The biggest planning difference of traveling in a group is food. I pretty much just multiplied everything by 3 for breakfast, lunch and dinner then alternated eating lentils and pasta smash, but as a vegetarian who isn’t bothered about tea or coffee I had to make a couple of adjustments.

1. Old people eat less

I hadn’t realised with age my parents appetite had shrunk, they eat a lot less food than I remembered. Accounting for other people’s appetites is quite hard particularly people of a different age, gender and body type, but the little extra wasn’t a problem and there were never any leftovers. I would recommend if you are multiplying up a meal size, to add a bit more as a little seems to get lost in the sharing process.

2. Meat eaters can survive without meat

My Dad is a big carnivore and I was pretty worried about if he’d cope. I didn’t give him nearly enough credit and he survived the trip with just a salami stick, (which Mum kept stealing) not even complaining once. Although I think we were all pumped for our first beer back in Hobart.

3. Mum doesn’t like raisins

I didn’t notice till day 6, when I discovered Mum had a treasure trove of raisins. She was a picky trail mix eater and had stored away the bits she didn’t like. As her appetite was smaller this hadn’t bothered her, but it’s a shame she’d had to carry them around. Check with everyone before the trip what they like and make sure they know being “easy” is being honest.

4. Give everyone a job

A tedious part of eating is prep work. I was happy to prep it all before the trip, but you don’t want to spend the whole trip making food for everyone. We solved this by each taking a meal and being responsible for that. Mum was breakfast, Dad lunch and I did dinner. It made it quick, easy and fair.

5. Have a surprise packet of biscuits

Cracking out a complete packet of ginger nuts on day 5 was a highlight. You get used to your routine diet on the trail, so a small bit of variety and indulgence is a massive treat. It’s also a bit of a morale boost if things are starting to get a little sore.