There is nothing like hard numbers to help identify a problem. When we started this expedition we simply underestimated the load we would be carrying, and therefore the strength required of the trailer and us! In this series of blogs we will look at what’s in the trailer to understand where the weight comes from.
First the Food bag – the list below was compiled on a fairly typical 6-day stretch recently where we would not encounter a single shop, no matter how small, for 180km. Coming from an Island (UK) less wide than this in many parts it comes as a slight surprise that it could be possible not to encounter a village and store of sorts, but some of the areas we have been running have been very remote indeed, especially in winter.
Furthermore we cannot scrimp on food or use technical foodstuffs as everything is sourced locally. A backpacking or adventure running challenge of a week or less can be done on the bodies reserves, supplemented with lightweight dried food, but for a year one simply cannot rob peter to pay paul. Peter goes hungry and falls over.
So here it is – what’s in the food bag:
| Evening | Snacks | |||
| veg | 400 | Halva | 250 | |
| butter | 750 | Chocnuts | 150 | |
| Sausage | 600 | Salted peanuts | 350 | |
| Eggs | 600 | Rocket Fuel | 2500 | |
| Garlic | 150 | 3250g | ||
| Salt | 150 | Hot Drinks | ||
| Pasta | 3500 | malt / Hot Chocolate / spices | 500 | |
| Dried mushroom | 200 | 500g | ||
| Dried Potato | 250 | Lunch | ||
| Sun Dred Tomato | 250 | Cheese | 960 | |
| Tomato Puree | 400 | Salami | 700 | |
| Spices | 200 | Bread | 1000 | |
| 7450g | 3510g | |||
| Breakfast | ||||
| Dried Apple | 150 | |||
| Dried Banana | 100 | Water* | 4000g | |
| Raisins | 200 | |||
| Dulce de Leche | 400 | Breakfast | 4.85 | |
| Porridge Oats | 1000 | Lunch | 3.51 | |
| Milk powder | 1000 | Evening | 7.45 | |
| Honey and Jam | 300 | Snacks | 3.25 | |
| Flour | 1250 | Hot Drinks | 0.50 | |
| Linseed Flour | 300 | Water | 4.00 | |
| Bran | 150 | |||
| 4850g | TOTAL | 23.56 Kg | ||
| ALL WEIGHTS ARE LISTED AS NET WEIGHT (ie just the weight of the product inside the packet), GROSS WEIGHT INCL PACKAGING IS NOT INCLUDED | * Water weight depends on availability of water, lots i chile so we carry less, not much in Argentina, so we carry more between stops |