Bush Boxes...

The problem with getting on the game trail by dawn and occasionally being out all day is food: You are up too early to eat a decent breakfast, and there aren't many sandwich shops in the bush. What to do?

The safari camps have solved this problem by inventing something called a "bush box". I'm sure many people have many names for them, but this one is reasonably polite...

This is a bush box:

Now, the bush box is just a box lunch. Nothing unusual about that. All of the ones that were provided seemed to come in the same size box as the one shown in the photo. The tie and fern were a nice touch on this one (provided by Rivertrees) that we didn't find on others, though. The rest seemed to be unsealed or closed with tape designed for childproof packages which, as we all know, really only keeps out adults.

The bad thing about bush boxes is that they are monotonous. Almost all had a couple of small sugar bananas (a staple in this part of the world), a bit of ginger cake or other durable pastry, and a juice box. Breakfast added cold bacon and/or sausage and some type of egg/bread combo that was french-toasty. If you are lucky, you can turn the whole thing into a breakfast sandwich. This was usually finished off with an orange or apple. Lunch was similar, often substituting in some sort of roasted veggie sandwich and vegetable sticks. All of the items generally came individually wrapped in a small piece of paper.

This doesn't sound too bad until you realize that you are eating essentially the same thing day after day for 1/3 to 1/2 of your meals. I hate to say this because I'm not a picky eater, but when I came home it was a couple of weeks before I could even look at a banana.

In defense of our hosts, the meals in camp were varied and tasty. In fact, the dinners were quite elaborate affairs at times. One interesting thing that I noticed was the preponderance of beef dishes. The beef is a lot different than what you find in the US; much leaner and stronger in flavor. The cattle here are allowed to graze freely, so the fat content is lower and the animals are obviously leaner when you see them. It was, nonetheless, tasty and probably a lot healthier than the grain fed beef at home. The in-camp breakfasts and lunches were often buffet affairs, with the food as fresh and enjoyable as the sit-down dinners.

Considering the remoteness of the camps and the ingredients available, I would have to give mealtime a solid A grade when eaten in-camp (at the places we stayed, at least). The bush boxes, though, rated at best a B; the quality was fine (if a little heavy), but a little variety could go a long way here.

This is such a first world problem. Sorry about that...