Food and Water for Treks
Food for thought, Food for treks
Trekking, Mountaineering, Bag Packing, Hiking, Jungle Safaris, River Rafting etc takes you to remote location into country side that is rugged and physically tasking.
You invest precious time and money to enjoy a memorable eco-adventure holiday rather than just surviving and enduring it. Your diet chart, health and hygiene are an important part of your checklist for the eco-adventure trip among the other important ones.
You have to consider the following factors while deciding what food items to carry and precautionary health and hygiene.
1) Duration of trip
2) What is provided by the organizers and what is available locally? It may also happen that in most remote places there may be no facility like restaurants or dhabas. Some times you can also enjoy simple and basic hospitality of the local tribes.
3) Another important factor is the climatic conditions and also how stressful is the schedule for the event.
Following Food is portable and holds good for all conditions:
Food High on Fresh, healthy and Light on body
1) Salad items like Cucumber, Carrots, Beetroots etc.
2) Fresh fruits
3) Dry fruits
4) Packed fruit juice
Food High on Calories and Energy
5) Energy bars and chocolates
6) Items for making salad
7) Canned Veg / Sausages
8) Bread
9) Biscuits
10) Salt, Pepper, Sauce and Sugar to taste
11) Butter and Jams
Local Indian Dishes available Ready to Eat
1) Idlis
2) Thepla with pickles
3) Puran Poli
4) Khakra
5) Nimki
6) Bhel (Ready to Eat)
7) Puffed Rice
Cooked dishes
You may carry any cooked or boiled items if you get time to prepare it. Avoid carrying any food that will get spoiled within few hours.
Few recommended items.
Boiled Eggs
Dry vegetables
Roti or Paranthas (Indian Bread)
Cooked Non-Veg like Tandoori Chicken, Khima (Mince Meat) etc.
Cooking at Camp Site
Cooking out doors is a fun activity and where you have lots of team work, enthusiasm and the taste of the food remains in your memory.
If you are planning to cook, there are plenty of options available and includes the ones covered above; what is available locally, ready to eat items, what is not available and how much can be carried; do you have porters available with you; and of-course how much spare time do you have to cook; besides resources and skills available for cooking.
If you are planning to cook at camp site check out availability of fuel locally like (wood etc); Portable Stove or fire starters can be very handy and useful.
A Skillful out door cook can prepare from a wide variety of dishes like Roasted Chicken, Baigan Bharta (Brinjal) to a cake or bread.
Few easy to cook are rice, vegetables, dal (Pulses Gravy), Soups, Porridge, Egg (Boiled, scrambles, pouched) etc.
Other tips
Pack fresh food items in appropriate packaging like Aluminum Foils, Air-Tight containers etc.
Carry Plenty water (3 liters per day)
Also carry hand sanitizers, hand kerchiefs, organic and non-toxic detergent for washing them. Hygiene is very important to ensure that you don’t fall sick and enjoy the trip rather than spending the trip recovering from any illness.
Carry One Plate or a Small Pan with Handle is more useful (It is useful for cooking and also doubles up as a cooking pot)
Swiss Knife or equivalent (having Knife, Spoon, Fork and Can opener)
A Steal Mugs useful for drinking tea, water or sometimes even warming water, tea, milk, soup etc.
