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I haven’t had a decent cup of real, strong coffee for days. Both cups I had for breakfast and lunch were very weak and flavoured with chicory.

I then remembered that I have my cooking gear. I set up my petrol stove outside my room and started boiling some water. I found my fresh coffee and measured about two tablespoons into my mug.

I poured the boiling water into it and waited for the grounds to sink. It took a while and wasn’t totally successful. I was looking forward to my first cup so I tried it anyway.

After I’d spat the bigger bits into the loo I rinsed my mouth out with some fresh water.

That’s when I had my brilliant idea.

I had already decided it was definitely time for a new T-shirt so I used my old one as a filter. I identified a clean bit in the middle of the back and placed it over the saucepan. I carefully poured the coffee back into the saucepan through my new filter, feeling rather pleased with myself. It worked extremely well. I rinsed out the grounds from my cup and poured the filtered coffee back into my mug.

It smelt really good.

It tasted really good as well but, there was then a late ‘Ariel’ flavour follow through which detracted somewhat from the overall experience. I had had my T-shirt enthusiastically washed by hand three days ago.

It rather brought back memories of hiking on Mount Mulanje in Malawi. I was with a friend I’d met in one of the backpacker camps. This is an incredibly beautiful National Park that rise out of the gently rolling tea plantations in the middle of densely populated Malawi. There is an enormous variety of habitat in a very small area - tropical, riverine, alpine and pasture which chnaged almost every half an hour hiking through it.

We’d gone for a two-day hike, suitably prepared with no food and no mattresses. The first night we had to wash up my saucepans but didn’t have any washing up liquid or even soap. We did however, have shampoo so we used that. For several weeks afterwards, everything I drank from my mug tasted of shampoo. Washing it out repeatedly in washing up liquid made no difference at all. The shampoo seemed to have chemically bonded with the plastic mug.

I now have a metal mug.

Lessons learnt:

· Put the coffee in the saucepan not the cup.
· Get a proper filter.
· Take a nice tasting shampoo.


	I haven’t had a decent cup of real, strong coffee for days. Both cups I had for breakfast and lunch were very weak and flavoured with chicory. I then remembered that I have my cooking gear. I set up my petrol stove outside my room and started boiling some water. I found my fresh coffee and measured about two tablespoons into my mug. I poured the boiling water into it and waited for the grounds to sink. It took a while and wasn’t totally successful. I was looking forward to my first cup so I tried it anyway. After I’d spat the bigger bits into the loo I rinsed my mouth out with some fresh water. That’s when I had my brilliant idea. I had already decided it was definitely time for a new T-shirt so I used my old one as a filter. I identified a clean bit in the middle of the back and placed it over the saucepan. I carefully poured the coffee back into the saucepan through my new filter, feeling rather pleased with myself. It worked extremely well. I rinsed out the grounds from my cup and poured the filtered coffee back into my mug. It smelt really good. It tasted really good as well but, there was then a late ‘Ariel’ flavour follow through which detracted somewhat from the overall experience. I had had my T-shirt enthusiastically washed by hand three days ago. It rather brought back memories of hiking on Mount Mulanje in Malawi. I was with a friend I’d met in one of the backpacker camps. This is an incredibly beautiful National Park that rise out of the gently rolling tea plantations in the middle of densely populated Malawi. There is an enormous variety of habitat in a very small area - tropical, riverine, alpine and pasture which chnaged almost every half an hour hiking through it. We’d gone for a two-day hike, suitably prepared with no food and no mattresses. The first night we had to wash up my saucepans but didn’t have any washing up liquid or even soap. We did however, have shampoo so we used that. For several weeks afterwards, everything I drank from my mug tasted of shampoo. Washing it out repeatedly in washing up liquid made no difference at all. The shampoo seemed to have chemically bonded with the plastic mug. I now have a metal mug. Lessons learnt: · Put the coffee in the saucepan not the cup. · Get a proper filter. · Take a nice tasting shampoo.
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