Otter-lenghi : A multi-day hiking food guide

The reason that Mama Cat founded Mama Alles was to improve the quality of adventure food available to hikers. Camping in the Fish River Canyon eating cheap processed noodles didn't make any sense, and in fact discouraged her from overnight and multi day hiking all together. A friend introduced her to dehydrated meals and that made hiking, and eating well on the trail, much more accessible and exciting. Mama Cat has created a variety of delicious meals, made with as local and organic produce as possible to improve your adventure culinary experiences. Below is what she took on her most recent 5 day trail, the Otter Trail. 

Day 1: Pies, snacks, and a braai. 

Lunch: Peregine Pie - my favourite is the Lentil Cornish Pie! 

Dinner: The meals you take on a multi day often depend on what facilities are available. On the Otter Trail (and a number of others) there are braai facilities and fire wood. Each of the 3 groups of four had something on the braai, from sweet potatoes and zucchinis, to vegan sausages and Black Wildebeest boerie to steaks. 
*Remember the tinfoil and olive oil! 



Day 2: Oats, Jolof Rice & Falafal Wraps

Breakfast: Oats is arguably the easiest meal to have on a hike. Whether you soak overnight, or cook on a stove / the fire, its quick and easy. I like adding a nut butter and some fresh sliced fruit. 

Lunch: As there was no water along the trail, I soaked my Jolof Rice at camp (fill the bag with water). By the time we stopped for lunch the meal was "cooked" I just had to heat it up on the gas stove! 

Dinner: I cooked dinner for my group of four on the second night. I was particularly excited about this meal. I chose to do falafel wraps! This was much easier than I expected. The falafel is a premix from Outcast (I used 1.5 packs), you simply add hot water, let it rest and then fry them up. I used a pot as we didn't bring a pan. I chopped avo, cucumber and tomatoes. And then mixed two of our Mama Alles hummus's - one was more runny like a sauce, and the other more thick like a hummus. I brought two packs of Woolies wraps, so there was enough for 3 each, but we were all satisfied after 2. 

Other dinners on the trail this night were the Central African Peanut Stew, and pasta with Woolies Napoletana sauce and parmesan. 

Day 3: Leftover wraps, more leftover wraps, Asian Noodles. 

Breakfast: Wrap with hummus, cherry tomatoes and cucumber. 

Lunch: More wraps, using them while they are still fresh! Also with hummus, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and some avocado. 

Dinner: This dinner is one that my boyfriend makes often on hikes, and I absolutely love it. I custom make mixed veggie packs, consisting of onions, corn, carrots, zucchinis and red peppers which are dehydrated (thinking of making veggie packs available on the website... What do you think - post in the comments below!). He then makes a secret sauce (soy, fresh ginger, garlic and a few other things, I heard him say Brandy!) which he adds once everything is cooked. Its truly delicious! 



Other dinners were: Dhal, veggies and rice, and then our Jolof Rice - becoming a new favourite! 

Day 4: Snacks, (Baboon stole my lunch), leftover noodles, more snacks, and the our newly launch Puttanesca Pasta! 

Breakfast: We had an early start so we just had snacks as we hiked, with a quick coffee stop. Luckily I ate one of my naartjies - the baboon stole the other two. 

Lunch: I had planned on having our Central African Peanut Stew, but the baboon stole it, so we had left over Asian Noodles (stored in one of our reusable zip locks from our breakfast), rice crackers, avo, and hummus. 

Dinner: We tested out our Puttanesca Pasta Sauce. We planned to have parmesan with it, but alas, the baboon got that too! We cooked the pasta sauce first, and then used the pot to cooked the pasta, adding the sauce back in once drained to stir it in! 



Day 5: Oats, snacks and lunch at the closest restaurant. 

Breakfast: Apple & Cinnamon Oats, with both left over nut butters. 

Lunch: As we finished at 9:45am the only restaurant we could find that was open before 12:00 was Thyme and Again. Their offering is great for vegans and meat eaters alike. 

Snacks: I cannot emphasise enough the importance of taking enough salty snacks. I could have had a few more! Below is a picture of what snacks I packed, I would take one more bag of crisps, peri peri nuts and mushroom biltong! 

 

Breakfast for all 5 days (4 days technically)

Lunch for all 5 days (4 days technically)

Dinner for the night I cooked (each person in our pod of 4 cooked dinner on one of the four nights)



Tip: I use a stainless steel snap-lock lunchbox I got from Clicks as my bowl / plate. This is super useful to store my avos and banana's along the trail so they don't get squished. I also used this on the last day to store left over food.