Have a bit of a four day/three night adventure next week…involving kayaking, camping and not much contact with civilisation along the way. Rather than faffing about with bringing stuff to cook, I might just bring ration packs for the three/four days.

Anyone recommend anywhere to buy some? I assume I should avoid anyone selling "Genuine British Army Ration Packs"?

Join the army and craftily acquire some.

Join the army

I'm too scared for that. 🙂

Plenty of sellers on eBay – bloody expensive though.

Plenty of sellers on eBay – bloody expensive though.

Yeah, that's what I thought too, and I can't chance not getting them in time.

Found these when googling…does it look any good?

If all you want is freeze dried or boil in the bag stuff then any halfway decent outdoor shop will sell stuff although preparing stuff by yourself is much cheaper. Things that I've done in the past involved preparing indivual bags of muesli with dried milk. All you have to do in the morning is add water. It saves a load of money and whilst not necessarly tasting fantastic, it's perfecty edible. Other things like dried soups work quite well although I'd stock up on nuts and other robust non perishable items.

http://www.expeditionfoods.com/expedition-foods/expedition-ration-packs.html

And you'd know all about shlaaaaaaags Elfin 🙂

these come in family packs……………….. 😉

Cheers ton. Helpful as ever 😉

I'd just get the army ones. They're good when you're frozen and it's lashing down.

Does Ton constitute a 'family' by himself?

DD, SHUT IT!

Army ration packs are ace, chock full of lovely food, but the big problem is that they tend to be quite heavy compared to third party equivalents.

If you must buy from the 'Bay, a tenner is about right.

Dunno if your near Booths? But they do far beter boil in the bag meals, that are a lot cheaper than any of the camping stuff.

Lot nicer too..

Decathlon do decent freeze dried stuff – spag Bol is pretty good. I'd avoid Go Outdoors stuff as it's full of hydrogenated fat.

near Booths

Unfortunately not.

Decathlon do decent freeze dried stuff

Nowhere near either

silvermans are good for MOD rationpacks and the queen buys her second para boots from there, (i think they may be for the duke?) 😉

http://www.silvermans.co.uk

Decathlon stuff not that tasty imo

The wayfarer ones are OK

The ones at Go Outdoors ARE exactly the same as army ration pack, Wayfarer. Spag boll or the chicken curry are fantastic, oh and the choccy pudding…

£18 a pack at Silvermans. Used to get these down Blackbushe market for £6 a pop

Go Outdoors stuff relies very heavily on processed fat for it's calorific value – I was surprised that they were shovelling that much hydrogenated fat into their products. Bought a few to try, but tossed them in the bin when I'd read the ingredients more thoroughly.

Go Outdoors stuff relies very heavily on processed fat for it's calorific value

The military rat packs aren't exactly full of organic tofu and fairtrade cocoa either.

WGAF, as long as they're not poisonous and get you through the day, not like you'll be eating them 3 times a day for the rest of your life..

moroccan flavoured couscous, mini peperami, cashew nuts and dried apricots, add hot water , stir it about, eat when ready. dead easy. i've made these in advance in bags (leave the perami wrapped). five minute feast.

We used a load of ration packs on our Lakes trip last year, frankly I think they are expensive and taste like sh*t! IMO.

baco cook in bags, and any normal packet pasta/rice meals.

oatso simple syrup porridge for breakfast.

have a look for american MRE ratpacks. Although they are individual meals they do have a heating element in them rather than carrying a camping stove. With the british rat packs I can recommend the rolled oats mixed with the hot chocolate.