LARP and SCA Camping Tips

Drink

Water

Water is so important that it should almost be included under the first-aid stuff. Drink, and drink lots. I recommend keeping a full water bottle by the bed at night, to sip on when you wake, to further help make up for water loss during the day. You won't be getting enough, especially if you're active. Trust me on this.

In general, though dehydration is one of the key mood-killers in camping, I don't like to push Gatorade too much. It's good to have a bottle or two on hand to sip to see if you are dehydrated—if it tastes sweet or watery, you need more water! There is a medieval alternative called sekanjabin, a syrup of sugar and vinegar that can be flavored with mint, or any number of other flavors (I like peach). A small amount of syrup can flavor a large quantity of water, and the vinegar supplies many of the same things supplied by sports drinks, but I recommend sparing use.

Alcohol

For every alcoholic drink you consume, consume twice its volume in water. This will help to mitigate its dehydrating effects.

Coffee and Tea

Coffee and tea are debatably medieval, and they are diuretics, which exacerbate dehydration, but let's face it—they are necessities of life. Tea is pretty simple to make while camping. Add hot water to your tea, and either use tea bags, or a tea ball. (Just don't make it in a leather wax or patch-sealed mug... I know folks who have. It was sad.) Coffee is a bit more of a challenge. I recommend the French press. Put you grounds in the bottom, pour in boiling water, and press down the filter screen. done, you have coffee. If you donÕt have (or want to buy a press pot, you can make filter coffee your regular filers, and a heat proof funnel, they even make ones that just fit on the top of a mug. in a pinch, paper towels make effective filters, if they drain a bit slow. your last alternative, greek coffee. Get good coffee, ground to powder, and boil it with water and some sugar. Let it just come to a boil (but don't let it boil over) and remove it from the fire. Do this three times. Drink, grounds and all. This is... a very efficient caffeine delivery device. Need that caffeine hit, but don't want to deal with even boiling water first thing in the morning? Pack chocolate-covered espresso beans. Six to eight replace a cup of coffee pretty well. I suspect that they could even be used as currency with less well-prepared players. If you need dairy in your coffee, you can bring powdered milk, or one of the little Parmalat milk boxes I mentioned earlier.

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