Not that the current Foreign Secretary intended to help the Edinburgh-born adventurer, but without his Government's actions the trajectory of her life would have been very different.
“When the Conservatives came to power I was chief executive of a media development company called Vision+Media,” Morrison (below) told the Sunday National from his home in Morocco.
Alice Morrison and her beloved camel, Hamish, on a Saharan expedition (Photo: Abdellah Azizi)
“Funding models have all changed, organizations have closed and new ones have opened, so I had to close the company and lay people off, including myself.”
Speaking to the Sunday National, Edinburgh-born Morrison spoke about the new BBC series, challenging stereotypes and why a sudden career change was one of the best things that could have happened to her.
Away from the media
While many would understandably have felt a little stuck, Morrison saw it as an opportunity to start something new and “turned the competitive world into bike racing”.
She explained: “If you’ve ever been in the position of having to fire someone, you know it’s a terrible thing to do.
“I was pretty badly bruised and I thought, 'I know what I'll do – I'll do the Tour d'Afrique, a bike ride across the continent of Africa from Cairo to Cape Town'.”
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The race was three times longer than the Tour de France and Morrison admits it led to some saddle sores and an upset stomach, but it marked the start of a new journey.
“It was completely liberating for me. I know it's a bit of a cliché to say 'turning the competitive world into bike racing' but it's actually true,” she said.
“That's what set me on the adventure. People in Edinburgh told me I'd never get a good job again, and they were right. But it was because I didn't want the job I had anymore.”
“I was willing to live with less to do what I wanted.”
Since then, she has had many adventures, including hiking the entire country of Jordan on the Jordan Trail and climbing Mount Elgon, the world's largest volcanic base.
In November 2018, she took part in the Everest Trail Race, running 150 kilometers around the mountain in just six days.
According to available documented research, she was the first woman to walk across the Draa River in Morocco (1500 km across desert and mountains), and it is no wonder that she has been described as the “female Indiana Jones”.
New Culture
Embracing different cultures is nothing new for Morrison, who spent part of her childhood in Africa.
“My mother took me to Africa when I was six weeks old. My parents were from a generation of travelling Scots,” she explains.
“Both my parents were teachers, and they taught in rural Uganda, Africa, so my life has been a life of exposure to many different cultures and travelling, which I think is very Scottish.”
Alice Morrison with her father Jim on the equator in Uganda (Photo: Freda Morrison)
“Even in the most remote places in the world there will be Caledonian communities and everyone will be celebrating Burns Night on 25th January.”
Though Morrison has had great success so far, releasing her third book, A Moroccan Adventure, in 2020, she still feels she challenges the stereotype that adventure is more of a man's thing than a woman's.
“One sobering thing we found when Intrepid Travel did a survey was that when they asked people to name adventurers, not a single one was a woman,” she says.
“There are so many women out there doing amazing things and our names just aren't heard enough.
“If you can't name a single female adventurer or explorer, you assume they don't exist and that you can't be one. But we're all doing what we want to do.”
However, she notes that she was particularly pleased to see the coverage of British athlete Jasmine Paris, the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons, one of the world's toughest marathons.
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“It doesn’t matter your age, religion, gender or sexual orientation, you can go out and have an adventure.
“There's nothing stopping you in that respect, but the reality is you need sponsors and press, and to get that you need visibility, and I think that's where the problem lies.”
Latest BBC series
Morrison's latest series, Arabian Adventures: Secrets of the Nabataeans, is currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
Few people have heard of this ancient civilization, which existed between 300 BC and 100 AD, but its influence is still felt today, she said.
They built Petra in Jordan, which is now one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and this latest series is a journey into how they lived.
Alice filming for the latest BBC series (Image: Supplied)
Mr Morrison said: “The Nabataeans had a vast empire stretching across Arabia and controlled key trade commodities such as frankincense and myrrh.
“So it's really amazing and Petra has always had this amazingly beautiful, magnificent city. It's breathtakingly beautiful.”
“With the discovery of a second city in AlUla, Saudi Arabia, it's a great opportunity to take a closer look at that civilisation and find out what it is.”
It's been a pretty fulfilling life for Morrison so far, but she has no plans to quit anytime soon.
Who would have thought she'd end up thanking David Cameron for all of it?