Is it too early for me to bring in some poetry?
Omar Khayyam was a twelth century mathematician and astrologer, best known in the UK as the author of a long form poem about being pretty content with what you have and not getting too excited about big questions. I may be oversimplifying there.
But his most famous lines are, indeed, a core part of Second Breakfast Hiking’s philosophy. He said:
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
He said that. I assume what he would have meant, if history had wound forward a little, was a squashed sandwich of your choice and a flask of tea. The point is, there are few meals more satisfying than the ones you eat in the lee side of a sheepfold on a long hike. Even if they are basically bread and - no, not wine, you’re up a mountain and you have the option of hot caffeine. But I would be happy with coffee if you’re not a tea person.
This particular flask of tea is not the best insulated, but it DOES fit in my trouser pockets for Ferry Crossings
I am rapidly becoming the sort of person who rarely goes anywhere without a flask of tea. Eighteen year old me would have laughed herself sick at that. But she sometimes smoked, so we shan’t be asking her for much advice here.
You also need water. How much will depend on you. But even in the UK, even in winter, you’ll be glad of actual water.
Then those sandwiches. Personally, I aim to have second breakfast about an hour or an hour and a half into a full day hike, lunch at lunchtime, and probably some form of high tea later on. That’s three sandwiches, unless you are also bringing tray bake.
Bananas are ideal nutritionally, if you have an anti-squash measure, but that’s bulk and weight. Apples are far more robust…
…yes, I DID mention tray bake.
Well, haribo is easier, for sure. Chocolate buttons – I have dangled chocolate buttons in front of the small humans as if training dogs – “next button at that tree!” – when they were smaller. But – tray bakes are the finest part of your sheep-fold-paradise experience.
I’d recommend something robust and low in chocolate, for the sake of it surviving the journey. Flapjacks do well. Although one of my happiest hiking memories was hiking with my friend Ruth and her friends, going slightly further than we had meant to, in my case in entirely the wrong shoes, but I had an entire rucksack full of traybakes left over from a hen do. Not so much Second Breakfast as a full afternoon tea.
Would you be interested in a flapjack recipe here?