Day 183 - The Beautiful Chaos of an Argan Oil Experience in Morocco

Another nice wake-up. I think we were all up and out of bed around 8:30. Kia and I headed out to the shared kitchen to make coffees and just chill for a bit, but we quickly realised we were running low on coffee. The kids were deep into Lego already, so we left them happily playing and walked down the road to the shop to grab more water, coffee and a few other bits and pieces we needed.

We’ve been making moka coffees here and I’ve really been enjoying the process of it. There’s something nice about slowing down and actually making coffee properly rather than just pressing a button. So we got back, made coffees and sat around drinking them while the place slowly came to life around us.

We asked Mohammed, who runs the accommodation, if we could have breakfast there again, so we ended up having another traditional Berber breakfast with msemen, breads, jams, eggs and juice for the kids. It’s simple food but really good, and it’s nice sitting around taking our time with breakfast instead of rushing off somewhere.

We didn’t really have any plans for the morning. It was a bit of a nothing day, which honestly felt needed. I had work to get stuck into, so I headed upstairs to set myself up while Kia organised some schoolwork and other bits and pieces. The kids were completely absorbed in their Lego games again. They’ve got this whole little world going at the moment with horses, stables, shops and storylines based around things we’ve done on the trip. They’re basically recreating our travels through Lego and then acting it all out together.

It’s actually been pretty amazing watching them. I think it’s their way of processing everything we’re doing and seeing. They’ve been playing so well together lately and building really strong connections, so Kia and I are more than happy to just let them disappear into it for hours.

I was working upstairs while Kia sat nearby doing school planning, research and life admin. Just a bit of everything really. We weren’t meant to head to the argan oil experience until 3:30 in the afternoon, but at about 1:30 we got a message from the hub host saying she was already on her way and only about 30 minutes away.

We all sort of panicked because we hadn’t even had lunch yet. I had to stop work, we packed everything up, raced downstairs and I quickly ran off to grab food. Then as I was walking back with lunch, the host lady arrived. I explained we’d just ducked out to grab food quickly and she said, “No worries, I just need to go to the bank. I’ll be back in 15 minutes.”

So we rushed inside, ate lunch quickly, got organised and then came back out to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

It ended up being almost an hour before she came back.

Then we walked about ten minutes down the road to the argan oil place and arrived almost exactly at 3:30 anyway, which was the original time. So the whole thing just felt really chaotic and unorganised for no reason at all. We’ve had a few moments like that lately where communication and timing just seem completely different to what we’re used to, and we’re constantly trying to work out what’s actually happening.

But once we got there, the argan oil experience itself was actually really good.

They explained the whole process from start to finish and we got to do parts of it ourselves. The argan nuts are inside a shell, which is inside another outer casing, sort of like a mini macadamia setup. We got to remove the outer skin, crack the shell with rocks and pull the nut out ourselves before grinding them down into paste.

It wasn’t just us either. There were three other people there as part of the group and it actually made it more enjoyable because everyone was laughing and chatting while trying to crack the nuts open.

And honestly, it was harder than it looked.

They use a large rock as a base and a smaller rock in your hand to crack the shells open. Some of the nuts are tiny, and if you’ve got big fingers trying to hold them while smashing them with a rock, it’s not exactly easy. I think all of us hit our thumbs at some point and there were nuts flying everywhere as people accidentally launched them across the room trying to crack them open.

Once the nuts were ground down into paste, we watched them knead the paste until the oil separated out. By the end there was enough argan oil for everyone there to get a little bottle to take home, which was pretty cool.

Afterwards we were invited next door for sweet Moroccan tea and bread with traditional dips, which was nice, but then the whole experience kind of ended in this really awkward silence where nobody really knew if it was over or not.

There was no “thanks for coming” or “that’s the end of the tour” or anything like that. Everyone just sort of sat there quietly wondering if we should leave, stay, keep talking or what was happening. Eventually people slowly started getting up and drifting out.

Then there’s always that uncertainty around tipping as well. We’ve found there’s a real lack of understanding at times about expectations around things here, and we’re constantly second-guessing ourselves trying to work out what’s normal and what’s expected.

So eventually we all wandered back to the accommodation. I had to jump straight back into work to finish everything off. The kids wanted to continue their Lego games for a while before eventually deciding they wanted a movie night. They haven’t watched one for a while since we got back to Essaouira, so we let them watch a movie on Kia’s laptop while I worked and Kia did some other bits and pieces around the room.

I ended up finishing work around 8:15 or 8:30, almost exactly when Kia’s laptop battery died and the kids couldn’t finish the movie anyway, so it all kind of worked out perfectly.

Then it was showers, bed and the end of day 183.

Interesting day.