What is it?
Well, if you have a look at a write-up of a book called Cork Boat by John Pollack, you will see
Reality wasn't all that different. Back on the river, we muscled our way slowly westward, day by day. Although Curtis and Jennifer had to leave us in Regua, we were joined, at the same time, by a college buddy of Garth's, an environmental engineer named Garvin Heath. Garvin was a big, ebullient guy, well over six feet, and he could pull his weight and then some. Better yet, he was full of good stories.
One tale in particular really captured my imagination, a project he called "Peripatetic Pancakes." A few years earlier, to celebrate his thirtieth birthday, he had hired a mule train to haul four hundred pounds of pancake mix, syrup, jam, skillets, fuel, and other supplies a dozen miles into the Sierras of California. There, he set up camp and for the next two weeks cooked free, all-you-can-eat pancakes for any and all passing backpackers.
At first, people were flabbergasted at this unlikely IHOP-in-the-wilderness. Then word started spreading along the trail. One hungry man, a dot-corn refugee, stumbled into camp with only a few raisins left. When Garvin welcomed him warmly with unlimited silver-dollar pancakes and a choice of eight toppings, he was practically speechless with gratitude.
But all is not as it seems - after digging around (Google is my friend), I came across an interesting discovery.
This pancake site makes reference to Tasmania -
I just read about "Peripatetic Pancakes." It's a wonderful thing. There are some scattered mentions of it on the web. Maybe it started in Tasmania? I am not sure. I found out about it from the book "Cork Boat", which is generally not about pancakes but which I still recommend very much to those of you who like to read. I will now quote the pancake part of that book: ...
And on it goes with the same information I have pasted in the first quote.
Well, reading on, I found a very enlightening post on that site -
Peripatetic Pancakes: The Origin in Tasmania!Regarding Larry Hosken's comments about Peripatetic Pancakes, he is quite correct; it originated in Tasmania. For the record: Having spent numerous summers bushwaling in Tasmania's maginicent wilderness area, Steve Bennett and Adam Croser spent two weeks camped at the remote Cox Bight Beach in the South West Tasmania World Heritage wilderness Area over New Year 1995 -96. We made free lemon and sugar pancakes and fresh brewed coffee or tea for nearly 200 hardy bushwalkers. We repeated the project in 1996-97, 1997-98 and 2004-05. I'm pretty sure that Garvin Heath enjoyed our hospitality at Cox Bight and took the idea home with him. I'm also pretty sure that he contacted Steve prior to his project to gain our blessing. I'd be relly happy to hear from anyone else who has heard of Peripatetic Pancakes.
Following this lead, I have indeed verified that Peripatetic Pancakes originated in Tasmania.
I also found an interesting write-up in a PDF file on the net - http://www.nicolaloder.com.au/d_loads/conc.pdf
An extract -
Steve and Adam set up their cafe in the middle of the Track. They provided walkers with fresh coffee and pancakes served at tables lined up along a picturesque lagoon. They served about three hundred people over a two-week period each year, accumulating about nine hundred stories. It cost them each $500, their only motivations to forge some kind of community in the middle of nowhere and stay in the one beautiful spot for a long time. All they asked for in return was a story.
I'll bet they have some stories to tell!
I have heard about it many times before - walkers in the south west of Tassie coming across a couple of cool dudes making pancakes in the middle of nowhere. Like, how awesome!
There has been mention of it on this forum in this thread -
wello wrote:There's a couple of guys who regularly set up a pancake kitchen at Cox's Bight on the South Coast Track. We met them in Jan 2007, after walking 5 days from Cockle creek. They set up for about two weeks each time, and cook pancakes for all the passing walkers (all free mind you).
When we arrived after 5 hard days walking, the kindness we received was amazing. Pancakes a plenty, freshly brewed coffee, a chair to sit in, a day old newspaper and test cricket scores, and dinner on the beach with red wine and classical music.
So why do they do it? Something about khama and giving something back to bushwalking that has given them so much pleasure over the years.
Now that's a random act of kindness.
Wellofrank_in_oz wrote:Yes, so this explains this picture taken by Annette , I think in December last year. Could not work out what the heck they were doing http://members.tassie.net.au/~ahack/x_S ... 02021.htmlNick S wrote:Yeah I also had the good fortune to be walking past when these 2 guys were cooking. Although we had just flown in that day, so the pancakes probably didn't taste as nice as if if was your 5th day on the track.. Supposedly they have done the same thing multiple times, and they get their flour and eggs etc. flown in by the same planes that fly people in/out.
Sure, there would be a reward in seeing people devour their pancakes, but I think they enjoyed finding out people's stories and where they were from. My walking partner was from overseas so they were quite interested in what he was up to
I also found it mentioned in this thread -
Jaxter wrote:Well, we're back from the SCT - what a fantastic trip, despite 5 days of rain! The Peripatetic Pancake boys were in residence at Cox Bight. Freshly made pancake and real coffee was absolute bliss after 7 days on the track!
Hunting around, I found some more photos and I post them here with permission - thanks very much Annette and thanks to Andreas for your assistance.
So I looked up the definition of Peripatetic - Moving or travelling about on foot, or some such.
Very random and quite mysterious... And I am sure very, very welcome to anyone who is lucky enough to discover them set up along your path.
I am sure many walkers out there have some fantastic stories to tell of their encounters with Peripatetic Pancakes and I invite you all to share those stories here.