WATCH: Living the kiff life on the Dolphin Coast

With the mission to declutter the unimportant stuff to make room for the real gems in life, Salt Rock’s Maurel family recently embarked on a nomadic journey.

Moving from backpackers to BnBs, Marc, his wife Nicole and their four children have been documenting their travels around the Dolphin Coast on his vlog, My Kiff Life.

“The word ‘kiff’ is a typical durbanism that refers to a way of life and a positive attitude. You choose whether you want to see SA as a country going downhill or a place of opportunity for development and entrepreneurship.

“We have chosen to see the best in the country we call home and showcase what the Dolphin Coast has to offer – and it’s a lot more than you think,” said Marc.

Getting to the point where they were ready to give up the conventional way of living has been a gradual movement that started with a minimalist approach about four years ago said Nicole.

“We have always lived quite simply, but having so many children (five in total) you accumulate things quite quickly and I just realised it wasn’t healthy for the kids to have so much stuff,” said Nicole, who home schools her children.

They gradually downscaled, investing in just a handful of quality toys for the kids.

“Hearing the children say they are bored when they have a trillion toys was our worst. We don’t have a TV, so the lounge became a place of activity and conversation, where we made music and together with our friends and family we created memories and experiences.”

The family decided to take it a step further and adopted the nomad lifestyle.

“We have adventure in our DNA and love following vloggers on their missions around the world. Nicole came up with the idea of putting our stuff in storage and going on a local adventure, staying at different places and exploring the Dolphin Coast,” said Marc.

The concept is simple and based on a trade exchange basis – you provide them with a place to stay and they market your business through their vlog and social media.

“We all speak about ‘support local’ but how much are we actually supporting? It is in our hearts to bring an increase in tourism to the space we are in and to showcase what people have to offer while empowering each other with new skills.”

Nearly one month into this and four “homes” later, they said it has been an incredible eye opener.

“Our family is benefiting – kids are far more resilient and adaptable than we give them credit. They are finding the adventure in everyday. There is far less fighting among the kids and we have learnt to live in much smaller spaces with each other – sometimes even sharing one room between the six of us.”

Nicole said this journey is also a path to influence how their children think.

“There is a theory that 99 percent of your thoughts are the same as yesterday – and 89 percent are negative. Part of this movement is for our kids to have new thoughts and have their minds stimulated with new environments.”

There has however been one major challenge – washing!

“We each only have five summer outfits, two winter outfits, two costumes, two pairs of pyjamas and lots of undies. So we constantly have to wash – it’s my only low.”

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