A Walk in the Woods

Posted by Verity on August 17, 2025 in feminism, Leisure activities, society, Sport, Women's equality issues | 2 comments

‘I’m not in danger alone in the forest, but I am when I’m in the presence of men.’ This is the simple premise behind the campaign of Marie Albert to open up solo walking for women.

It wasn’t always like that: during her first night camping in the forest on her own, she didn’t sleep a wink. But after five years of solo travel, including a cycling tour on the trail of Occupied France and a journey round the world on a cargo ship, she can face anything. Settling down for a night under the trees, she now feels as comfortable as she would in her own bedroom.

She took up walking in desperation after a period of unemployment, kicking her heels back at her parents’ home in Paris, following her science degree and a master’s in journalism at university in Lille. Filled with the beginner’s misplaced zeal, she launched herself into the pilgrim walk to Santiago de Compostela, resolved to do 30km a day.  It didn’t take her long to realise that there was more to long-distance walking than putting one foot in front of the other: ‘I had a 10kg rucksack and no walking poles.’ In the circumstances, the 30 km a day turned out to be more like 15 km a day, and she admits to cheating – with the odd bus ride here and there.

But  her confidence and her stamina grew as the way stretched out ahead of her. Not surprisingly there was harassment, which she dealt with by tweeting about it, and doing a self-defence course. Her lament has echoes of Susannah Walker, whose book on women walking, The Hard Way, we reviewed last year: ‘The public space is occupied by men. As women our role is to stay at home, or just to go from point A to point B.’

As Albert approached the last stages of her walk to Santiago de Compostela, the purpose of her journey became clear to her: she dedicated each of the remaining days to a woman who had been a victim of femicide.  Her tweets on these women gained traction and she began to think how she would do a solo walking tour round the perimeter of France, to be known as the Survivor Tour.

Her solitude in one of the early legs of this tour was briefly interrupted by an encounter with Veronique, thirty years her senior and a veteran of climbing in the Pyrenees. But after some idyllic riverside camping and a madcap nude swimming session, it was farewell to sisterhood and solidarity and they pursued their separate ways.  In September Albert embarks on the penultimate stage of her tour: a month’s solo walking along the coast round Marseille,

Looking back, Albert realised she could have avoided a lot of grief if she’d been better prepared and she has now distilled the lessons from her hard-won experience in a book: Rando Solo: le guide féministe, published this year. She stresses that the book would be useful for anyone taking up walking as a pastime, with useful advice on basic equipment, keeping your pack light, and overcoming any fear of wild camping.

May the road rise to meet you, Albert!