Day 169 - Off Bellies, Big Decisions and a Breezy Day in Essaouira

Thankfully, everyone woke up feeling somewhat better this morning. I don’t think any of our stomachs are particularly happy here in Morocco. The food has just been rough on all of us. We’ve all had upset stomachs at different points and it’s definitely made us a little hesitant about eating out too much. Morocco has been incredible, but it has absolutely tested our bellies.

We eased into the morning with coffees while Maddie cooked up some breakfast. She was making eggs, chopping capsicum and getting a few other bits and pieces ready. Meanwhile, Emmett had woken up in one of those wild moods where he was loud, bouncing off the walls and getting on everyone’s nerves a little bit. I think staying inside all day yesterday was just too much for him. He needs stimulation and movement. Sitting around inside simply doesn’t work for him, but with all of us feeling a bit off, nobody really felt like charging out and doing activities either. We were all a bit gun shy after the stomach issues.

I eventually decided I needed to get out for a run just to clear my head and move my body. I headed out along the Esplanade and managed a 5km run. It wasn’t a bad run at all, but when I got back to the accommodation I was absolutely sweltering. The apartment is normally cool enough, but there’s no air conditioning and no fans. Usually you can open the windows and get a bit of airflow through, but yesterday there was almost no breeze at all. After running, I just couldn’t cool down. I jumped straight into a cold shower trying to lower my body temperature, but even that barely helped.

Eventually we all got ourselves ready and headed down to the beach just to spend some time outside. Before we got there though, I realised I was absolutely starving. I hadn’t really eaten breakfast before the run and by this point it was already around 11 or 11:30. I stopped at one of the little local places and grabbed a msemen with chocolate paste. As soon as everyone saw me eating one, they all decided they wanted one too, so it quickly became lunch for the rest of the family, even though for me it was really just breakfast.

Next door to the little food place was a glasses shop, so we wandered in for a look. They told me they could do prescription sunglasses in two to three days and the total cost would work out to roughly $150 Australian including the prescription lenses. My current prescription sunglasses are starting to delaminate a bit, so it’s definitely something I’m considering. They still work fine for now, but eventually they’ll give out completely, so I might need to go back and have another look.

Once we finally made it to the beach, Kia and I sat chatting about the trip while the kids built sandcastles and went swimming. Even though the sun was out, the weather was surprisingly cool. There was a steady breeze all day and Kia was wishing she’d brought a jumper because she was freezing sitting there. Eventually the kids got cold too and came running out of the water, so we packed everything up and headed back to the apartment to warm up and get changed.

Back at the accommodation, Kia and I ended up spending a lot of time talking about the future of the trip and trying to work out what direction we want to go next. It’s honestly a huge unknown right now. We don’t really know whether we want to stay around Europe longer, leave completely, chase another winter, or shift into a cheaper part of the world to stretch the budget further.

The reality is that flights are expensive. To leave Europe entirely and head toward somewhere like the Americas or back toward Asia is roughly $3,000 Australian for the four of us. On the other hand, we can fly to Turkey for around 1,000 euros, which is about $1,700 Australian, and then use cheaper regional flights from there. The challenge is that summer prices around Europe are far higher than we anticipated. Accommodation near beaches is often well beyond our budget and food costs are a bit of an unknown too.

At the same time, places like Malaysia, the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia would allow us to get amazing accommodation, cheaper food and really slow things down financially. We could stretch the journey much longer if we went that way. The downside is it takes us well away from Europe and potentially away from another ski season unless we later head somewhere like Japan.

So at the moment, we really don’t know. Maybe we spend some time in Southeast Asia saving money and then head to Japan for skiing. Maybe we stay closer to Europe. Maybe we completely change direction. There are a lot of conversations happening at the moment and no clear answer yet.

By mid afternoon I was absolutely starving again after the run and barely eating all day, so we decided to head out around 5pm for a really late lunch or early dinner. We found a local pizza and pasta place. The kids got spaghetti, Kia ordered a tagine and I got a pasticcio, which is sort of like a creamy baked pasta dish served in a clay pot similar to a tagine. It was cheesy, rich and full of flavour. Probably not ideal for the congestion and stomach issues, but at that point I didn’t care. I was hungry and it absolutely hit the spot.

After dinner we headed back to the apartment. Kia and the kids did a little bit of schoolwork while I worked on Kia’s website for a while. Then it was an early night for everyone.

The plan for tomorrow is to get up, hopefully exercise if everyone’s feeling okay, and then go hire some surfboards. Apparently the surf is meant to be much better on Saturday, so hopefully we can get down there together and catch some bigger waves.

Overall, Day 169 was definitely more of a recovery day. A slower day. A day of trying to feel human again while also trying to figure out the next chapter of this trip.

Morocco has been amazing, but gee it’s been tough on the belly. It almost makes you scared to eat out sometimes.