Sahara Road Trip, Part 3: A 4-Day Walk Into the Silence
Where It Started
Back in 2010, I went on a road trip in Morocco with a friend, my brother, and my dad.
Thinking about it now, I realize: that was the only vacation my father and I ever took together after being a kid. Probably the last adventure he ever went on.
That trip brought us to Merzouga, on the edge of the Moroccan Sahara. It was my first time in the desert. I had no idea then just how much that place would come to shape my life.
A Life-Changing Journey
Three years later, in 2013, I returned—this time alone, on foot.
I’d heard that the southern desert near M’Hamid was more rugged, more real. The plan was to walk all the way to the Atlantic coast, to Sidi Ifni, where Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once lived and wrote The Little Prince.
That part didn’t go as planned. I never reached the ocean.
But the journey itself changed everything for me.
It was the turning point of my life.
In the silence and vastness of the desert, I met my fears. I confronted my loneliness. And in doing so, I found something new: a deep longing for movement, for meaning, for more. That walk sparked everything that came after—coaching retreats in the Sahara, buying an old camper van, moving to Zanzibar, building a hotel, climbing Kilimanjaro, starting a travel company, restoring a sailboat, sailing 7,000 miles…
Somehow, it all began in the desert.
Coming Full Circle
It’s been over a decade since that first solo walk. I hadn’t been back to the Sahara since before the pandemic.
A few business ventures in Africa had crashed and burned in the meantime, and I’d made the full shift into nomadic life.
Looking back now, it’s been a wild ride.
So, at the end of 2024, Nike and I went on another Moroccan road trip. It eventually led us back to M’Hamid—and back to the desert.
We set out on a 4-day hike with our two dogs, two camels, and my longtime friend Yahyah as our guide.
This time, I didn’t have to worry about getting lost. I could just walk. Breathe. Be.
Stillness and Letting Go
There’s something about the desert that strips everything down.
The silence. The horizon. The rhythm of footsteps in sand.
A part of my soul stayed in the Sahara after that first walk. And a part of the desert has come with me everywhere I’ve gone since.
Most of all, I discovered something new:
I could let go.
Being overly attached—whether to outcomes, identities, or expectations—has always been (and still is) a struggle for me.
But out there, under endless skies, I remembered what it feels like to have enough. To be enough.
Nike captured this journey beautifully on film. I’m deeply grateful.
And yes, there’s more to come.
Until then—stay curious, stay salty.
– Floh