Food & Water

During the winter I bought a dehydrator and used this to prepared home cooked meals for thirteen days (more than I needed). The dehydrator is probably the best piece of support kit I have ever bought. Great food and it's cheap; I reckon my dehydrator as already paid for itself.

Mornings

I started the day with porridge, pre-mixed with dried milk. To this I added muesli or home-dried fruit for added taste. Porridge can get biring, but it is a slow release food which is good for trekking.

During the Day

I relied on Go Bars unless I could find a shop or pub (on three days). I had wanted to travel light and had taken fourteen bars. This was OK for the first week but during the second I began to need more food. I should have carrried some pitta bread and cheese with me or, at least, some trail nuts to supplement home-dried fruit.

Evenings

I rehydrated my food during the afternoon and my walking motion had it rehydrated by the time I hit camp. The food only needed a quick warm through which saved a lot of gas. Then I followed this by some home dried fruit.

In Scotland you are never more than two or three days away from real food and so I found I could cope happily with this amount of food - on a longer trek, without resupply, I would have taken more to eat in the evenings.

Carbohydrate is important. The best source of this is rice that is cooked at home and then dehydrated. This rehydrates almost instantly and is light to carry. Couscous is also OK but gets a bit boring. It is easy to carry too much couscous and it can get heavy! I tend to avoid rehydrating pasta (which works like rice) when hiking alone; too messy. I also took some instant mashed potatoe but which I only used for one day. In France the instantr mash is superb stuff, made with milk, and doesn't taste of chemicals as much as Smash does.

Water

I carried a two litre Platypus system and a platypus cap - so I could use this as a water bottle sround camp. I also carried a trust, wide-mouthed Nalogene bottle - these are easier to fill from streams. A full Platy and Nalogene lasted me through the night and into the next morning - meaning only one trip to the water source. Sadly, my Nalogene was last seen floating down a burn in spate and heading towards Loch Lee. Some people say Nalogene's are too heavy - but this will be the first thing I replace.