Had an interesting experience in August this year. I was going up to the Cooper to boat along it, into the Strzelecki Desert. Family couldn’t come at the time. Was going to be
camping out of the boat for an unknown number of days. So, the
cook wasn’t with me, and as far as cooking goes, I’m none too talented. Didn’t really want the car Engel running with me being away for what could have been the best part of a week.
So, for the first time, I did a 4wd trip without using the fridge, other than for food storage. It was so cold I didn’t even mind the beer at ambient temperature. I lived on canned food such as soups, vegetarian nutmeat, peas / beans, powered mash (which I love), fruit which kept
well. There are heaps of deserts in little plastic containers that don’t need refrigerating. For lunches I had the likes of little canned tuna tins, small tartare sauce packets which don’t need refrigerating, cucumbers etc. For brekkie had cereal, uht milk (just those small 6x200ml cartons, so finished a carton with each brekkie and a coffee).
I guess this is nothing new for hikers, and this food is not everyone’s choice I know. But the point I wanted to make is you can
camp and eat very
well, and fairly healthily, without a fridge. Or perhaps a 40l fridge will do when you think you might need a 70/80l fridge for that 1 big trip that comes along every 2-3 years.
Only negatives was that it’s a fairly heavy pack (not a great worry in the scheme of things in a 4b), and you have lots of package waste, but I burnt that each night (took the crushed cans home of course).
Cheers