500,000 calories – 102 kg of food, including 300 snack bars, 100 sachets of porridge, 7 kg dried milk, 140 sachets of hot chocolate. The photo shows my mother dividing up my huge quantities of provisions into ration packs for my time at sea.
In addition to the food, there are 940 wet wipes, 6 tubes of sun cream, 4 tubes of nappy salve, an enormous first aid kit, a 20kg liferaft, axes, cooking fuel, toolkits, buckets, ropes, para-anchor, lifejacket, ropes, drogues, and assorted bits of technology.
Put aside the expedition-specific items for the moment, and just consider what it takes to keep body and soul together for 3 months, without the option of popping out to the shops. It’s staggering. I’ll be taking close to twice my bodyweight in food with me. Makes me wonder how on earth this tiny planet of ours manages to support such a huge population, all of us consuming, consuming. How does it do it? And how much longer can it continue?