Dehydrated food in UK

[Diane Pinkers]

I’m planning a hike of the West Highland Way in May 2023. We will be hiking self guided, staying in lodging only occasionally.  I’m trying to figure out options for picking up food there for days camping out (camping wild). I normally make my own, but since import of meat, dairy and potatoes is banned, I will at least have to get some ingredients over there.

 

Any suggestions for camping food? Grocery store options preferred.

[Roger Caffin]

The British have been rambling in the hills for a very long time.
We resupplied from the local supermarkets. No trouble.

Cheers

[Diane Pinkers]

Sure, Roger, but what have people found that tastes good, and has some nutritional value? A 9 day hike I could fill up on instant oatmeal and ramen, but it wouldn’t taste that great, and would be all carbs. Brand names? Poking around on one hiking website, I found 1 instant soup brand that might be a good choice for flavor, but surely folks have found others? I’m all for adventure,  but I’d like to have a heads up on what to look for so we’re not spending huge amounts of time in the grocery store.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Diane

But poking around in overseas shops is FUN! You never know what you will find.

Also, a lot of small villages do not have megamarts: they have small shops. Do not expect 12 varieties of XYZ: there may be only one. You buy what is available. OK, imagination may be needed: what can I make with this? Be flexible.

I remember Sue coming out of a small deli in France once, clutching a large cheese. It was Brie: not cheap. What did that cost? I nervously asked. Never mind she replied, we will have eaten it all before the week is out.
She was right. And it was good Brie too.

Our biggest concern in one town was finding A food shop: any size. Turns out someone had built a supermarket several miles out of town, and all the small shops in the town had been closed down. It was a long walk out there.

Cheers

[Mole J]

Diane.
I’m in the UK.

I suppose you can go to a supermarket before you start walking . Here’s what I’d do . Main meal options: Instant potato ( Idahoan is common here now), noodles (ramen), instant rice and pasta in sauce. Add cheese or canned fish/meat or cured meats from the cold section. Olives and Salad leaf mixes plus fresh bell pepper.
Also plenty of cous cous mixes about.

Also, there are usually pouches available with precooked rice or lentils and other grains or pulses.

You can buy premaid sandwiches or wraps. Or buy bread rolls or oatcakes and add cheese salad etc for lunches.

For breakfast I use muesli/granola with dried milk. Or oatmeal based biscuits. There are plenty of more processed “breakfast bars” on sale usually.

But the WHW isn’t really remote for much of its length. There are bar-restaurants-cafes on the trail at least once every day.

Stores are in Crianlarich, Tyndrum and Kinlochleven.
Doing the trail over 9 days means you’ll have plenty of time to browse in a shop occasionally!

Another option would be to do an order from somewhere like basecampfoods.com and have a few trail meals delivered to your start accommodation.

[Bonzo]

Mmmm…fresh sammiches…🤤

Any time I can pack in fresh stuff to eat, I do so.  The enjoyment is worth the weight.

[Roger Caffin]

Pub lunches . . .

[AK Granola]

I hope you’ll post a trip report! (She says wanting it now even though the trip is many months ahead). Food in the UK is never supposed to be all that amazing anyway, but pasties or similar baked goods seem widely available. Given that 30,000 people walk it every year, they’ve gotta have something along the way to pick up every few days for camping. It will be fun to try some of their freeze dried meals; maybe you can get freeze dried haggis! The basecampfoods look interesting. One YouTuber I’ve watched eats tinned mackerel in a tortilla, so that must be fairly widely available. But if you buy too much and end up with a daily pub lunch, you’ll probably have way too much. I guess you can’t bring any back with you either. Silly restrictions; freeze dried food isn’t really a public health hazard to anyone other than the purchaser. I will never understand 90% of customs restrictions coming or going.

[Roger Caffin]

freeze dried food isn’t really a public health hazard to anyone other than the purchaser.
Backyard Fred makes FD stew. Is it safe?
Not if he started with BSI-infected beef or lamb.
So you bring a few packets home from wherever, decide you don’t like it, and discard it.
Result: BSI in the country.
Health regulations are rarely stupid.

Cheers

[Kevin M]

The West Highland Way is good in this sense because (depending on how you break up the route and where you stop etc) there is very rarely a day where you don’t pass by some small village shops for resupply or a pub/hotel where you can stop and have a meal.

I completed it over 7 days and as I was planning on wild camping every night I made sure I carried 7 (plus a spare) freeze dried meals with me, so that I knew that no matter what I would always have a hot meal to make at camp in the evening.  I usually buy them from Base Camp foods, they have a huge seection of brands and options.

After that I just carried a couple of days worth of energy bars, trail mix and other daytime snacks etc and relied on the shops I was passing by to restock these.

You will pass by the Oak Tree in in Balmaha probably on day 2, and that’s we’ll worth a stop for breakfast or lunch and they have a little shop selling supplies as well as their own home roasted coffee and home made ice cream (and a little memorial to iconic Scottish walker, explorer and broadcaster Tom Wier) 😃 Or a little further along the side of Loch Lomond there is the Rowardennan Hotel.

Nearer the middle of the trip when you’re up around Rannock Moor you’ll have the choice of the Bridge of Orchy hotel or the Inveroran Hotel (my preference is to walk the little extra distance to Inveroran, food is lovely and it’s a great little place) for another nice lunch or evening meal.

As you get on a couple more days you’ll pass through Tyndrum and can stop at the Green Welly for supplies and lunch, and later on again you’ll also have the Kingshouse Hotel (the original part of the building dates back over 250 years) that is very friendly to walkers and explorers, and again it’s a great chance to stop and get a lovely meal and perhaps a couple of drinks.

There are various other little villages and stops along the way, I think the way we broke up the trip there was only a single day where we didn’t pass anywhere.

[Diane Pinkers]

Thank you, Kevin, that sort of information is very helpful.  Since food weight is a big part of backpacking,  figuring out enough but not too much is a challenge.  We’re probably going to have a day where we can pick up food in Glasgow, whether backpacking meals at a local outfitter, or trolling a grocery store for adaptable food. Any recommendations for an REI-like store where backpacking food would be readily available?

[ed hyatt]

The likelihood of your being stopped when importing some dried food is low. Getting a UK company to ship to your arrival hotel is an option as stated.

This said there are a few shops in Glasgow (I live just outside the city) where you can get FD food (Tiso, Nevisport, Cotswold).

I did the WHW in April…there are many places to buy food; some of it is quite good too.

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