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  • DofE Bronze food
  • smartay
    Full Member

    Hi all

    My son is starting his DofE bronze walk/camp/walk this weekend, what did everyone else pack for their kids.
    So far pasta and topping, museli/,shortcake bars, haribos, poridge in a pot
    Any other suggestions, experience

    PlopNofear
    Free Member

    I brought a small 500ml bottle of pure squash to mix into my water since I got bored of the taste, or it tasted bad.

    Cereal bars are the way, brought loads of them, lots of variety as well.

    That’s about it for Bronze, once he gets to Silver/Gold then you’ll need to think a bit harder for what to bring.

    sc-xc
    Full Member

    When I did them, it was pitta bread/primula, malt loaf, nuts.

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    Couple of tins of rice pudding. Camping can opener. Racing spoon.

    Job done.

    jonba
    Free Member

    Assuming they will have access to water then dried and quick cooking is best.

    Flavoured rice and cous cous
    Noodles
    Chorizo
    Custard
    Bread that doesn’t squash for lunch
    Hot chocolate

    Try and stick to normal food. Take em to a supermarket and see what they fancy that looks edible and light.

    It makes life easy if you pack light, no point taking the kitchen sink.

    ditch_jockey
    Full Member

    For main meals, I tend to use variations on dehydrated pasta in sauce and a couple of peperamis chopped into it. if you can afford it, the specialist camping stuff you add hot water to and eat from the pouch is the least faff, although Batchelors is a lot cheaper.

    for during the day, I tend to carry flapjack, mixed nuts, maybe a pork pie or scotch egg. instant porridge or meusli works well for breakfast – I just add a portion in a sandwich bag with some dried milk, coconut and mixed seeds, then add water in the morning.

    The main thing is to have stuff he can cook with minimum faff, and minimum cleaning up. If he rolls into camp tired and wet, you don’t want him to have to summon up huge reserves of self-discipline to put some food into himself.

    Hobster
    Free Member

    Vesta curries

    billyboulders
    Free Member

    Couple of tins of rice pudding. Camping can opener. Racing spoon.

    Standard advice is not to take tinned food because of the weight/bulk but I think one or two is a good idea – the “hungryman breakfast” in a tin especially I find really good to set you up for the day. All the ingredients are there, no searching for or boiling water, quick and easy and more fuel effecient to cook, comes in a bombproof container that won’t spill or split in your bag and when you think about it once you’ve eaten the food the empty tin (squashed flat) weighs next to nothing and takes up no space anyway.

    ditch_jockey
    Full Member

    It’s almost a rite of passage to hump a monster sack around some bleak forest in the pissing rain on a DofE exped. If you can make it back to the minibus without renouncing the outdoors for all time, then it only gets better from that point on 🙂

    thegiantbiker
    Free Member

    Avoid boiling water. Those trangias take approximately on year to boil water – especially after a long day’s walk.

    What I found was good was to take some of those part-cooked wet noodles, a packet of sauce and a little bit of oil (film canister will carry more than enough).

    All you need to do is heat the oil, chuck in the noodles and add the sauce when they’re hot. This is delicious and you can cook enough for dinner and the next day’s lunch before the other lot have boiled their pasta.

    ALSO: Make sure they have inordinate amounts of varying cereal bars with fruits and chocolate and just all sugar. This is as much for morale as energy.

    06awjudd
    Free Member

    This sounds weird, but raw icing (the doughy type) is amazing to snack on to keep the energy levels up.
    Also trail mix with or without m’nm s.
    Pancake mix is also a good breakfast (just add milk/water I think).
    Tortillas work well with Dolmio/some other sauce, as pasta can end up taking a while.
    +1 chorizo and hot chocolate.

    06awjudd
    Free Member

    Also, isn’t it kind of in the spirit of DofE for the kids to pack their own kit?
    I did at least, and seemed to get along just fine.
    No offense meant.

    IanMunro
    Free Member

    Pork pie and a can of Stella.
    Maybe 2 cans depending on age.

    scaled
    Free Member

    Stella.
    Maybe 2 cans.

    This works well for the bronze but for silver/gold you really need to be looking at something with a higher alcohol content – best get them used to the idea now!

    Oh and load them up with Soreen and a load of Hi5 2:1 with caffeine sachets 😈

    mark90
    Free Member

    Packet of cheap bland noodles with a cup a soup chucked in for flavor. I quite like the Ainsley Harriott range of cup a soups.

    Plenty of stuff for snacking (cereal bars, trail mix, haribo, etc) . I always prefered block or marzipan to icing mentioned above.

    lizzz
    Free Member

    If you’re packing it for him, you’re both doing it all wrong… give him a fiver and tell him to buy what he thinks he’ll need for the time he’s away.

    db
    Full Member

    http://www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk/ -tastes a lot better to eat but heavy to carry.
    Often use these when camping now, need to pad out with ‘quick cook’ pasta

    no connection to look what we found but spend a lot of time camping

    enigmas
    Free Member

    when I did ten tors I used to go down subway the day before and buy the 10 cookies for £3 deal, then say to myself that I could eat one at the top of every tor..

    In seriousness though, for meals army ration packs are the way to go, light, easy to pack away and some of them actually taste okay. Also require no effort to make which is useful at the end of the day or if you want to make a fast start. For snacks any healthy-ish cereal bars will do, just tell him to take stuff he likes the taste off.

    Trekster
    Full Member

    06awjudd – Member
    Also, isn’t it kind of in the spirit of DofE for the kids to pack their own kit?
    I did at least, and seemed to get along just fine.
    No offense meant.

    This.
    My sons group had to plan and do all their own shopping for their trips. He went to the Black Forest, Germany for his gold. All we did was provide money and transport when required.
    Before he moved away from home he was training to be both a scout and DofE leader.

    mattbee
    Full Member

    The new multi climate rations are actually pretty good but strictly speking not for resale so most you’ll find on ebay are ‘stolen’ MOD property. The sweet and spicy salmon pasta is what I had for lunch today and is lovely! Also chilli and rice, curries, chunky soups along with meusli with powdered milk in so you just need water.

    The older 24hr pack main meals were produced by whoever makes Wayfarer stuff so any of the bean & n stuff is ok. The puddings take an age to heat up though; they need to soften.

    Mind you, cooking some Supernoodles on a Trangia in the entrance of a damp Vango Force 10 should be on the curriculum.

    Greybeard
    Free Member

    what did everyone else pack

    Since you ask, I took actual fresh potatoes! That was in about 1969 – I’ve learned a bit since!

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