Snakes for breakfast?

Yesterday’s long rung was scheduled for 06.00 a.m. by the forest trails of Skatås in Göteborg. Even though the snow cover wasn’t as deep as in Oslo, there was still a light sparkling of dusty white over the trails here as well. Apart from bunkering up some miles in our legs, we were also supposed to try out our new camping stove which we will bring to the Sahara. Jakob & Jakob’s accumulated camping experience over the years is quite poor, and what can we say? We love our feathered beds, bacon and egg-breakfasts and gourmet dinners. Time to get our bellies accustomed to the wonders of dried camping dinners. It’s supposed to be a little like magic: simply add boiling water, and pooof – the colourless powder contents of your vaccum-packed bag is transformed into a aromatic and tasty dinner. Please excuse us if we were more than a bit skeptical.

Red lighting up the dawn.

Is this where I’m supposed to stick my finger?

Turning our headlamp-lights to red (the better not to disturb our night vision during the greyish light of dawn), we started out on the wide gravel path marked with the green diamond signifying 5k, before turning left onto the small little forest trail marked with tiny black-and-white diamond signs, signifying 18k. Perfect conditions of around 0° C, no wind and empty trails. Wonderful with some outdoor running after so many treadmill runs and track runs indoors.

Adventure Food breakfast.

Are your sure about this?

After about 10k, we spent a generous half an hour trying to avoid lighting the entire wood on fire, narrowly missing to incinerate our backpacks in the process. A couple of singed fingers aside, we have to confess that the breakfast was absolutely delicious! Who would have thought that dried cereals, milk, raisins, apples and roasted hazelnuts could taste so good? A portion contains 693 calories, and covers about a third of our caloric needs during a day in the desert. There is the issue of weight, of course, but trying it out, we have to say that the producer – Adventure Food – is a strong contender of supplying us with our morning meals in the Sahara.

Sir Blackadder sends his regards to all our fans.

After having put out the fire, we ran on through the morning light. We even had an unexpected encounter with a resident of the forest we would have expected to meet on a hot sand dune in the Sahara, rather than on a snowy hill in Skatås. The black adder seemed as surprised to see us as we were to see it. His tail seemed to have been run over by a mountain bike, maybe the same one whose tracks in the snow we had been following all morning. After a little photo shoot, designed to scare some girlfriends out of their wits later in the evening, we helped the little fellow off the path, to avoid further incidents with morning runners and bikers.

Six weeks and five days to go, ladies and gentlemen…