How the day begins
So I start my day off by opening up the ration pack. With ration packs, you have absolutely no idea what’s inside them until you open them up.
Growing up in the 90s meant leaving the house all day for me meant playing outside all day and coming back at sunset, wondering what you were going to be fed that evening. With ration packs, I get the same kind of nostalgia for being tired, hungry and curious. I really love the surprise of not knowing what my meals are going to be and just having to roll with them.
What’s inside a ration pack?
So I opened up this morning’s pack and the contents were
- Mac and cheese
- Bean and Pasta Salad
- All in one cereal
- Salted Peanuts
- Hot chocolate powder
- Chocolate cake
- Peanut butter
- Flap Jack
- A random packet of spices
- Energy drinks
- Lemonade
- Lime juice
- Cola
- Oat Biscuits
- Cheese biscuits
- Water tablets
- And a bunch of other things like sugar, sweeteners, matches, tissues, wipes, coffee, tea, dental gum and even a spoon.
Eating for the day ahead
Now today was gonna be a really long day which meant I needed to overeat as much as i could
It always has this really nostalgic feeling of being a kid, playing outside all day and coming home wondering what you’ll be eating that evening.
Making coffee on the road
So the day starts off at 6 am in a tent with air so cold you can see my own breath. That means one thing folks, mesh tin coffee. I use an instant coffee sachet and a milk sachet. I don’t usually have sugar in my hot drinks, but I usually do when I’m on the road for a little energy boost.
This is the final result. Depressingly delicious.
Flapjacks are a great breakfast choice
Now on to breakfast. A fruit flapjack that’s so drey, it actually soaks up the moisture in your gums. I wish I was joking, I could barely breathe after eating this thing.
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The struggle just went on and on and on and on so the only thing to do was enjoy my coffee in a tin and get back on the road.
Stopping for lunch when motorbiking
On this particular day, I had lunch at 11:30 since I set up extremely early. Usually, when I’m making lunch, I’ll boil a full kettle of water and cook a military ration pack in the water. Because the food is completely sealed, I then usually use the boiled water for my lunchtime mesh coffee.
For lunch, I had bean pasta, which looked absolutely distinguishing but tasted fairly ok. I also had another sachet of peanuts but I decided to save them for later on in the day when I was feeling peckish.
It was particularly humid by this point, so I can drink a can of juice and a couple of cups of water. Usually, at lunch, I’ll take an hour off riding and let my food go down. I’ve found taking a solid hour off at lunch really gives you such a stamina boost when riding long distances.
Snacks are vital
Around 4 am, after riding along the coastline, it’s snack time. That means a sachet of salted nuts and a red bull. I usually stop to have a mid-morning snack when I start to feel my concentration slipping.
I had lunch in quite a remote area, but after 2 hours of riding, I ventured into a town for a coffee of coffee from a petrol station before jumping back on the road
Evening meals help you recover
The next time that I ate was 7 pm, I has been caught up in the rain at this point and I was exhausted. I did my usual trick of boiling a meal ration in my kettle. For my evening meal, my ration pack contained macaroni cheese. I’m not a huge fan of macaroni cheese but I don’t know what it is about getting caught up in bad weather, but it makes cheap food taste like 5-star quality.
The leftover water, I used the leftover water to make a hot chocolate. I was so cold and wet so the hot chocolate smelt amazing. Alongside my hot chocolate, I had a ration of chocolate cake. Like the flapjack, it smelt amazing but it was really dry.
Have a light snack for supper
Before bed, around 10/11 pm, I had crackers and peanut butter. This is never something I eat in my daily life, but when I’m on the road, I always try to carb load every evening to ensure I have enough energy on the road.
