Guides

Every gram in your pack costs you energy on the climb. Water is the heaviest thing most hikers carry — which is why the smartest trail food strategy is simple: stop carrying water inside your food.

The gram-for-gram comparison

A fresh apple is around 85 per cent water and weighs about 150 grams. The same amount of actual food as freeze-dried apple weighs under 25 grams. Scale that across three days of snacks and the difference is measured in kilograms, not grams.

What experienced hikers pack

• Freeze-dried fruit — nature's lollies. A 20g packet of freeze-dried strawberries is roughly 200g of fresh fruit, with the vitamin content largely intact because nothing was cooked.
• Nuts and nut butters — dense fat and protein, no prep.
• Oats — light, filling, and perfect for rehydrating fruit into at breakfast.
• Hard cheeses and cured meats — for the first day or two.
• Freeze-dried vegetables and garlic — turn instant noodles or couscous into an actual meal.

A sample three-day snack plan

Day one: fresh fruit you eat before it bruises, plus trail mix. Days two and three: freeze-dried strawberries and pineapple for morning tea, blueberries stirred through breakfast oats, watermelon crisps as the afternoon treat, and freeze-dried guacamole rehydrated with creek water (filtered, of course) for crackers at camp.

The water planning note

Freeze-dried food does not need rehydrating to be eaten — everything in our range is delicious straight from the bag. But if you do rehydrate fruit for desserts or breakfasts, budget an extra 100 to 200 millilitres per day and you will have it covered.

Browse the full lightweight range at Outback Bites — 100% Australian produce, packed in Australia, with a two-year best-before date on every pack.