Discover 3 activities you can do with your water bottles when hiking
Essential to have enough to drink while hiking, but sometimes a bind: we give you ideas for making bottles fun when hiking.
Discover our tips for making bottles fun and essential when hiking, with 3 ideas to choose from depending on your mood and creativity!
Bottle mölkky
When out hiking with the whole family.
Ideally you need at least 6 bottles in different colours.
Find a stick that is quite thick and heavy (the size of a rolling pin).
IDEA
When you buy water bottles, choose different colours. Since every one has their flask, is responsible for it and it is more fun to use them in games... If you already have one, simply customise it with a marker, ribbon, colourful tape (electric tape, for example) or a few stickers.
Aim of the game
Knock down the bottles using the Mölkky wooden pin. The bottles are worth between 1 and 12 points maximum depending on their colour. The first team that manages to get exactly 50 points wins the game. For quicker games, you can decide to go up to 25 points or less, it’s up to you!
Game rules
At the start of the game, the bottles are placed about 4 metres from the players.
When a bottle is knocked down, put it back up at the place where it fell. That way, as the game goes on the bottles get spread out and move further apart.
The players (or teams) take turns, and do not get another chance if they miss all the bottles.
How to play
Position the bottles at the start of the game (adapt according to the number used).
The players throw the Mölkky to knock down the bottles, each using their own style.
Points:
– players win as many points as the number of bottles they knock down.
– if they only knock down one bottle, they win the points allotted to that bottle.
Example:
If the player aims at bottle No. 6 and knocks it down, he or she gets 6 points.
If the player knocks down No. 6 but also No. 4, he or she only gets 2 points.
Flask skittles
For family hikes.
Number of flasks: minimum 4
And the same throwing stick.
The first team to get exactly 50 points wins.
If a team gets more than 50 points, its score goes back to 25 points.
Elimination : Players or teams that score no points three times in a row (three throws without scoring, or by overstepping the throwing line) are eliminated. Of course, if all the players are eliminated before anyone gets 50 points, the last one still in wins.
REMINDER
When you choose where to play, remember to find a place without too many stones or rocks... fairly flat and grassy if possible, to protect your bottles.
Aim of the game
Knock down all of the bottles with the stick.
Game rules
Arrange the bottles in a V-shape, and throw the stick at them from behind a line decided beforehand.
You can divide into two teams or play individually. Each team/player has three attempts to knock down the bottles. Then put the bottles back in a V-shape and start again (as in bowling). Each bottle is worth 1 point. If a team scores a strike, i.e. it knocks down all the bottles in one go, it gets an extra 5 points. The first team to score 30 points wins.
You can also make the game more interesting by giving the bottles different values. For example the blue one is worth 1 point, the green one 2, the red one 3...
The loser has to find things starting with the letters of the alphabet all the way down: A for apple, B for bottle, C for chalet... a good way to have fun on the way home too!
Pass the bottle
For hikes with the whole family or just a few people.
Number of flasks: One is enough!
Aim of the game
Throw and catch the bottles at the same time.
Game rules
2 people opposite each other, each with a bottle, throw the bottles at the same time and try to catch them. You can count the number of points, imagine variants where you get more points if you catch the bottle without moving your feet or if you throw the bottle well for your opponent... Everything is possible provided it’s fun…
You can even invent new rules, your own system of rewards: the winner chooses the dessert, doesn’t do the hoovering, has an extra go on the merry-go-round etc.
Want to test the bottle Mölkky? Choose your hike right away and share the rules you have invented with all the other groups of hikers!
Margaux
HIKING ADVICE EDITOR
