Marquis “met” that tree before, on a previous adventure in Australia a decade ago. Its branches have been bent by the wind coming off the sea. The tree is on a plain, surrounded by nothing. 'And more specifically,' Marquis says, 'there was one tree in the south part of Australia when the land stops and the sea starts.' Once she ran out of land, she'd arranged to hitch a ride in a cargo boat to Australia, where she'd walk across the entire continent to its southern coast. She’d walk from there through Mongolia and the Gobi desert, passing through China, Laos and Thailand. That Mongolian steppe became just one stop on a 10,000 mile walk. And then I came back home with my grocery shopping and all that, and I notice then that this picture actually grow inside me.'Īnd when a picture grows inside Marquis, it really grows. And this picture was actually a steppe, a Mongolian steppe. And this picture was green, green, green as you can imagine. But on the window of that travel agency was one picture. So, I turn around and behind me was this lovely little travel agency, an old one - it's been there forever. 'So, I've been waiting and waiting and waiting, and I get sick of waiting. On her way home, she found herself waiting to cross a busy road. One day, in between adventures, she went grocery shopping.

Marquis decided she wanted to spend her life this way. What's really important is what happens from the beginning. 'It's not really important when you get there. With my two brother, we were wandering all the time in the woods, foraging for mushrooms and amazing bird and little insects.' 'And I grow up in the northern part of Switzerland in an area where there was green, rolling hills. 'The story starts a long, long time ago when I was a little girl,' she says. 'It’s a big question,' I say, 'but why do you walk?' We’re not meant to be in a pushbike or in a car. Marquis is an explorer, but she doesn’t scale mountains or jump off cliffs.

'This story, it is my story,' Sarah Marquis says. Facebook Email This article is more than 7 years old.

Wild by nature by sarah marquis