WILD BY NATURE: SWISS EXPLORER SARAH MARQUIS
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“I get to the point where it is not me and nature: I am the wind, I am nature, and nature is me. I become nature. There is no identity anymore with my body. I become what is around me.” —Sarah Marquis
Interview by Mary Anne Potts
Photographs by Krystle Wright
To be an explorer you have to have persistence and the ability to think on your feet. No one embodies these traits quite like Swiss explorer Sarah Marquis. By taking very long exploratory walks, solo, in very remote places, she reconnects with nature, and, in a sense, she becomes one with nature. This is when Sarah elevates her abilities to survive in the wild.
I spoke with Sarah recently about the important role of persistence in her life, and also regarding some of the more challenging moments during her journeys--most recently, through the Tasman forest. With all her journeys combined, Sarah has circumnavigated the planet by foot.
—Mary Anne Potts, Writer at Large
MARY ANNE POTTS: You go places that are not well detailed on maps. How do you research where you are going when there is not a lot of information out there?
SARAH MARQUIS: I go on location, that is the only way. I talk to people. For my last expedition to Tasmania, I went to find some old fishermen and old bushmen, and I started to talk to them. It is an investigation first with the people on location. I go to historical sites, and I really try to figure out everything that happened from the past to today. Then I find the topographical map of the location in the right government office. After all of that, I come back home with all of the information. I also try to find books about the area from back in the day. I search in big, old libraries. There is no information online on the places I want to go.
MP: For your long walk from Siberia to Australia, did you also do a reconnaissance to figure out that route?
SM: Yes, I went everywhere. I found a contact in every country so that if shit happened, I could have a back up plan with someone who speaks English. I also have a satellite phone and a [GPS] tracker.
The most important thing is to go on location and sniff the air. Listen to the language. Eat the food. And breathe--breathe the culture. To understand the country, you have to understand the people and the language. A lot of times I learn the language. I learned Mongolian, for example.
MP: How many languages do you speak?
SM: Perfectly, four. But I speak a bit of Russian, a bit of Mongolian. Every country I pick up enough to have a 150-word conversation. It’s really important for me. If you don’t speak the language, that’s your first barrier to communicating with the people. You need to speak the language.
MP: Do you wait until after you have scouted the expedition to pitch your sponsors and media?
SM: I dream about it [the expedition]. Then I put it together as far as I can. Then I go on location. I come back and everything is set up. Then, when I am ready, and I know what I am talking about--I know the weather and the topography--then I go pitch the story. I don’t pitch a story when I don’t know what I am talking about.
MP: What advice do you have for explorers who want to get their expeditions funded?
SM: I always say, “If you can’t find funds, you are not going to be able to survive anyway.” It’s as simple as that. If you are not able to sell your [project] yourself, you are not going to be able to survive. This is the beginning of the expedition—it begins with the funds. No one is ever going to give you the money, you need to go get it. I actually pitch hundreds and hundreds of people before I find someone who actually is interested. I always take it as a challenge, and I always make my pitch better by adjusting to people’s reactions. It gives me the strength and the belief that I can go further and further. Things don’t fall into your arms, even for the best people and ideas. You need to find the right supporters. It is part of your job as an explorer to get money for your expeditions.
“With my first book, I told my family and friends, “I am going to write a book.” Nearly all of them said to me, ‘I know you can do so many things, but now you are talking about being a writer, are you serious? This is not possible.’ This was 2003. I never listened to those people.”
MP: Your latest book, I Woke Up the Tiger, is a bestseller in Europe, as have been all your other books. What advice do you have for people who want to write books—and then to get people to read them?
SM: This was my seventh book. With my first book, I told my family and friends, “I am going to write a book.” Nearly all of them said to me, “I know you can do so many things, but now you are talking about being a writer, are you serious? This is not possible.”
This was 2003. I never listened to those people. I knew at that moment, after I finished my expedition across Australia, that I would write about this amazing connection with nature that we have as human beings. I would not take no for an answer. And my first book was a bestseller straight away.
MP: How did you get the word out?
SM: At the beginning I did not find any publisher. I asked people to order a book, then pay later. Then I had 30 days to deliver the book to them. So I asked the printer for 30 days to pay the bill. I had a very tight schedule to actually pay the printer. And it worked. I took my little car and went to every bookstore in Switzerland. I would have coffee with the people and say, “You’re going to love my book. I’m going to give you a minimum of three books. And you have to pay now, no returns.” No one had gone door to door to have a coffee with them. So basically the success of today is based on that time I spent taking my books in my car to the booksellers. They know me, and they keep ordering my books.
There are no rules. The best thing to do is to believe in yourself and believe in your story. Don’t think anyone else can sell your book. Even if you have a publisher, you need to get dirty and sell your books yourself. You need to tell the booksellers why it is important.
Sarah Marquis on her most recent journey in Tasmania.
MP: Do you actually make a profit off your books?
SM: Yes, I live off of my books. I am a bestselling author in 12 countries. Wild by Nature—that is the one available in English. The rest of the market is in Europe.
MP: Do you think that social media is important to do as an explorer?
“I train all the time, even when I’m not on an expedition. I have a really strict diet… You cannot eat ice cream and chips, this is not my diet plan. “
SM: I think it’s an amazing platform to reach people in all corners of the world where you would never be able to talk to them before and to share your story. It’s really crucial to use social media to communicate.
MP: You are gone for extensive amounts of time. How do you balance your expedition life with your home life, as well as the reverse?
SM: It’s so mixed up. I train all the time, even when I’m not on an expedition. I have a really strict diet. My journey is based on my body, which is the tool that I’ve got to do this. I’ve been doing this for 25 years, so if I had not been looking after my body so much, I would not be able to do today what I need to do. My last expedition I had 35 kilograms on my back, which is a lot. You need to have proper training. You cannot eat ice cream and chips, this is not in my diet plan.
MP: I eat those every day!
SM: You are terrible! But your body seems to know how to get rid of them.
MP: You now live in a cabin in the Swiss Alps that you and your brother built. Why did you build it?
SM: I actually fell into a gorge in Tasmania, and I broke my shoulder. And, to make the story short, I walked for three days with a broken shoulder, then I got rescued. I stayed two weeks in the hospital. Then I was sick of it so I went walking again. When I finished the expedition, I came back to Switzerland. I went to my little brother and I said, “You know what, I am going to go crazy going to the physical therapist. We’re going to build a cabin.“ We worked like crazy for six months, and now I live at the top of a mountain in an amazing place in the woods.
I’ve got electricity and water. I just don’t have access with a car. So I have to walk. It’s about 30 minutes from a road, so it’s not too bad. It’s isolated enough. In Switzerland, you are never in the wild, you are always near a road. I have a big fireplace in the middle and that’s how I stay warm in the winter.
I stayed the whole winter, writing the book, I Woke Up the Tiger—it is actually already published in French. This one has been doing especially good. It’s still in first rank after a month.
MP: So did you see the Tasmanian tiger?
SM: You have to read the book!
MP: I don’t read French….
SM: I am going to translate it. I am looking for a publisher for the English language edition of the book.
MP: What do you bring on expeditions that is not your typical outdoor gear?
SM: Over the years, a lot of the gear I made myself—all of my little secret weapons. I take a lot of survival kits.
I always think, if I had to run, I cannot run with a 35-kilo backpack. Anticipation is the key to exploring. If you go thinking, we’ll see in the moment what happens, you are never going to come back. Anticipation is everything. I always think if shit happens—because it’s a fire, I fell, there is bear, or whatever—I have this little pouch with all these survival tricks in it. Then I can just take it and survive anything. It is the size of two hands.
“Over the years I’ve developed all these mental tools, and I discovered how far we can go. Every time I think I am done and cannot go further—I feel like I’m up against this big wall—but then I find a door and I go to the next level.”
MP: Didn’t you use chopsticks to eat termites in Australia?
SM: I have tricks for each country, for each type of terrain. In Australia you know those wax strips for waxing legs, when you go somewhere where there are a lot of poisonous plants: If you brush against them the poison goes straight to your bloodstream. So the best way to take the [plant] hairs out is with those wax strips. I have developed those techniques over the years. Females have a lot to give to exploration!
I used my hygienic pad on my dog’s feet to cross the desert because there were all these painful plants on the ground and they get under your skin. I couldn’t protect his paws, so I duct-taped the pads to my dog’s feet and we crossed the desert. And he did just fine! If you don’t find what you need in the market you build it!
MP: What are some of your favorite plants for natural remedies?
SM: I use tea tree essential oil on my feet every night. It’s an anti-fungal, and it gives the skin strength. It makes the skin a little thicker. It helps avoid blisters, redness, or friction. When you cannot wash yourself for a long time, it is very good for your feet. You will not get infections.
MP: You probably have a new expedition you are thinking about?
SM: Yes.
MP: And you probably don’t want to tell anyone anything about it?
SM: [Laughs]
MP: How do you keep coming up with new things to do?
SM: I let myself breathe. It’s been a year since I came back from the last one and I wrote the book and did a massive promotion of it. Now I’m finally breathing. Then you have to have space between things. You need to leave your life. I never decide where I go--I always get inspiration from something. An idea. A picture. Then it grows inside me. It’s always a situation of synchronization.
MP: Why do you like to go by yourself?
SM: What really interests me is the relationship I have with nature. Over the years I’ve developed all these mental tools, and I discovered how far we can go. Every time I think I am done and cannot go further--I feel like I’m up against this big wall--but then I find a door and I go to the next level. So by doing that alone, I put myself in this situation alone. If I am scared, I am scared alone. It’s different than if there were two. Then I face those feelings. This is the hard way. That is the only way--the hard way: There is no shortcut.
When you are alone, there is no escape. You need to deal with what is going on inside you. If you have the courage to do this, the first step is the hardest. Then you discover your capability. I only discovered it because I was alone. And silence is my friend. This is for me what I get out of nature. This is how I develop my understanding of nature. I get to the point where it is not me and nature: I am the wind, I am nature, and nature is me. I become nature. There is no identity anymore with my body. I become what is around me.
MP: What is one of the greatest hardships you have faced on a journey and how did you get through it?
SM: I guess it is always the last one. I faced death on more than one occasion on this Tasmania expedition.
I was in the primary forest under the canopy where the old trees fall for no reason. The [forest] floor had a few levels of dense bush. I was moving two miles a day over 12 hours walking. It was like being trapped and waiting for the trees to fall. I realized I could die getting squashed under one of those musty trees.
“One night the tree fell near my tent and the ground shook. The ground gave way under my weight, and I fell into the ravine. I blacked out in the bottom of the gorge.”
One night the tree fell near my tent and the ground shook. The ground gave way under my weight, and I fell into the ravine. I blacked out in the bottom of the gorge. I woke up wet. My left side could not move. The timing is everything. Five more minutes in that freezing water and that would have been it. “ I could hear that voice in my head, “Sarah one step at a time.”
Hard passage through labyrinths of massive fallen trees and dense vegetation, often far above the forest floor, Sarah’s solo journey across the Tasman forest presented new challenges for this seasoned explorer.
I crawled out of the first section of this ravine with my broken shoulder. It was really bad. Three days later I managed to climb to the top of the mountain where I got rescued. It was all organized with my team remotely.
As soon as I got out of the gorge I knew something was wrong with my shoulder. We knew people with a chopper who could come get me. I could not reach the mountain soon enough. When I did get there, the pilot could not come because he had another appointment with his chopper. And the weather had been so bad that I could not use my solar charger, so I had limited battery life.
When things go wrong, the success of the expedition is in the details. It’s in the clear thinking you did before you left. Shit happens really quickly if you are not ready. So in preparation for the expedition you need to have an evacuation plan for every country you are going to be in. You really need to have your contacts right. This is why you need to go beforehand to figure all that out.
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Connect with Sarah Marquis on Instagram and Facebook.
Australian photographer Krystle Wright has accompanied Sarah Marquis for brief segments on several of her expeditions. You can learn more about Krystle and her work at krystlewright.com.
