Mountain Mulligatawny

I first tried this amazing soup on a camping trip.  It was late and cold, and I was exhausted and starving.  We were in Northwest Georgia on a camping/climbing trip to a place called Rocktown on Pigeon Mountain.  After a few days of climbing the group decided to go caving.  ("Caving" here means: voluntarily lowering your body into a tight, muddy hole in the ground blasting cold air out into the night, followed by a slow, dark trek through winding passages and extremely small spaces covered in cold mud, which eventually leads you to an underground waterfall, where you take a short break, eat a candy bar, and turn around to do it all again.)

Here's the group before embarking on our caving adventure.

I was a little bit terrified.

And here we are afterward. On top of the world after our 4-hour, death-defying caving experience!

Back at camp, my group decided to pack up and head home right away.  It was hard work in the dark, especially as exhausted as we were after caving.  And did I mention it was 2 AM? Well, it was.  There's no point wasting daylight hours in an underground cave, so people typically go at night.  We started our trip at 10:00 PM, and 4 hours later decided to start packing up camp and immediately begin the 6 hour drive home.  Can you say insane?? Let's just say this was not my idea.

When we were ready to pull out of camp, some of our fellow campers (the sane ones who were staying the night) offered to share their dinner with us before we left.  It smelled so good we couldn't resist.  And we were sooo happy we stayed after we tried Josh's campfire Mulligatawny. 

The good stuff

After that night, Mulligatawny and camping just seemed to go hand-in-hand to us.  We now beg Josh to bring ingredients every time we go, and being the sweet guy he is, he usually obliges.  I finally got the recipe from him (complete with camp-ready instructions), and I would like to share its amazingness with you.  Mulligatawny is an exciting mixture of flavors and textures that will surprise your tastebuds and comfort your soul.  It's great to eat anywhere, but if you share it with a group of exhausted, freezing friends around a crackling campfire, you'll know by everyone's happy silence that it was worth the effort to make in the woods.

Our campfire cook. Thanks, Josh!

Josh's Mountain Mulligatawny
6 cups water

1/3 cup dried apple
1/4 cup sundried tomato
2 Tbs chicken bouillon
1 Tbs dried onion flakes
1 Tsp dried minced garlic
2 Tsp hot or mild curry powder
1 Tsp coriander
1 Tsp cumin seeds
2 Tbs dried parsley
1 cup instant brown rice
1 pouch (7 oz.) chicken breast

Prep at home:
Mix apple, tomato bouillon, onion, garlic in Bag 1
Mix rice, curry, coriander, cumin, parsley in Bag 2

At camp:
Boil water
Stir in Bag 1, cook 3 min
Add Bag 2, cook 5 min
Add chicken, simmer 3 min
Cook until rice is done.

Serves 3 hungry campers

The Lost World

There exists a place so remote, so untouched, so amazingly unique that extremely few people have seen it. In fact, most people are completely ignorant of it. And this place happens to offer some of the toughest, most extreme rock climbing on the planet. To add to the excitement, it is home to thousands of species of animals unknown to scientists, possibly never before seen by humans. As a biologist by trade and rock climber at heart, this place is indescribably appealing.

The lost world. The living Eden. The house of the gods. There are many names to describe the cluster of roughly 100 flat-topped mountains called Tepuis. The range lies at the juncture of 3 countries in the heart of the Amazon of South America; Brazil, Venezuela, and Guayana. Vertical walls extend thousands of feet into the sky until they reach perfectly flat summits covered with strange rock formations. A vertical ascent can take from days to months of nonstop climbing; when you reach the top the bouldering opportunities are limitless. The mountain summits have been isolated from the rest of the Earth for so long, the creatures who call them home have diverged evolutionarily, resulting in species that are unique to individual tepuis. In simpler terms, there are animals and plants living on these mountains that occur no where else on the planet except that one mountain. The idea is mind blowing. If I could get my hands on just one frog..

One day I hope to take a trip to the Amazon and climb myself a Tepui. It is a dream trip. A life trip. A once-in-a-lifetime, IF-you're-lucky, opportunity. I was originally inspired by a guest lecturer in one of my biology classes, and later read this article that really latched me on to the idea. The trip would include a major hike through the rainforest, days of rain, mud, bugs, intense climbing, biological explorations, and tons of other unknown adventures. It would be a life-changing experience. I have no idea when it may be possible, but I know that I'll be dreaming about it until it is. I'll need a group of adventurers to go with, so let me know if you think you've got what it takes. :)