South Cape Track 2020 - Food Planning
Wednesday, 6 January 2021
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Planning the food for such a long hike is hard work. It wasn't quite as epic as when we did the overland track in 2015 and planned for 7 nights for 6 people. This time I planned breakfast, lunch and snacks for just the three of us while Clare planned for her and her dad. Paul and Rob plundered Clare's supplies once she dropped out as Rob was only roped into the whole thing on Christmas Day and Paul hadn't got around to doing anything yet. For the main meals I did the planning for all 7 of us (before we became 5 of us) so I did a tonne of dehydrating of vegies and a curry in the week before we went. I think I dehydrated 4 onions, 4 capsicums, 1 eggplant, 2 tins of kidney beans, 3 zuchinnis. I used them for my marakesh curry and also to add a bit of volume to the other days. I also dehydrated the mushrooms that we forgot to eat on Christmas day. We bought our Strive meals here Anyway - for my own reference, this is what we took: Breakfast- Jett - Weetbix Crunch + Oats for Jett (175g x 5)
- Jon & I - Porridge oats with extra nuts x 3 - 125g each serve
- Jon & I - Weetbix Crunch + Oats for the other 2 breakfasts
In hindsight I'd stick to porridge for every breakfast. It's nice and warm and lighter and less bulky than cereal. Lunch- 1 x packed lunch for the first day - we all had salad sandwiches.
- 2 x medium wraps each for 3 lunches
- 4 x Cruskits each for 2 lunches (this was Jon's suggestion - I think wraps are better - a bit heavier but they don't require their own hard container to stop them being crushed).
- 2 x pieces of cheese per person each day - we had 3 packets of the 10 slices of fake jarlsberg cheese from coles. The only thing that saved them from the quoll was the tougher plastic. Also having three packets meant we could minimise exposure to air for the un-opened cheese. Not such a problem on this trip but on the overland track things were starting to get dodgy by the end as it was so hot each day.
- 4 x (very thin) slices of salami per person each day
- 1 small bottle of chipotle sauce which was brilliant
 - 1 packet alfalfa sprouts -these last really well and come self contained so they don't get squished and spoilt like salad leaves. They help to add volume to the wraps for the first 3 days at least.
- 1 capsicum which we had for the first 3 days which was nice
- 1 spanish onion which lasted the trip
General & Snacks- Powdered Milk - I took enough to mix up 700ml each night which was for dessert hot chocolate and breakfast in the morning.
- Hot Chocolate powder - I carefully measured how much we'd need to have 1 each every night.
- Chocolate - we took a 180g block for each day - figuring we'd have some for lunch-dessert and some for dinner dessert.
- Chilli flakes
- salt / pepper
 - Cup-a-soups. These were the first things we had when we made it to camp each day - absolutely brilliant. My favourite are the continental red-thai curry ones.
- Muesli Bars - 1+ per person per day
- Salty nut mix
- Be Natural Jelly Dinosaurs
- Jersey Caramels
- Be Natural fruit slices (my favourite sugar snack)
- trail mix fruit & nut stuff. I hate it but Jon loves it.
Dinner- Night 1 - my dehydrated dahl with fried coles naan bread. The curry was a bit of a dud, but the fried naan bread (1 each) was brilliant.
- Night 2 - Strive Bolognaise for the meat lovers, Strive Gnocchi for me. Both were pretty good - I added a lot of extra dehydrated parsley to mine as it might have been a bit bland otherwise.
- Night 3 - my Marrakech curry* with packet Ainsley Harriots Moroccon Cous Cous
 (1 packet cous cous between 2). This was my favourite meal and it would have been everyones except for night 6. *Recipe at the end. - Night 4 - Us - Strive Laksa. Meh - coming off the back of the marakesh curry this was a bit bland and was difficult to cook without fusing it to the bottom of the JetBoils. It was ok but our least favourite Strive meal.
- Night 4 - Rob - because Rob's stomach was still dodgy, he had 2 x continental pasta packets instead of the
 Laksa - note these say they serve one, but you'd be a very hungry hiker if you only had one of these. 2 might be a bit much for some people, but there'd always be someone to help finish it off.
- Night 5 - Strive Mexican Chilli Beef for the meat eaters, 2 minute noodles for me. This was by far the favourite meal of the trip for the meat eaters.
We also had another 3 packets of 2 minute noodles for our emergency meal in case we got held up for a night. They are light and delicious and easy to carry. Before we left we removed all the extra packaging and combined things in containers where we could. Once again having a tougher container was the only thing that saved our salami and capsicum from being taken by the quoll. For the rest we used a truckload of ziplock bags which didn't feel great but it seems to be the best way of minimising the packaging that actually goes out on the trail. I had also purchased some Strive Herb Risotto meals but we voted to leave them behind when we dropped in numbers as they looked the least yummy of the Strive options. Marrakech curried stew Serves 2
Ingredients In one bag
1 x vegetable stock cube
1 Tbsp madras curry powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp raisins
1 Tbsp dried shredded coconut
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup coconut milk powder (available from indian food shops)
1/2 tsp dried garlic In separate bag
Add dehydrated red kidney beans (400gms can). Other options include chickpeas or cannelloni beans.
Dehydrated vegetables – suggested options include eggplant, sweet potato, red capsicum,
carrots, zucchini
To assemble
Add boiling water to red kidney beans and vegetables and soak for 20-30mins
Add sufficient water to spices to create sauce and add to vegetables when rehydrated.
Bring to boil
Serve with rice or couscous.
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