Delicious Things
Chile Dia 12: Las Toninas-Pasarela Río Frío (101km)
A known fact may be so unbearable that it is habitually pushed aside and not allowed to enter into logical processes, or on the other hand it may enter into every calculation and yet never be admitted as a fact, even in one's own mind.”
George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism, 1945
Today’s vocab
To bonk - to reach a point of exhaustion that makes it impossible to go further.
E.g “I bonked and couldn't pedal another stroke"
It’s becoming marginally easier to find simple food as we leave wildest Patagonia further behind each day.
Bidding farewell to the seven kittens we shared a home with for two nights, we skid along the estuary towards freshly baked bread, marmalade and instant coffee (if you expect a more bourgeoise, dry roasted blend in Chile, you will almost certainly be let down).
Breakfast comes with the chaser of free hose use; a washing duty we owe our uncomplaining (yet filthy) two-wheeled warriors.
Food is an essential part of our day. Backpacking on a shoestring budget is one thing; you find food where you can and hold out for kind offers from other travellers in hostel kitchens.
But with bikepacking, your needs are more acute. You need three weighty meals a day and must supplement that with ample snacking. Otherwise your drive to continue withers rapidly.
Eating a vegan diet can reduce your carbon footprint by 73%
A study by researchers at the University of Oxford revealed that a vegan diet is “the single biggest measure” an individual can take to reduce their environmental impact.
We’re both vegetarian here. Vegan seems possible but slower, more expensive and heavier. You’d have to visit supermarkets constantly, carry a lot with you and stop to cook twice a day. I’ve downgraded my ‘green purity’ and laced it with eggs and cheddar. Milk most definitely still banned. I may have had a very ocasional fish dinner. Guilty.
My reasoning is environmental. But poor animal treatment sways me too. Factory farming is a horrific stain on our claims of progression. Killing and eating animals has never been done on such a mass and cruel scale as now.
31.3 billion animals have been killed in the US alone in 2023.
8 by 10 inches (20 × 25 cm): Amount of space in which battery caged egg-laying hens spend their entire lives, unable to spread their wings.
And as for whether your body can get its nutrients from a predominantly plant-based diet, look no further than the elite of the elite who’ve taken the leap. Novak Djokovic, Venus Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Alex Morgan, David Haye, Patrik Bouboumian (body builder and Germany’s strongest man), and Scott Jurek.
Scott’s biggest run was 165 miles in one day. 6.5 marathons in 24 hours. Fueled by plants.
6,800 liters: amount of water used to produce one pound of beef. Equivalent to 7 years of drinking water for the average person. Ecosystems. 200
Today was split neatly into two. Like Bob Mortimer, prising apart an apple with his bare hands; part of the same whole yet memorably different. The first half a soaking slip and slide, slithering our way up valley and streaming down the other side, water in rivulets down thin coats. The sunglasses a barrier to persistent drizzle, rather than blinding rays.
BUT THEN, the clouds backed away, sunlight glinted through and the road dried in patches. We peeled layers off. I pedaled with fire in my calves to La Junta, today’s lunch stop. The fiery calves were not burny enough to catch up with Jake, a tiny spec streaking away on his trusty Dawes. His furnace burning even brighter.
Plugged into Wolf Alice’s Blue Weekend, the energy flows easy. That album is intimately linked to bike travel for me. It played on repeat during my isolation period with C19 in July 2021. A week later, the play count was turbocharged during long summer days on Scotland’s NC500. I made up my mind about a lot of important things during that trip; the thinking time another bikepacking blessing.
The prospect of the bonk is a daily concern when you’re living on a bike. Given the long distances between food outlets in Patagonia, we stock up wherever we can, satiating the desire for steam engine fuel once more. We manage, albeit temporarily.
Yet bonking need not be fatal. Fading energies can be boosted by an opportune packet of SUNY biscuits or a palm full of oregano peanuts. Jake is convinced he’s mildly allergic to these, but that doesn’t stop him wolfing them down for the calories.
Today’s other treats included a pizza-sized sandwich for lunch (not big enough to dissuade a bulbous blueberry muffin from following it down the hatch), and copious other brownies, bananas and Morochas.
It’s a long day but we finally camp at dusk, sneaking onto gorgeous farmland on the Río Palena, surrounded by a troupe of inquisitive goats. We cook up the classic curried rice with lentils and sides of avocado and crisp sandwiches in chewy bread dashed with chili.
41% Percent of U.S. land in the 48 contiguous states is used for livestock pastures/range (33%) and animal feed production (8%).
I think the key with meat consumption is to reduce it. We absolutely do not need to give up meat completely, but if everyone reduced their intake significantly, we would be in a far better place to tackle our existential climate threat.
We arrange a message in pebbles for passing planes above…
¡AYUDA! SUELTA COMIDA AQUI!
P.S. NO POLLO, POR FAVOR.
(Help! DROP FOOD HERE!)
P.S. NO CHICKEN, PLEASE.
“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.”
Charles Darwin, 1871
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Hey Jack, thanks for the reminders about the benefits of reducing meat consumption with such clear narrative.