Walking Alone in the Wilderness: A Story of Survival (Part 2) | Nat Geo Live

Why I'm here today, talking to you, here, in this amazing special place? It's because of a slug story. Basic slug story, you know how those stories go? You know, I couldn't have my pocket money when I was a kid. Grow up in Switzerland. Picture this. This white peak, green field, with nice little chalet. Can you see that? Yeah. Well, it's not there. It's up north, foggy, raining, the most jobless area in Switzerland. You usually never get away from that place.

I live in a tiny village; it's a dead-end road. There's nothing after that. You feel like you are at the end of the world. And I grew up there. I'm from there. And I've got two brothers, one older, one younger. And I keep going back to my father, saying, "I need some pocket money, give me money." He said, "No way you're going to get money." Anyway, I annoyed him so much, that one day he said, "Okay, we make a deal." I've got the garden full of slugs. You collect 100 slugs, and I give you $1. Mmm. Interesting.

I spent all my time in the garden when it was raining because those slugs were coming out when it was raining. Collect all those slugs, 600 I needed. And what I will do with those $6? I will run in town and buy National Geographic. I was seven years old. So tonight, it's the first presentation that I do here, in National Geographic DC, and I'm really proud to talk to you tonight. It's really something deep in my heart. This is the example that dreams come true because I want, as a little girl, to travel to those weird, incredible places.

So, I spent my childhood in the forest. I had this amazing guidebook, bird book. On the front page, there was this beautiful blue bird, with a bit of red and yellowish thing on the back. But they forgot to tell me that it was not in Europe and not in my country. So, I spent all my childhood in the woods, looking for that bird. My parents were quite happy I was in the woods somewhere, looking for birds.

Anyway, I took my revenge on this one. And I would like to invite you with me tonight, we're going to be starving, it's going to be hot, you're going to see snakes and crocodiles. Welcome to Dropped Into the Wild Corner. My most recent expedition. My concern was, how are we going to feed the world today? Because I was in China, I saw all these Chinese people, building houses like, really high, a lot of people in the same room. And I thought, how are we going to do this? How are we going to keep using the planet that way?

I was concerned about, it's going to be somebody hungry in this world, in some ways, in some times, coming up. How are we going to do this? So, I decided to take on a journey. I wanted to understand how we can do this. Go back to the roots, at the time of the gather and hunter. Yes, I will find my own food, on my own terms, following the Aboriginal people, that have been doing this for 60,000 years.

So. But, as usual. Expeditions really start when things go wrong. And things started to really go wrong at the first minute of the expedition. So, I learned in a little town, on the northwest corner of Australia, called Kununurra. Word like that long. It's a weird town, where you've got cowboy, Aboriginal people, mining people, all mixed together.

I arrived there with a little airplane, landed, and I opened my phone; my dear friend was supposed to be there, helping me for one month to go and check all my techniques, survival techniques that I've been learning over the years. Included really technical fishing techniques. And I received this lovely text, it was saying, "Sorry darling, I can't make it." I was like, "What?!" We've been planning this for a year, what?! And I tried to call him like 55 times, never answered the phone.

And I called my team back in Switzerland and I said, "Hey guys, how are we going to do this?" And my assistant was getting agitated. Sarah, my god, you have to leave in four weeks' time, how are we going to do this? I said, "You know darling, when things get agitated like that, there's only one option. I'm going to drink coffee." You know, in nature, when there is a danger, and there is something so intense, animals just stop and freeze. I'm just going to stop and freeze and drink coffee until I see a sign in front of me. That's it.

And I can hear my assistant, "You are crazy darling." I did that. Stopped in a coffee shop, drank for five hours. The night went down, I took my little car, went to find my accommodation that night. I booked a room in the farm, and this lady received me; she was waiting for me, and she just walked out of the door of the property. She had a designer dress on. Pink dress, beautiful, hair done, makeup on. I was like, "What?! I'm in the remotest location in the bush in Australia, and she's wearing this kind of thing?" I thought, this woman is never going to help me, not this one.

Went to bed. Anyway, the next morning she knocked on my door, and she said, "Sarah, do you want to have coffee with me?" I said, "Lovely, yeah." Why not? Anyway, we had coffee, and she said, "What brings you here, darling?" I said, "Well, I'm coming to walk." I try not to deliver too much information at the same time because usually, I get arrested before I do anything. So, I learned my lesson in China when I got arrested by Special Forces, I learned my lesson in Laos when the drug dealer arrested me, I learned my lesson in Mongolia when a Mongol man ran through my camp every night trying to steal my stuff.

So, yeah, I was hoping to do some walking. And she said, she jumped on her seat, really literally jumped, and she said, "Well, I just come back from Europe. I did the Camino in Europe." I was like, "What?!" She was a walker. Anyway, she said, "You want some brownie?" I said, "Of course I want some brownie." She got some fresh brownie coming from the oven, I said, "Yes, let's have some brownie." We start chatting, like two women can chat.

And she said, "Don't worry, wait." She took the phone, made like five phone calls. She said, "Okay, you've got a meeting tomorrow with this one, then a coffee at four with this one, dinner with this one." I said, "Who is this woman?" You will see, go, I don't have time to come with you, but you'll manage. Anyway, in a week's time, I made this networking of powerful women in this town. The lawyer of the town, the doctor of the town, I had all of them under my wings.

And they pushed me and helped me to rebuild my expedition. Reroute completely my expedition, restarted from scratch. And four weeks later, I was ready to go. But everybody, that I was talking to, having the same conversation over and over, was saying to me, "It's a drought year. There is not enough water in the bush, you will not be able to survive." Everybody was saying that. And you know, when people always have this opinion about my expedition. They look at me, they judge me; they look at me and they say, "What this blondie-thing hair, she's not good for these things."

Anyway, I thought, maybe this time, I better listen a little bit. And I decided to do a test. And before, I wanted to spend some time with Aboriginal people. That's how I met Juju. In a center, she's a full-blood Aboriginal woman. Really important woman in her community. And the young people around her are the new generation. They're the kids of her sister. So, you can see the pure blood, it's really rare to find some pure-blood Aboriginals these days. And we went on a tour together, in the bush.

We spent some time in the bush, and she will give me some tricks. But she will not give me all the tricks. She didn't know that I know. She didn't know that I have been preparing these things for 20 years. So she will give me the tricks, but not all of it. She will give me the wrong plant to look for. Not the good ripe ones, she will give me the young one, where there was nothing to eat there.

And I was wondering, the more I spent time with her, what's going on here? Why doesn't she give me the full trick? Is it because she feels like I don't own my path through her land? Or is it because she doesn't want me to get hurt and go back home? I didn't know what she was thinking. I didn't know what everybody was thinking, really. I decided to do a test. And I just did that. I went in the bush, got dropped with a little plane, walked for seven days, and discovered exactly what they were talking about.

There was not enough food there. They were right, actually. So, I decided to take a Plan B with me; I decided to take 150 grams of flour per day as a Plan B if things go wrong. So I looked like that. It's a little flatbread, and I wonder today if it was a good idea. Because you know, when you've got, in your pack, food, you're so starving but you're not allowed to touch it. It's like having the fridge full of food, and you're on a diet. Can't touch it. It was horrible. But I decided to do it that way.

So, let's go, we're going to get dropped with a helicopter northwest of Australia. Precisely there, there's nobody there. It's empty land, no human, it's for me. So, I got dropped there with the helicopter; the pilot said to me, "Are you sure you want to get dropped here? There's nothing here." I said, "This is exactly where I want to get dropped." And he said, "Okay, good luck." And he flew away.

And I can hear the ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch, and then nothing. So, welcome to Australia. Well, we can see it's not flat at all, right? So, the good thing about this, there is a valley here. So, on the bottom of the valley, we've got a bit of water. See, you've got water, a bit of green thing, means we're going to find food. So, this is always a bit the same story. You've got water, you've got frogs; frogs, you've got snakes; snakes, you've got crocodiles. It goes like that a bit. So, I knew that.

So, that's how I start my journey. Rule number one. Do not camp near the water. Do not take your water two times in the same spot. The first time, you're going to be okay. But the second time he will get you. So, this kind of area there, it's full of things like crawling, spiders everywhere, snakes, but two types of crocodiles. One is sweetwater crocodile; they are lovely. Really lovely creatures. They talk to you, you talk to them; it's a really lovely relationship.

And then you've got the other one, it's a big salty crocodile. They eat cattle, horses, big things, humans; they love it. So, they eat those things, they turn them around, they put them underneath the water under a log, leave you there for a few weeks, so you get really tender. They go back there. So it's all about managing your landscape right. So, I was there, lovely camp, look. Afternoon, I've got a little fire going on, my little house. And far enough away from the water.

So, I'm there, taking my water, so I'm really safe there; I've got a bucket of water, like a flexible bucket of water, like a plastic thing. And I put my rope at the end of it, and I decide to take my water, so I throw the thing in the water and retrieve the bucket. And unfortunately, the thing didn't open properly. I was like, "Sarah Marquis!" Really, are you that good, it's going to be good. It's going to be a really long journey like that.

Anyway, I start again, open the thing, throw that thing in the water again. And retrieve it. This time I'm going to get it right. I retrieve this bucket, and suddenly there was this branch in the middle, and I was like, "Ah, I haven't seen that branch? Really? Getting better." And I just did this little push, like that, just for the bucket to go over the branch. And suddenly the branch was pulling me back. That was my first crocodile fight. Yeah, that was the kind of welcome party.

And, that was the beginning of a really long relationship. So how do you deal with crocodiles? Well, you have to learn; you have to be aware of your surroundings at any moment. It's really important. It's valuable for us here also. So, that day, that was a special day that day. I'll tell you, I did an amazing discovery. I was exhausted, as usual. And starving, because I've been starving quite a lot. And that was a laundry day. I washed a bit of my stuff on the way.

So I had my long, it's like a long shirt, long sleeve, and I took some water, and I decided to wash it, so I squeezed it, and I decided to have a nice, ah, to get rid of that water a little bit. And suddenly I hear a noise. It be like, (high-pitched bird call?) Like a crinkly noise like that. I was like, "What?!" And suddenly I'm just like, under the bushes straight away, looking for what's going on. Because you don't want to stand like a big, tall asparagus in the middle of the bush. It's just, do not do this.

You have to be on the ground, all the time. And then, I'm there, waiting to see that bird because I know all of the birds, I know all the plants; I've been studying that landscape for days and years. Never heard about that bird. Anyway, I forgot about that thing, took my jacket, and smashed it again. I hear the same noise. It's like, really?! But it was not coming from the bush. It was coming from that cliff.

And at the bottom of the cliff, I just got on the edge of it, and I saw these little crocodiles lined up, talking to mom. I discovered that day, the call of the crocodile. Yes, scientific discovery. See? So I've been studying this for a long time before I head off on an expedition. Nobody could actually tell me what was the trick to know if there was a crocodile in the water or not.

The Aboriginal people used to go in the water with two stones, getting inside the water, and smash the stones together. And then they make a little noise, and then they will know if there's a crocodile there. Well, that's a bit too late, right, you're just in the water already. It's like the supper thing. You are on the menu. So, you don't want that. So, nobody never told me what to do, actually, to know if there's a crocodile there.

So, I discovered the call of the crocodile that day. And that was a good day for me because the day coming on from there, I would actually smash my shirt, put a bit of water on the bottom, and I would actually discover if there was a crocodile there or not. So when you're going to do those things, the only thing you have to know, you have to be able to read the landscape like a treasure map. I would find, sometimes, some water just because I found a little bird on a type of tree.

Because I know all those birds. The little red bird, the diamond finch, I know they can fly five kilometers around only. And I know they have to drink two times a day. So I know there would be water around. Or if I find a type of plant, I would know exactly what kind of roots I can find, and I can find food. My food, it's all I've got. You know, you realize after you peel, life, it's like an onion. You peel the onion.

Once you peel where you come from, who you are in this society, and you get to the core of things, you realize that things are really simple, actually. We all want the same thing; we want our family to be safe, we want food and water, shelter, basic. That was my morning. This was my breakfast. Every morning it would be easy for me to find my breakfast.

I will eat those kapok flowers, and those flowers are incredible because they're juicy, a bit gluey, not much taste, but that will fill my tummy. So after a while, after a few weeks, my tummy would actually, the side of my tummy would stick together. I would be so starving, like, I couldn't sleep at night. And that's after three weeks, I thought I was hungry, but wait. Took me three months.

So I started to get better at looking for food. And this is a typical good day, where I eat Pandanus spiralis. These are a bunch of plants, spiky plants, really spiky, so the way to eat this is to go in the middle, with your legs; it's not much easier way, right. You want the fresh, little, young in the middle. So you take your hand, you have to embrace the pain at one stage. So you go in the middle, you grab the spiky thing, and then, quick fast go, you collect the middle bit.

And then, if you're lucky, at the end of it, you've got two centimeters to three centimeters of white chewing thing. And it's actually fiber; you can eat that. And that will fill up my tummy. It's all about filling the tummy, you know? I would walk 12 hours a day, climbing, going through really harsh terrain. And then I would reach that tree. This tree would be on my way all the time.

What do you think about that? It's like a lot of fruit, right? So, I reached this tree, and I look at the tree; I look on the ground. First thing, look on the ground, no kangaroo, no birds eating that thing. There is no poo on the bottom of that tree, no sign of anybody using that tree. I don't like it. But I'm starving, you know? So, I'm looking at that tree; I'm thinking, well, you know what? I learned how to do things; I'm good, you remember? At surviving.

So, the rule is to take the fruit, smash it in your wrists here, that's the most thin skin that we've got, and then if there is no reaction, you know the fruit is kind of edible. Then you go to phase number two; you put a bit of that thing inside your mouth here. No reaction, you can go for the tongue. Wait four hours because some of those fruits, you need to wait for the toxins to get out of the thing. If you're kind of safe after four hours, if you've got no tingling in the mouth or in the tongue.

I know that, right. So what I do, I get there, take the fruit, squeeze a go, because I don't feel like it. Because I'm really starving, right? So I did that; it was like, oof, it was like a Schweppes, like, like a Schweppes on steroids, like, oh my god this is disgusting, and I tried to spit it out, and everything. And I was like, wrong move, Sarah. Anyway, I passed that tree. And I keep, over the days, having that tree on my journey, and every time I see that tree, I'm like frustrated.

And one thing you don't want is to get me frustrated. This is a do not do this. So, I get to that tree again and I talk to him and say, "Right, I know you're not good for me, but let's try a little bit again." And I squeeze again, a little bit squeeze, and I start to kind of like it. You know, we think we cannot get used to things; well, we can get used to a lot of things. You can get used to things I start to get used to this really horrible taste.

And one day, I was really tired, having one of those really bad days. And I saw that tree many times on my way during the hours following this long day. And I keep sitting under that tree, and having a go, until when I start to stand up, I had this blurred vision of the landscape. I'm thinking, oh, Sarah, too much of a good thing, it's a bad thing, right? So I abused of this substance, and I lose my vision.

So you learn, on the way, also, I know a lot of things, but we learn on the way. The only way to learn is to get out of our comfort zone, jump out, and be here, and test it. This is the only way to grow. To get to that beautiful people that we all are in this room. This is valuable for the lives, it's a life lesson. Get out there, and try. Don't stay in your own juice. This is my rule. Because, when you know how to do things, you become a master of what you do, and then what?

It's boring, you don't grow. You start to be a bit, uh, not a happy person. Hey, let's get out there, try a few different things. You never know what's going to happen.