September 2018 Wild Camp: Time for a Meal Deal

Anyone that knows me, knows that I like food…….Err hang on a minute, that’s wrong….I LOVE food! I spend my life bouncing from one meal to the next while shoe horning in audacious spurts of exercise in order to keep my obesity levels finely balanced. And so it goes without saying that, for me at least, one of the most thought provoking things to go into my planning for a camping trip is not so much the kit, but of course the food that I want to eat and whether I’ll have enough room in my bag for it!

So what do I do? Sometimes I try to re-create the amazing meals that my wife and I have at home. Sometimes I trawl the supermarket aisles in search of inspiration. And other times I watch countless youtube videos of other outdoorsy folk to see what food they’re throwing down their gullet. All too often I watch these videos and feel a tinge of disappointment when I see them reaching for an ‘adventure meal’. Yes, I’ve tried a few of them and yes I recognise their advantages in terms of weight saving and convenience. The trouble is that I have always found myself feeling a little disappointed. In my humble opinion, they don’t taste that great and seem to cost a fortune.

When I’m on a camping trip, food is often one of the highlights of the adventure, I look forward to getting my dinner on the go. Thinking about those adventure meals planted a seed in my brain though and got me thinking about a food based challenge. I started to think about how well I could eat throughout a 24hr camping trip for the equivalent price of a single adventure meal?

So in order to establish my budget I need to clarify how much adventure meals cost? I looked at the main meals available on a website called Basecampfood.com as they seem to have a pretty comprehensive range. I judged that £5 would be a reasonable budget based on the fact that this was broadly in line with the more popular range of adventure meals which sat at the lower end of the price range.

To be honest, this wasn’t much of a challenge, I was pretty much spoilt for choice in terms of the food that I could have taken on  my camping trip. But, what I wanted to demonstrate was that you can still eat well on this budget and also supply yourself with semi-lightweight food that is also simple and convenient to cook. 

So here’s what I got:

Breakfast – 15p

comprised of a sachet of porridge oats with maple syrup and pecan nuts. This sachet originated from a box of ten that I got for £1.50 which equates to 15p per serving.

Lunch - £1.20

A sachet of Ainsley Harriot’s Jamaican Rice and Peas – 50p along with a tin of Mackerel in Olive Oil – 70p. I’ve had this rice before and it’s very simple to prep, simply re-hydrate in some boiling water for approximately 5mins. The mackerel just adds some protein into the mix. The mackerel could easily be replaced with something else such as Tuna or cooked chicken.

Dinner - £1.45

Half a packet of 12 Pork Chipolatas – 65p (the other half was put in the freezer), 2 brioche buns – 40p and 2 eggs – 40p (20p each). Spam is a good alternative if you’re concerned about keeping fresh meat re-frigerated. You can often pick Spam up on offer for £1.

Snacks - £2.05

1 bag of Trail mix - £1, 2 snickers bars – 50p (multi-pack of 4 cost £1), custard pot – 35p, two packets of breakfast biscuits – 20p (multipack of 8 cost 80p).

GRAND TOTAL - £4.85

Some might say that I cheated a little by breaking items out of multi-packs. But my counter-argument is that I will either go on to use those things at home or, most likely on future camping trips. The food was sourced from Asda and Aldi but can easily be sourced from one supermarket to make life more convenient.

I tried to avoid tinned produce as this can become quite heavy and I was planning to walk a few miles with this food in the backpack (hence the extra snacks to eat on the go).

So, what about my camping trip!

I must now confess that I ended up camping out for two nights as I met my camping buddies - Andy and Des up the woods after work on Friday. I added an extra meal into the mix (burgers) and vowed that I would commence my ‘meal deal challenge’ the following morning. So without further ado, I hurried home from work, grabbed my rucksack, gave my wife a kiss goodbye and headed off on my adventure.

One of the advantages of bivvy camping is that it takes next to no time to set-up camp. I arrived just as the sun went down and was in no rush to set-up camp. Instead, I sat down, cracked open a beer and put a couple of burgers directly onto the hot coals of the fire that my camp b!tches….sorry camp mates! had established (They arrived earlier in the day). I did have to reprimand them a little as I was expecting to be presented with a cup of tea upon arrival. I presume they forgot - how dare they forget!!!

It was, as always, very nice to be camping in the woods. As we head into Autumn, the Tawny Owls seem to spring in to life and can often be heard hooting at one another. I believe it’s this time of year that they start to make their claims for territory. It makes for a wonderful time to be sat around the fire, enjoying the warmth and listening to the Owls harangue one another.

I was glad to have brought my warm three season sleeping bag and had no doubts that I’d be snug as a bug in a rug in my bivvy bag. One thing is for sure when bivvy camping, it pays to be organised with your kit, ensuring that everything gets packed away in the rucksack or bivvy bag so that it doesn’t get soaked from the rain or morning dew. I do enjoy using my British army gore-tex bivvy bag, it’s spacious enough to accommodate all your sleeping gear and reassuringly robust. 

The next day was to be a slightly different experience. Andy had to depart to deal with real life matters while Des and I were heading off to the North Kent marshes. The plan was to park up in the nearby village of Cliffe and embark on an eight mile walk around the local nature reserve and Thames foreshore. We’d then aim to wild camp on a small beach that I’ve visited previously (see my previous post – A tale of Two Camps). Having spent quite a lot of time wild camping in the woods, I find it really enjoyable to break out from that environment and embark on an altogether different camping experience.

Unfortunately Des and I seemed to be a little too early to witness the mass of birds that flock to the marshes during their winter migration. But we were still greeted with some glorious sights of the resident wildlife such as the Herons, Avocet and Marsh Harriers.  Part of me wished that I was carrying a decent camera so that I could capture some of those images. Unfortunately though I chose to save the weight and I think my back was grateful for it. The downside to camping down here is that the water sources are far from clean and quite likely to be saltwater. I therefore opted to carry in three litres of water (plus a couple of beers!!) and that immediately adds around four kilo’s to the pack weight.

The walk into camp was very good though, we were pushing ourselves along at a decent pace (about 3mph), stopping to take the occasional snap and enjoy the surroundings. There’s also some interesting war time relics to see on this walk, such as the derelict explosives factory. This dates back to the late 19^th century, starting out as a gunpowder works, but developed into a chemical explosives factory. It must have been an intimidating place to work throughout the 20yrs that it was in operation. 16 people were to lose their lives in explosions on site. Although, I suspect it was probably a nicer place to be than the trenches of Flanders Fields!

We arrived at our destination just in time for lunch and I was glad of it as I had a mouth like the sahara and was in desperate need of a brew. Quick get the kettle on!

I have to say after eight miles of walking, that was a well-earned cup of tea and it tasted good. I got my rice and peas with Mackerel down me for lunch (delicious) and rested up a little while, watching the busy Thames river traffic sail by. You get to see some impressively large container ships passing as they arrive at the London Gateway Port.

Once we had rested and re-fueled, Des and I donned our rucksacks once more for a little bimble up the river to the next bay. I wanted to see what it was like for future camping trips and we also wanted to collect some wood for a fire on the beach. It was such a shame as the beach had some lovely camping spots, but it was surrounded by a nasty looking barbed wire fence. You probably could climb over it, but the fence is obviously there for a reason and I think I’d be distraught if I put a rip in my snazzy fjallraven trousers! The good news though was that we grabbed some nice dry Hawthorn for the fire, we’d light that up once the sun has set.

There is definitely something quite mystifying about camping down on these marshes. It gives you a sense of being quite remote from civilisation. But that is far from the reality and we were surrounded by some of the most densely populated parts of the country. Coming down here gives me a real appetite to stretch my legs a little and consider exploring some of the more remote corners of our country…..one day perhaps!

The days are certainly starting to get shorter now. We got our bivvy bags organised and prepped our dinner as the last rays of sunlight were gradually fading into the horizon. It’s typically at this point that I become quite trigger happy with my camera, desperately seeking out that perfect image from the golden hour.

Dinner was a real highlight of my meal deal challenge/anti-adventure meal challenge (I need to come up with a snappy phrase for it!). I was really looking forward to my sausage and egg rolls and they cooked up a treat in my little Trangia mini cookset (great bit of kit). I purposely went for chipolata sausages because I knew that they’d cook better in the little frying pan (yep that’s right, upstairs for thinking!!). I then used the Trangia simmer ring to dampen down the heat for my eggs and that worked really well, cooking the eggs slowly and ensuring I had a nice runny yolk. This is a great example of a super simple/lightweight meal that can be cooked easily and taste infinitely better than any adventure meal. 

Meanwhile, Des cooked up some Spam, potato and egg which is pretty much par for the course for him. Spam is allegedly food of the gods! I’m not inclined to disagree with that statement, but; if it is a food of the gods then I reckon that god must be Thor – God of Thunder as Des spent the rest of the evening farting like a trooper. They stunk!

With dinner out the way and sunset photo’s in the can, there was only one thing left to do. Layer up with some warm clothes, light up the fire and open those cans of beer that we’d carried eight miles. Beer seems to taste better when you’ve had to work for it and what a great way to enjoy an evening besides old Father Thames.

I have to say that this was one of the more memorable nights of sleep that I’ve had under the stars. Sleeping in a bivvy bag is amazing as you can lie in bed and watch the world go by. I could look up at the stars and out to the river as the tide gradually crept back in towards us. The ambience would occasionally be broken only by another one of Des’ self-made thunderclaps! There was a definite chill in the air but I was warm and snug in my alfresco boudoir. The exped sleeping mat that I’ve been using for much of this year has really proven to be a revelation for me when sleeping on the ground. I’ve enjoyed many a comfortable night on it and look forward to many more to come.

I woke up in the morning to the sound of oystercatchers and a humungous container ship making its way up the river. We didn’t have any rain but everything was soaking wet from the dampness in the air. It once again reminded me of the importance of ensuring all my kit was squared away in the rucksack and bivvy.

We packed away our gear, had a brew and marvelled at the glorious sunrise. As always, we ensured that we left no trace by packing away our rubbish and clearing the fire scar (very easy when you’re on a beach!). We were soon back on the trail but rather than re-trace our steps back to Cliffe, we had the foresight to park our cars in different places and ensure that we had a shorter three mile walk in the morning. It made for a nice walk which was also aided by the fact that our packs were significantly lighter.

What a great little camping trip though, the weather was kind and the marshes never fail to inspire me. I’m looking forward to undertaking a few more hikes and wild camps in the future.

Oh and as for the food rations, I ended up returning home with an uneaten bag of trail mix so I could have saved a quid!

Thanks as always for reading.