Food shopping

In addition to the work on the car this weekend, we've been shopping. We often get asked what do we take on the rally. Well if we've learnt anything from any of our trips it is to take a can opener! Sounds like a basic item but somehow we got all the way to Mongolia in 2007 without one. It did mean that each time we had a can to open we'd have to gently hacksaw the top off without spilling the contents. A frustrating, but somewhat comical, experience when you are very hungry and it is 35c in the baking sun.

Anyway, I don't actually think Alex or I have bought a can opener yet, so we need to add that to our list of things to get before the 24th! Although feel to donate one to us ;)

What did we buy this weekend? Junk food of course. Junk food keeps us awake at night and keeps us energised between (the few) meals during the day. So we have nuts, carbonated drinks, energy drinks, custard, biscuits, sweets, crisps, popcorn, canned fruit, cakes and the list goes on. NO CHOCOLATE, we love it, but it melts and things get messy. Even in February in the Sahara our bag of chocolate truffles turned into pure hot drinking chocolate.

It isn't all junk food of course, for our main meals we do try to grab a bite on the road, we've developed a real taste for cheap roadside food. It is usually incredibly tasty and authentic and to date we've probably only had a couple of bowel related problems from it, not bad going really. But when we cook our own meals, we have a selection of things from pasta and various jars or cans of pasta sauces, instant rice, instant noodles (super noodles only please, pot noodle need not apply) and mixed beans, tofu and other can based meals. It is quite incredible how these instant foods which normally don't rank highly on the flavour scale at home taste quite amazing when you are out on the road.

We've captured a couple of snapshots of our latest purchases. You'll notice 2 key items that we can't go on any rally without. Granola bars and Lucazade. Granola bars are breakfast, basically the days when we need to hit the road running, a Granola bar (or two) keeps us going for ages. They are also great to give to people we bump into. As for Lucazade, that is usually used during the day but we'll often have more before starting a long night drive, although that will invariably be accompanied with a large bottle of coke and crisps. The rest of the time we try to keep it healthy.