Food Preperation - 2 weeks on Fraser
Packing for a 16 day camping trip on Fraser Island with 2 kids is easy if you’re prepared!
There a few things to remember when travelling to Fraser Island
-
There are no real shops. Just little stores with some essentials that will cost you a weeks wage!
-
You can’t drink the water in the taps! So pack plenty of drinking water
Things that can stress a woman out when going camping:
-
Cooking – with the right cooking equipment you can make relatively the same kind of meals that you do at home.
-
Always being dirty – this is just something you need to get over. It’s not always dirt, it can be sand and salt as well. At Fraser Island it’s all 3. But there’s nothing better than a dip in a freshwater creek or lake! Or a quick dip in the ocean to make you feel better. Depending on where you are camping you may have showers available to you. At Cathedral Beach we have showers available. The other thing you can do is buy a portable shower that you can use to wash the sand, salt & dirt off at the back of the truck. So you go to bed feeling clean.
With such a long time away living out of a camper trailer and a camp fridge, we needed to prepare exactly what we were going to take / eat!
We planned a menu for each night.
Monday (1) – Sausages, mash potato and veggies
Tuesday (2) – chicken pasta
Wednesday (3) – Beef Stew cooked in the camp oven
Thursday (4) – Chicken & mushroom risotto
Friday (5) – Beef Stir fry
Saturday (6) – Chicken & cashew with noodles
Sunday (7) – Spaghetti Bolognese
Monday (8) – cherio's and hotdogs
Tuesday (9) – Prawns & Salad
Wednesday (10) – Sausages & Salad
Thursday (11) – Curry Chicken
Friday (12) – Chicken & Mushroom risotto
Saturday (13) – Roast lamb & veggies
Sunday (14) - BBQ Chicken & chicken kebabs
Monday (15) – dinner on the way home!
I went to the butcher a couple of days before leaving home with my list of meat required. I asked them (the butcher) to cut it and portion it for me, and then Kryvac each portion. The butcher had no problems and was very helpful with all of the meat we required.
Once home I froze all meat. The night before leaving we packed our fridge/freezer. The Kryvac frozen meat were packed from last day to first day – so what I needed for night 1 was on top. Time saving & energy saving when it came to opening the freezer to get the meat out for the day.
All other food for the fridge were also packed as best I could with what I needed first on top.
With regards to milk – buy a 2lt carton with the expiry date as far out as possible, which you can put into your fridge. Then buy one or two cartons of long life milk that can go into your food container and can be refrigerated once you’ve run out of milk.
You can purchase fresh baked bread from the Eurong bakery on the island for $4.30 a loaf. They also do rolls etc. We are staying a good hour away from Eurong, so we’ll get bread on the way up and then if we need any bread after that we’ll pick it up each time we’re down the southern/middle part of the island.
Wraps are definitely the way to go! You can pack these in with the other dry food. They last forever! You can refrigerate the packet once it’s opened. They don’t take up much room at all. They’re great for lunches as we’re on the go every day, in the car travelling either on the beach or through the tracks, so having something that will fit into a lunch container and go into the esky or fridge in the car is so easy.
Although Butane cans & stoves are easy for storage, they can be dangerous as we found out on a previous adventure. We now use Companion wok burners with gas bottle which is far superior and much safer.
Get yourself a plastic tub to put the wok burner in and you have a tub for washing up when done with cooking. You can fit detergents, sponges and towels in there too.
No wind issues, no dangerous flammable butane cans and buckets of heat ready to go.
When packing dry food, pack what you need for your meals first then your condiments. Don’t forget your vegemite – we did once at it cost us $7.99 for a small jar. If possible avoid bags of chips as they take up so much “air space”. A friend of mine actually Kryvacs all of her chips and biscuits to allow extra room and keep everything fresh. Pancake mixes are great for brekky. Anything that comes in a box eg breadcrumbs, you’ll need to empty into a container before you leave as you don’t want to open a box and only use half the contents and have no way of keeping the rest to get home in one piece. I have a big tub that goes in the camper trailer with all of the dry food in it. When at camp this box lives under the cooking table. It’s so easy to access then.
Drinks are easy – plenty of water. We take the cartons of bottled water so everyone can have their own. I also pack a bottle of cordial and some Gatorade/PowerAde powder to add to the water for some flavor. Poppa juice is great but if they’re in the esky with ice they do become mooshy after a few days. So if you can buy little juice in plastic bottles that would be easier.
I have another big tub that has all the cooking utensils that I need. I check this before every trip to make sure I’m only taking the pots and pans and anything else I may need for this trip – I check my menu to see what I’m cooking and then work out what I’ll need to cook it. I don’t take anything that isn’t going to be used! When I get to camp I use “S” hooks to hang my pots and pans up above my cooking table (off one of the guide poles on the trailer annex). This allows for everything to be easily accessible when cooking.
All plates and cups etc are also checked before going. We bought a 2 tier shoe rack that you would hang in your wardrobe – we hung this off the pole above our camp sink and put our plates & bowls on one tier and our drinking cups in the other. Was so handy to be able to find what you needed quickly without having to rummage through the tub looking for our plates and cups..
As a mum of an eight year old boy and a thirteen year old girl I carry a “first aid” bag in the car. It’s not big but it has the essentials – childrens panadol & dispenser, adult panadol, cough medicine, cold and flu caps, band aides, bandages, savlon cream, paw paw ointment, sanitary pads and tampons (these can be bought on the island anywhere between $10 & $15 a packet). Stingoes, mozzie spray, tissues and baby wipes. This is my emergency pack for anything that may come at me while we’re away. Hopefully I’ve got something in this bag of goodies to deal with it!
The one thing I do love while camping is my baby wipes. These things can clean anything and everything! I use them in the kitchen, to wipe down tables, to get stains off the kids clothes and to give the kids a clean when it’s bed time! They are awesome! You can even get biodegradable wipes that you can use to go to the toilet!
Well there you Go, Happy Camping
Nicole
