Day 182 - The Family Exercise That Changed How We’re Thinking About Travel

Much better sleep, so everyone woke up in a much better mood. The wind died down overnight and opening the window let some cooler air into the apartment, which made a huge difference. The place cooled down enough for everyone to actually sleep properly, so we all woke up feeling a lot better.

Everyone was up and moving around around 8:30 or 9. Emmett was already up playing Lego, Maddie was enjoying a bit of a lay-in, and Kia and I headed out to make coffees and have a chat about the trip and what comes next.

There’s a separate standalone kitchen here because the little kitchen in our room doesn’t really have the facilities to properly cook or refrigerate food. I had to go track someone down to get a lighter for the gas burner, but eventually got the coffees going. We sat outside looking toward the ocean while drinking them and talking about life, travel, and trying to work out our next move.

Another guest staying here came and sat nearby while he waited for breakfast, and we got chatting. We ended up making him a coffee while he waited for the owners to prepare his breakfast. Really nice guy. He was here on a bit of a spiritual retreat, trying to reflect on life and work out some answers for himself. You could hear the emotion in his voice while he spoke about it. It was actually a really nice conversation, although it meant Kia and I never really got our own chat in.

We ended up ordering breakfast from the accommodation as well to make things easier. Traditional Moroccan breakfast for 30 dirhams each, which honestly wasn’t too bad at all considering what you got.

By then the weather had turned really hazy and misty. The whole coastline disappeared into fog and you couldn’t even see the beach anymore. It felt too risky to head near the water when visibility was that bad, so we stayed back at the accommodation instead.

Kia and I had planned to spend some time researching together because we really need to figure out where we’re heading after Morocco. We’re only about three weeks away from leaving now, so time is definitely ticking. The Americas still feel like a risk. Flights are expensive to get there and once there, we don’t really know if we’ll find what we’re looking for. There’s also the concern around safety, moving between countries, and whether we’d end up needing a lot more flights than expected, which could quickly blow the budget out.

On the other hand, going through Turkey and into the Balkans feels more familiar. We already understand Europe a bit now. We understand the costs, the lifestyle, how to move around, and how to make it work as a family. So we’re torn between adventure and certainty at the moment.

Most of the morning disappeared into research while Kia also did some schoolwork with the kids.

For lunch we found a nice little local place that specialised in homemade meals. It looked really good, but it ended up being fairly expensive for Morocco and the meals were actually pretty small. We all walked away still a bit hungry, which was disappointing considering what we’d spent.

When we got back to the accommodation, Kia came up with an interesting idea. We grabbed pieces of paper and created different categories about what we each wanted moving forward with the trip and life in general. Then, one by one, we all wrote down answers and pulled them from the piles while someone else recorded the responses.

The results were actually really interesting.

We did it twice and there was a surprising amount of consistency across everyone’s answers. Certain themes just kept showing up over and over again. Community. Nature. Water. Space. Adventure. Simplicity. Affordability. Opportunities to be outside. Feeling inspired. Feeling healthy. Slowing down while still growing.

It definitely made all of us stop and reflect a bit deeper on what we’re actually chasing as a family and whether we’re moving toward it or away from it.

Later in the afternoon, the kids and I went down and rented a surfboard for an hour from one of the local surf shops. The surf was pretty rough and messy. Kia stayed back because she wanted to work on some kinesiology preparation and spend some quiet time researching a few things.

We got told off by a local at one point even though we genuinely weren’t doing anything wrong, so we just moved further down the beach. Once we found a better spot, the kids actually got onto some really fun waves and we ended up having a really good time despite the conditions being rough.

After surfing we came back, got cleaned up, and headed out for dinner at our favourite place again. We ordered two mains, a salad, and four sides, and it ended up being ridiculously filling.

Dinner turned into one of those really nice family conversations where everyone just talks openly about life, the trip, memories, experiences, and random stories. Somehow we ended up talking about all my bike failures and mechanical disasters over the years.

By the time we walked home it was after 9 o’clock, which is actually late for us lately. But it was nice because Sidi Kaouki really seems to come alive after 8pm. We normally don’t see much of that because we’re usually back at the accommodation getting ready for bed, but there were more people out, more atmosphere, more movement around town, and it just felt different in a good way.

And yeah, that was day 182.