Author: Ian Murphy
“That smells so good”, Jamie whispers to himself leaning over the Jetboil. The steam carrying the aroma up towards the exposed beams of the camp shelter on a chilly June evening.
It’s dinner time, day 1 on the Wild South Coast Way Trail (WSCW). Mushroom ragout with pasta and chicken has been simmering away for the last ten minutes, and it’s almost time to eat.
Talk turns to our menu for the next 4 days. I take out the bag containing our lightweight meals for the next 3 days. Jamie can’t believe this bag contains 3 cooked breakfasts, 3 cooked lunches, and 3 three-course dinners for the both of us. Total weight about 1.5Kgs.
The ragout is served up in our bowls that follows our first course of curried pumpkin soup. We’re sitting in the Eagle Waterhole shelter. It has been a great day of walking, starting at Cape Jervis on a dreary day where the weather became kind. We entered Deep Creek Conservation Park and our first camp for the night included being well-fed without the preservatives in a lot of dehydrated meals.
The food we carried is part of the new SPhiker range. A coming together of 3 Adelaide Hills food producers and trials with Big Heart Adventures (lucky us!). The SPhiker range is now available if you want delicious, light-weight, healthy, and sustainably-sourced food from South Australia to eat on the trails. Vegan and gluten free options available.
I read out our menu for the next 2 days to Jamie – a first time multi day hiker.
For breakfast we will have warm porridge with coconut milk, topped with dried fruit or granola. For lunch we have wraps with almond & turmeric patties or mungbean, fennel and chilli patties. I explain that we can either fry up the patties or spread the wet mixture onto the wraps or use as a very tasty dip.
We agree to leave it until lunchtime on the trail to decide. Our dinners consist of tomato or vegetable soup, followed by ratatouille or vegetable risotto with dumplings. For dessert we have fig, pear & vanilla rice pudding or peach, apricot & cinnamon rice pudding.
Our taste buds return to the mushroom, pasta and chicken ragout that is going down well. “Well, I know tomorrow is a big 30km hike and it’ll be spectacular, but I’m looking forward to what we’re gonna eat” Jamie blurts out.
The SPhiker range of food is included as an optional add-on when you book a self-guided walking package with Big Heart Adventures. It can also be ordered separately and delivered in time for your next adventure.
If you would like to know more about the SPhiker light-weight food range connect with us
