Nothing beats a hot plate of food at the end of a hard day hiking as the temperature drops and night falls. Locals use firewood to make their pot of rice where as we use a stove. On our trips we have used a Trangia and a MSR Dragonfly. The first has a very basic alcohol burner and the latter a multi-fuel pressurized burner. Taking two stoves is extravagant yes, but as the Trangia has two small pans and fits together nicely it works for us. On top of that Nick (he wore the chef cap) can be cooking rice on one stove whilst cooking cecina (beef jerky) on the other.
- MSR Dragonfly with Trangia pans
The MSR has given us some problems, due to dirty fuel here in Chachapoyas. Before leaving on the first mini trip we gave the thing a complete overhall using the MSR service kit – and it worked well for two cups of tea and then started to playup again. That is another reason we were glad to have the Trangia with us as we then just cooked with that instead.
On the Big Trip we took benzene for the Dargonfly. This is very clean, but reading about benzene you don’t want to be cooking inside your tent with those fumes. The other problem with the MSR is the noise. I got to admit that sometimes the roar of the stove has been a welcome sound as you know you will get a warm drink inside you very soon. Most times that sound like a distant tornado destroys the mountain silence.
The Trangia is so simple it is beautiful. Easy to light and nothing to go wrong. It is quiet and you can cook undercover without worrying you are damaging your health. This is why the Triangia is guaranteed another trip and the MSR Dragonfly will be listed on ebay.