Cooking pan

Camping equipment normally includes pans to cook with. It's best to have some way of making youself a warm meal after a hard day's kayaking, but what type of pans should you load onto your kayak?

If all you do is boil water, then almost any kind of pot is suitable. However, if you like to cook real food, then good quality pots are a worthwhile investment. Unfortunately, thick-bottomed saucepans are not too easy to find in removable-handle camping versions. However, you can use a scorch-buster - a thick aluminum disk that sits between your stove and the pot and distributes heat more evenly than the pot alone.

There are aluminum and steel cookware. Both can come in regular and non-stick versions. The former are cheaper, but the ease of cooking and cleanup with non-stick make them a welcome addition to a camp kitchen. Non-stick cookware usually uses some form of Teflon coating, though hard-anodized aluminum pots and pans are available. Modern coatings are much more durable than the older Teflon pots, but you should still use plastic spoons and such with the coated pots and pans.

Since weight is not as much of an issue in kayaking as in backpacking, consider the greater durability of steel cookware.

For two, a couple of saucepans are of first importance. They should nest in one another. Make sure you take a handle for them too. Next, a frying pan is essential for frying fish, making omelets, stirfries and an assortment of other dishes. You can find a good set of pans with lid at a camping supply store.

Ovens for baking and serious cooking

Want to make real food? Lasagna, pizza, bread, brownies and pies, just about anything you can make in an oven at home?

• For the real cook, a dutch oven is a wonderful way to cook real food at a campsite.
• Another popular approach to baking is to get an Outback Oven or similar system. These are a covered frying pan with an insulating cover that allows you to bake over a normal camp stove.