Kendal Mint Cake For Climbing - Buy it in Britain

 The UK standby for hiking and hill-walking is Kendal mint cake, which comes as a plain white bar but many people prefer the chocolate covered version, a dark chocolate bar with a white centre. Not thin like After Eights, more like the round, hard, solid, circular mint chocolates. You can buy it in the Lake District in England. 

One of the Kendal Mint websites claims that Kendal Mint was taken up Everest by Chris Bonnington, which sounds very likely.

My husband took a bar up Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania.

"Delicious," says my husband. "You don't need it except up on the hill. But it's delicious even when you are up on the hill.

"In Kilimanjaro, a big hill, the highest in Africa, which takes a week to spiral up. On the last morning you get up at 2 am and walk in a large convoy. The route goes up to the rim. You walk clockwise to the highest point. 

 "At least, that was the route I took, we took. There are several routes up.

"When you get to the highest point you might spend twenty minutes there, taking photos, waiting for dawn. By the time I got there I was shivering.

"Then you come back anti-clockwise. And run down the gravel,  

"So, first, I ate my Kendal mint cake. It gives you instant energy. I wolfed it down. In a minute I stopped shivering. It's what you need."

I asked, "How do you manage not to eat it on the way up?"

"You have breakfast before setting off. You can't stop once you are on the way up. You are in a convoy. I must buy some."

I sit at home trying not to eat chocolate or sweets. I once offered to accompany my husband on a trek. He walks faster than I do even around a supermarket. He replied, drily, "You wouldn't enjoy it. Even if you did, if you came with, nobody else would enjoy it."

Useful Websites

Kendal mint cake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendal_Mint_Cake

https://groceries.asda.com/product/mints/romneys-white-mint-cake-chocolate-bar/709323

http://www.stricklandgate-house.org.uk/historic-kendal/kendal-mint-cake

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Romneys-Chocolate-Covered-Kendal-Mint/

https://www.kendalmint.co.uk/shop/kmc-nrg-bar-white

https://www.kendalmint.co.uk/our-story

Kilimanjaro trips

https://www.kilimanjarochallenge.com/

Water For Walkers, Picnics In Pockets, DIY Kendal Mint Cake

Water
Walking back in the cold or heat can be tiring and sometimes dangerous. Everybody needs water bottles.

Find a supermarket with cheap multi-packs. In Cambodia our driver would stop for six-packs of water bottles. He later charged us for the water, which, on relection, was entirely reasonable.

When you are met by a hire car at the airport for transfer to your hotel, the bottled water in the back pocket is not necessarily free. Before drinking, check the price.

Another system is for the leader of the group to supply water top-ups. Alternatively to allocate one person with a car and cool box to supply the others.

You also need a picnic lunch and snacks. It's amazing how fast they restore morale and energy and turn a tiring trek into a tremendous trek.

On day one, one person might not realise you need a packed lunch. Some people like to take a bag of food which can be shared, such as nuts, grapes, small pastries, multi-pack chocolate bars.

Kendal mint cake is a UK produced bar of chocolate-coated rock hard sugar, compact to carry. mint flavour. If you can't find it, you can make your own.

Useful Websites
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/3308686/recipe/original-kendal-mint-cake
https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/p/romney-s-kendal-mint-cake-white

Author
Angela Lansbury