Picnic No 12 Port Mulgrave

 Port Mulgrave...visiting is becoming a tradition. Tradition also is to keep the menu secret until at the shore. Not a secret though was that it would once again be a survival pack. But from which country?

I can now reveal all. I'm taking Mrs 'C' out for a chinese meal!!!!! 

Genuine Chinese Army ration pack....Only a few months out of date but hey....that's how it is when you're in the PLA. Peoples Liberation Army. 

Equipment was a guess as I couldn't translate the cooking instructions. Assuming it's gonna be  'Boil in the Bag' (what all the top restaurants call sous-vide cooking...) I'll take water, saucepan, Spyder stove and gas, a stirring utensil, sharp knife and eating irons.

Including in the kit will be the Star Yacht SY4. Sailing and cooking.. what a treat.

A wander along the rocky shore line looking for fossils revealed what AI is identifing as a large pseudofossil.  This pattern appears to be a mineral dendrite rather than an actual organic fossil.. Wow!!!! Still a most excellent find!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The southern edge of the bay looked more sandy and ideal to let the SY4 stretch it's sails...as in the previous sea excursion in Picnic No 11 I had a tether line attached.. and a jolly fine sight it looked too with what remains of the old port in the background.

Time to unpack the chinese.......spread it out on a rock and feel the packages....do we open them? Boil them? Cold or hot??? Well let's look at the menu for clues..

Curry Fried Chicken & Rice. Compressed energy biscuit.(citrus) Tomatoe  & eggdrop soup.  Spicy Enoki Mushrooms and an accessories pack.

Get the biggest bag hot, keep a little boily water for the eggdrop soup...Heat what could be spicy Enoki Mushrooms a bag that could be sauce and another that once opened looked like noodles...... Accessories included paper dish, plastic spoon.

Oh and did I say it was sticky toffee pudding for dessert?

Alfreso chinese...at the waters edge.....not a soul about.....and the sighting of a 200 million year old plant etched into rock...........that's what's called PICNICTASTIC !!!!!

So no worries...(well apart from the 180 steps that have to be climbed back to reality)

Keep a look out for more Cracklepicnics..the summer ain't over yet.