View from Oban Bothy

View from Oban Bothy
Showing posts with label Dehydrating food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dehydrating food. Show all posts

Thursday 21 September 2017

The Rain in Lleyn…4th Sept 2017

(Not) Backpacking

I’d prepared two dehydrated backpacking meals, different stuff to what I’d normally take so I was looking forward to trying the new stuff out:.

The main meals consisted of:

1) Remains of a Shepherds Pie. All mashed up and mixed prior to dehydrating. It was supplemented with 50gms of Smash.

2) Remains of a chilli con carne + rice. The rice and chilli were dehydrated separately and bagged separately.

3) This wasn’t all dehydrated, but consisted of some smoked Polish sausage, 50gms of Smash, and 1/3rd tin baked beans – dehydrated.

As things worked out the stuff didn’t get used. Read on….


In the beginning:

The Plan was for Lucky the Dog, Mike, Dawn and me to backpack a section of the Lleyn Peninsula coast in glorious sunshine.

Even the best plans fall apart sometimes.

The weather forecast was for a bit of damp followed by a few days of overcast dryness – quite acceptable backpacking conditions.

What ACTUALLY happened was that a huge amount of wind-driven wetness descended on Llanystumdwy….famous for Lloyd George and my dad. And a pub that only opens 3-4 nights of the week. It was quite a nice pub though.

We had two cars and with this in mind Plan B was quickly concocted: instead of backpacking through the wetness we’d go out for linear day walks. Plan B was put into action – it worked quite well. Mostly. Apart from getting lost.

Day 1

It was still raining. So we breakfasted hugely on egg, bacon & tomato butties – washed down with lashings of tea & coffee. After which it was still raining but not quite as much. The Afon Dwyfor at the back of the campsite had risen by about 4ft overnight – the roar of the water thrashing about was impressive.

Dwyfor in spate


That was supposed to be an embedded video but Open Live Writer and YouTube don’t seem to like to talk to one another. Kids, eh?

20170905_103931_thumb2

If the video clip doesn’t work, this photo may illustrate the state of the river.

Some random photographs taken in Llanystumdwy:

P1030847_thumb1

P1030851_thumb1

P1030852_thumb3

Anyroadup, we went to Llanbedrog and dumped a car there in the National Trust car park. Then we went to Abersoch and dumped another car there in the hugely expensive car park. Not having any more cars to dump we thought it would be a bit of a wheeze to walk back to Llanbedrog, and that’s precisely what we did.

The rain had stopped by this time but it was rather grey and only a bit miserable.

We walked east, often a good direction, passing the harbour / marina before dropping down to the beach.

P1030854_thumb1

For Alan R:

P1030855_thumb1P1030856_thumb1

P1030857_thumb

The tide was out and apart from a couple of dog walkers and a defunct jellyfish that resembled an enormous blob of lumpy wallpaper paste, we had the sands to ourselves.

P1030858_thumb1


P1030860_thumb1

Anybody recognise this plant found growing on the edge of sand dunes? The leaves are hugely thick – perhaps to store water?

P1030861_thumb1


P1030862_thumb1

Looking back over Abersoch

As we bimbled along eastwards the clouds lifted and the sun made a welcome appearance – Snowdonia appeared out of the murk:

P1030867_thumb2


On the descent to the beach we came across this interesting sculpture:

P1030869_thumb1

Aberdaron’s ‘Tin Man’ – it looked more like a woman with a babe in arms to me

I gather that the original statue was a wooden ship’s figurehead – but that suffered malicious fire damage many years ago.

The route down to the beach was seriously steep, it took an age to get down – ask my poorly L knee. It wasn’t too happy.

P1030871_thumb1

Llanbedrog’s colourful beach huts

P1030877_thumb1

Llanbedrog Beach

Then it was back to the cars and back to Llanystumdwy (via Pwllhelli’s Asda) for far too much to eat and a comfortably large amount of beer. Bottled Hob Goblin Gold seeing as you asked.

The pub was shut.

Day 2

Even though the weather had improved Plan B was still in operation: one car was left at the Aberdaron NT car park, the other at the Whistling Sands NT car park. We wandered off in a nominally south-ish direction, following the cliff-top path as much as possible. I was surprised to come across a young 80+ year old couple from Knutsford, just down the road from JJ Towers. This couple, clad in finest Paramo, were clearly made of the right stuff – it was a pleasure to stop to chat with them.

P1030878_thumb1

Looking north over Whistling Sands

P1030880_thumb2

Dramatic coastline, similar in character to the Pembrokeshire Coast Path and part of the the South West Coast Path.


P1030886_thumb1


On Mynydd Mawr:

P1030887_thumb1

.

20170906_1534061_thumb1

The former Coastguard lookout at Mynydd Mawr.

The sun was shining brightly and warmly, good conditions for backpacking – apart from the lack of water. Running water was scarce, any that we discovered was decidely iffy. Much of the coast was used by cattle.

P1030897_thumb1 

Over the sea to Bardsey in the late afternoon sun.


P1030895_thumb1

20170906_174540_thumb2

I’m still playing with my Lumix TZ70 camera – in reality the colours in the hedgerows were very vivid than is shown here. I must try harder.

Navigation was a little <koff> difficult, the paths on the ground often didn’t coincide with what appeared on the three different maps we were carrying between us. Being as what we were nominally following an official Long Distance Path this was all a bit of a poor show. You couldn’t even rely on the Coastal Path signposts – on more than one occasion we came across signposts that just pointed into either undergrowth or ground that was clearly impassable.

Whatever.

Back to the cars, Asda and the campsite – for lots of lovely grub (c/o Lucky’s Dad) and more beer. The pub was still shut.


Day 3

The day began with more egg & bacon butties. The eggs came from the farm where we were camping – they were a bit tasty.

It was a windy morning, and that was just the weather. We parked up at the NT car park at Plas yn Rhiw and proceeded to wander off, up what we took to be the coastal path. We had it on good authority that we really were on the coastal path, the Coastal Path signposts should have aroused our suspicion.

As it happened we only got a bit misplaced a few times.

Mist and clag descended a few times, severely curtailing our views.

P1030902_thumb2


P1030903_thumb2

Hell’s Mouth

Foolishly(?) following signposts we passed a lovely little hamlet overlooking the sea. We  suspected that we were on the right path – but there was always a nagging doubt.

Even more foolishly I suggested a change in direction of travel. This change entailed a bit of a scramble. Okay, a LOT of a scramble. I’m not very good at scrambling. Oh well.

Eventually, and blindly following Lucky, Dawn & Mike, I got to the top of an Everest of a hill, Mynydd y Graig I think. There were signs of a Hill Fort and a Standing Stone. I didn’t look too hard, I was more concerned in not falling off this mountain of a, er, little hill.

P1030904_thumb1

Lucky & Mike, climbing without oxygen

P1030909_thumb1

The Tenzing moment

Once at the top the walking was much easier, we even had some views when the cloud lifted.

P1030912_thumb2

Another hill beckoned. This was either a Munro or a Marylin or something. Whatever it was 177m ASL and Mike needed it for His List. Penarfynydd was actually a bit non-descript, but what the hell. It would probably be better on a sunny day.

P1030914_thumb1

Time to turn round and return to the car. More misleading signposts successfully misled us. In spite of this we managed to find our way back to the car and a far easier navigate to a nice little car park at the east end of Hell’s Mouth.

Dawn had planned a dip in the sea at Hell’s Mouth but the wind was far too strong and the sea currents looked a bit perilous.

Instead she rolled up her trouser legs and went for a paddle with Mike. Lucky didn’t play with a ball very much. I flew my kite, the one I use to support vertical aerials when I play radio. The wind was so strong that I began to wonder whether the line was going to be strong enough to hold on to the kite. It was, but I’ll be more careful in future.

P1030917_thumb1

Once back at the ranch more lovely grub followed, again c/o Lucky’s Dad. Dawn had an early night, so did LTD, Mike & me, but our early night involved a visit to the pub which was now open. The beer and the welcome were both good.

There were only half a dozen customers in the pub that evening. It’s good that it stays open, even if it’s only for a few evenings in the week. I hope it survives, we’re losing too many pubs.

We had a good few days away, it wasn’t what we’d planned but it worked out well in the end. Thanks to Lucky, Mike & Dawn for a fun time…we must do it again soon. Next time we’ll do it in an area with less confusing paths.


More photographs are here.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

18th March 2014, TGO Challenge food

Wanna play chicken??

The Challenge isn’t too far off and it came as something of a rude awakening when I realised that my dehydrated meals stock was down to zero – time for some action.

I dehydrate my own meals, it’s only a bit of a faff but you know what goes into the meals unlike some of the branded stuff.

Chicken is a meat that I’m fond of and although it dehydrates quite well, re-hydration is a problem – the stuff tends to come back as chewy, hard and, well, inedible.

A bit of research on t’interweb resulted in the discovery of Backpackingchef.com and in particular the article on dealing with chicken. They found that canned chicken worked and rehydrated well. A trip into Altrincham this morning and I soon had some tins of the stuff, two tins made two different curries and the contents of the other tin are all chopped up and drying nicely on the dehydrator.

Fortunately I’m in on my own.

The smell in the house is heavenly.

Well I think it’s heavenly!

Chicken The contents of a tin of Tesco Chicken Breast, smells of not a lot really
Chicken Vegetable Curry
Chicken & Veg Curry, smells wonderful!
Chicken Madras Curry
Chicken Madras, smells even wonderfuller!
Other meals that are on the cards: beef hash, beef bolognese, vegetarian bolognese, boring old meat and three veg, loads of puddings…..I like puddings.
I’ll report back with results of the chicken dehydrating / rehydrating.
In the meantime I think I’ll go out for a run, this kitchen smells.

Tally-Ho! Whitworth Wander / Turkey Trot 2023

  Whitworth Wander – Turkey Trot, 27 th of a very wet December 2023 In memory of the late Brian Whitworth, a fine man, my friend, and a for...