying there for six days.

Well, I survived, right? That's all that matters, really. So, I did what everybody would do. Wake up every day at three o'clock in the morning and testing the snow. One day that snow would be hard enough for me to go on. I did exactly that.

But first mistake, I didn't have all the topographic map. You know, you've got a trail, you follow the trail, so you've got the trail map. But this is wrong. You always have to have a plan B. If anything goes wrong, you need to know what's going on around it, so I didn't have this map. So I followed a green valley down the hill.

I arrived there, and after a few days, finally, I reached a car park, and this old woman was there. She looked at me and she (screams). I was like, oh, what's going on, a bear somewhere?! Or something. And this woman looked at me like she saw the Devil in me. Her husband ran, he said, "What's going on?" I said, "I don't know." And he looked at me and say, "Are you alright?" I said, "I'm just fine."

"Are you sure?" I had second-degree burns on my face, and my whole face was a big blister, actually, pieces of skin were falling down my face. But I didn't care about that, I was just about surviving. Anyway, the story goes on, so I get to that little village, I was starving. I got into the first pub, and I start to eat my fish and chips.

First plate, second plate. On my second plate, the police come behind, and say, "Miss Marquis?" I say, "Uh, mm, yeah?" "Come with us please. Did you walk through those lands there?" I say, "Well, I just got off the mountain, it was dangerous."

"Yeah, you walked on FBI land." "Well, there is, I didn't know that, there was some snow everywhere." "Well, okay." So they give me a ticket, and it was like a $5000 warning, like if I don't get out of that Washington state in 48 hours, I will get arrested.

So I was like, "Alright, Plan B, anywhere." I made a connection, I flew all the way down to San Diego, and start again, walking from the Mexican border this time. I thought, that's going to be safe, kind of, because I had, at that time, the Mojave Desert in front of me, in full July. It's a bit more complicated.

Anyway, I finish this incredible journey. I can go on all night about this journey because it's been really incredible. We saved a guy in the river, nearly dead, John, and he survived after a long journey of running away from the guy for two days to get help in this really remote area. But all went well, I finished.

And then, back home, I had my mind, it was like if I opened a little door inside my mind. I'd win, I had dreams, big dreams. I had this dream of Australia. What's about if I start in the middle, and I go all around it and finish in the middle? It's like a 14-month journey. 30 kilometers a day, 14,000 kilometers.

And I just did that. I start, after one year preparation. After three months, I met my dog, Joe. He was in a farm, not really happy. I stole the dog, ran away with the dog. Arrived in a forest, completely exhausted, out of breath.

I was like, okay, I've got a dog. Let's do this. Talk to the dog, I say, "Well, we're going to walk together, right? We're going to do 10,000 kilometers together." It looked at me and said, "yes," "I'm in," and we took off and we had this amazing journey.

I finished my expedition with him, and I brought him back to Switzerland. He is a wild dog, it's half dingo, half Red Heeler, and he survived and lived until he was 17 years old, in the snow. So, just two weeks before the end of this expedition, I walked in a place, a special place. An Aboriginal community.

Anyway, I had a bit of a health problem there. I woke up near a fire pit, and all I can hear was (high pitched warbling). I was like, right. This looks interesting to me. And I was like, what's going on? They saved me. I just collapsed in a dune and they saved me. And accepted me in the community like their own.

I had a mom, this was my mom. I've got sisters... What happened, we went hunting together. And I was like, oh yes, I can go hunting with them. Imagine what I'm going to learn, because I was hunting myself.

So when I was hunting, I was hunting like, just trying to make no noise at all. Just trying to be one with nature. Well, it didn't work really well. I was hunting with those women and they've got this big butt going on, you know. And you can see them moving through the landscape, and they were talking to each other, their long line, and they're like (high pitched warbling).

And moving their butt, but suddenly, one lizard, one goanna. I was like, what?! I didn't see anything. They were yelling at each other. Well, I made the point, and I'm going to follow her from behind all the way. I did that for a long time, I never found her trick. She knew where the lizard, the goanna was and where to find food.

Those people got this amazing connection with nature, you will never believe how connected they are. And, from day one, it was a bit of a problem, me being there. So what happened, they decided to marry me.

Yeah. They married me to George. One morning I realized I was married. How cool is that, right? No wedding, preparation for months and months, you just married like that. And I say, can I see my husband? You know, innocently? Which one is it? And she pointed to this guy behind the tree out there, he was cross-legged.

He was painting, his name is George, he was 80 years old. So the young women, they used to marry them with the old one to make the community quite stable. But those people, those Aboriginal people, for me was it, that was it, that was my family, that was my place.

That was the way I belonged to. Everything was so natural, so pure. In a lot of ways, for me, that was the answer. And one day they said, well, everybody's got a totem, some, the kangaroo, some, the emu, some are the snakes, and they gave me a totem, and they said to me, "You are jabiru."

I said, "Jabiru? What is a jabiru?" Oh, it's a bird. I thought, wow! I'm a bird. I'm a beautiful bird. I'm so happy, I was so proud. Like, what can be better than a bird, really.

So this is the bird. The most ugliest bird I've ever seen. So, but they were not that wrong. Look at the legs, long legs, big nose, right? Anyway, I finished my expedition, I finally walked away from my family, this family, and I promised myself, if I walked away from here, I have to talk, I have to communicate with the world, about this possible connection with nature.

And that's what I started doing as soon as I got home, I started writing and giving conferences. Then, meanwhile, I was doing this, I had this wild dream. I saw a little story about those Inca people, during the Inca Empire, where they were running on top of the Andes.

And I thought, what?! What's going on there?! And I been doing some research, and that this wild expedition starts. I planned to walk from Santiago de Chile, the capital, all the way following the Andes. Go through Bolivia, arriving in Peru, and then, go up to Machu Picchu.

Well I did just that, eight months of really surprising journey, to arrive in Machu Picchu in one piece. Really skinny, well, I lost a lot of weight, and I got arrested by the Special Forces there too, after three minutes on Machu Picchu. But, I made it, so, with the help of my brother, my little brother, we were really a big help at that time, because he did resupply points all the way through, because there is not much food and water on that expedition.

And then, I had this relaxed time in Switzerland. I've got time between two expeditions where I just breathe and live, and so I was going to my little grocery store. And it's a little organic store where I go to buy all my stuff. And I had all my bags, and get out of the shop, trying to cross the road, there were too many cars going on, and I thought, okay, I put my bags down and just look around a little bit.

I turned around, and I see this little travel agency behind me. And this big picture there, massive picture, green picture. Was like a Mongolian steppe, you can actually feel drawn into the picture, it was so green! I was like, wow. Anyway, I went home, didn't think about it. Then, this picture grew on me, and I started to search about Mongolia. Then, wow, the Baikal lakes, not far from Siberia.

And then south of it, you've got the Gobi desert, right. And then if you go south, into China, amazing China. And then Laos, and Thailand, and then if you've got a bit of water, but then you've got Australia. Well, I just did that. I built this incredible expedition.

Two years preparation, to walk from Siberia, all the way down to Australia. Took me three years. Well, things happened on the way. We're going to see what happened when an expedition really starts, it's not everything as you planned. Mongolia's been surprising, I needed to start three times to go through Mongolia.

Two, it's not enough. Don't take no for an answer, never do that. The first no, it's a good safe no. Then, a first no means you're not in the right door. You've got a few other door to get in. And really, the Gobi desert and Mongolia was about that. How determined I was.

This land was not going to let me go through it the first time. And I hope, I honed my passage there. Because every step I was doing, I was not following a trail. I made my own trail, I made my own reality. One step at a time.

Took me three years though. Take a bit of time, but, imagine, you can go around the world on foot. Imagine. The thing is, you can do this, but you have to know how your brain works, a little bit. If you tell your brain, I'm going to go around the world on foot, it's going to say, yeah right.

You know, sit on the couch, watch TV, relax, have a drink. You will see, you forget about this idea later on. So don't let your brain, your little computer make funny decisions for you. You need to be in charge on this one. Your dream, it's the most important thing that you can have.

How big is the dream, go for it. But it's one step at a time. So I reached three years later, this little tiny amazing tree. Look at this picture. So that was a tree that I met on my Australian journey between 2002 and 2003, I met that tree, I made a promise to that tree.

I said, darling, don't worry, I will be back. And when the idea of finishing my expedition came, where I could finish my expedition and my team was saying, well Sarah, you're going to finish in town, so we've got the media, we've got the TV station coming in. I said, "no way." We're going to finish there, it's the middle of nowhere. And I finished exactly near my tree.