The Life Cycle: 8,000 Miles in the Andes by Bamboo Bike

by Kate Rawles

'A gripping read for anyone who cares about what we're doing to the planet and how we can change it' DAVID SHUKMAN, FORMER BBC NEWS SCIENCE EDITOR'Searing observations focused on our need to protect biodiversity - A tour de force' SIR TIM SMIT OBE, CO-FOUNDER OF THE EDEN PROJECT'An informative, uplifting and truly important book' JONATHON PORRITT, AUTHOR AND CAMPAIGNEROne woman's journey through South America - and the devastating story of our planet's disappearing biodiversityPedalling hard for thirteen months, eco adventurer Kate Rawles cycled the length of the Andes on an eccentric bicycle she built herself. The Life Cycle charts her mission to find out why biodiversity is so important, what's happening to it, and what can be done to protect it.From the Pacific Ocean to rainforests and salt flats, Kate learns that armadillos can cross rivers by holding their breath, that Colombia has more species of birds than North America and Europe combined, and that in threatening species and ecosystems, we're tearing down our own life support system. En route, she witnesses the devastation of goldmining and oil drilling but finds hope in the incredible people working to regenerate habitats and communities. As she reaches the 'end of the world', she realises that to tackle biodiversity loss we all have a role to play.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Nature, Environment

488 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2023

Reviews

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am surprised that this book did not receive more reviews despite its publication in June 2023.
I am not usually keen on long travel memoirs, or on cycling... But somehow I felt interested by the summary of this book and I am so pleased I picked it.

Kate Rawles is a lecturer who teaches environmental ethics, and who - as the title suggests - travels 8,000 by bike along the Andes, having travelled there from the UK on a cargo ship. She goes from country to country, describing the nature and the people she meets and her visits to environmental projects. I found the content really intelligent and informatived - she writes a lot about capitalism and how the environment pays the price for the West's greed, she writes a lot about biodiversity loss, and about the loss of habitat for many animals. I liked her tone, because I think it is hard to write about the environment without sounding preachy; but she sounds approachable, keen to educate and just such an interesting person full of curiosity and empathy.

I really recommend this one - which I received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Alison Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something so brilliant about reading a cycling book that isn't "I went this far in this many hours and hit a wall". Kate portrays such a lovely outlook on mooching along and meeting people and it was really refreshing.
Absolutely stunned to hear of the impacts of mining beside the obvious hole in the ground. Will definitely be thinking more about how I use technology which contains these types of metals.
Very insightful, emotional and educational.

[Rebecca Stonehill · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Have less. Appreciate more. Celebrate often.'

What an awe-inspiring book. Travelling to South America by cargo ship and traversing the Andes on a bamboo book she constructed herself, Kate Rawles crosses some breathtaking and gruelling terrain as she takes in both bountiful and ravaged landscapes across the continent. She meets inspiring people along the way who are working to tackle the biodiversity and climate crisis and casts an unflinching eye at our interconnectedness of the human and animal kingdom and the urgent work that must take place. I was so struck by the author's whole hearted openness and spirit of adventure and curiosity, as well as her love for the natural world and how she is using her skills and gifts to draw awareness to the greatest challenge of our times.

[AD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate Rawles used to be an environmental ethics lecturer at a university in England until it became clear to her that she should be thinking about this sort of thing (and teaching it) outdoors rather than indoors. So she invented 'Outdoor Philosophy', which consists in taking people out into nature (often in a sea kayak) and doing the ethical work in situ - in nature itself.

She combines this with what she calls 'Adventure Plus', that is, going solo on an adventure with a view to using that adventure to examine the relationship between humans and nature as she goes. Her preferred mode of transport on these Adventure Pluses is the bicycle rather than the sea kayak, and in 2006 she cycled 4553 miles from Texas to Alaska asking North Americans along the way what they thought of climate change, whether they cared about it and what they could do about it. She tells this story in The Carbon Cycle.

The Life Cycle is devoted to biodiversity rather than (or, better, as well as) climate change. Between December 2016 and February 2018 Rawles rode over 8000 miles on a bamboo bike she built herself along the Andes from Colombia to Chile passing through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina along the way. It's a mind-boggling achievement in its own right - 'just' the cycling I mean - but when you factor in all the visits she made along the way to people and projects involved with trying to defend and enhance biodiversity, the whole thing takes on quite extraordinary ('more-than-human'?) proportions.

How to summarise the discoveries made over 13 months and 8000 miles? Three stand out, for me. The first is that the idea and practice of 'extractivism' is at the heart of the accelerating loss of biodiversity - and this includes the extractivism that we usually call mining (if you want a vision of hell on earth look up Cerro de Pasco in Peru). Second, nature reserves - however large - are never going to be enough to turn the tide in favour of biodiversity. And third, tying these two together, is the need for a wholesale change in our relationship with the more-than-human world.

This is not a new message and Rawles never says it is. It's been with us in one way or another for two hundred years at least, and it's the same message as Michael Pollan's in The Botany of Desire which I've just read and reviewed. Pollan conveys it via an exploration of the relationship between humans and four plants, while Rawles takes herself to the front line in a feat of mind-blowing endurance and takes us on a coruscating and beautifully told tour of a world on the brink of ecological and social disaster.

Will reading Pollan and Rawles bring us back from the precipice? Ojalá, as the Spanish might say, but I doubt it. The front of environmental action seems broad, from prisons in the UK where campaigners languish for the crime of demanding an end to the madness, to the four Green MPs recently elected to the Westminster Parliament, to Ushuaia where Rawles ended her epic journey on her bamboo bike, and millions of people and organisations in between. But it's not sociologically broad and neither is it deep. Like Rawles on her bike, the environmental movement has been pedalling into a headwind for over 50 years and it's looking to me like the headwind is going to win.

But we can perhaps take metaphorical solace at least from Rawles' own overcoming of the headwinds that were so often present on her journey. She reminds me that there are some who, when asked by future generations 'what did you do to stem the tide of ecological destruction?', will have a brave and meaningful answer to give.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an in-depth look at Kate’s journey through South America. She rode from Colombia to Argentina on a bamboo bike. This is a great insight into global biodiversity loss and how this affects various aspects.

Some of the stories told are shocking and really put everything into perspective.

Thank you for sharing your story! Highly recommend giving this a read

[Connor Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book for highlighting the beauty and culture of South America - it covers the whole continent so doesn't go into as much depth as I'd maybe like at all of the projects Kate visits for purposes of length - but is still a cracking read and a great advert for visiting South America, if not necessarily for the way their governments manage their wild spaces.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pedalling hard for thirteen months, eco adventurer Kate Rawles cycled the length of the Andes on a bicycle she built herself.

From the Pacific Ocean to rainforests and salt flats, Kate witnesses the devastation of mining, oil drilling, banana plantations, copper mining etc etc. All these huge companies which extract from nature without regard for the devastation caused. The extractions are often supported by corrupt politicians- or simply those who want to increase their countries wealth ….. sadly without equality of distribution. More sadly the devastation caused is a problem for all of us - without biodiversity, protection of water, soil, and the cycle of life we will all suffer. Something has to change.

It’s quite a hard read- it requires concentration, but it’s well written and hard hitting. It took a long time for me to get through it - and a lot of the messages were similar in focus. Everyone should read it - and if not the whole book, the epilogue probably gets the message over.

[Michael Rumney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the book looks at important environmental topics it failed to make an impact. Touring South America on a bike made from bamboo should have been at least interesting but the author's writing style made it as dull as a dirty puddle.
The book kept repeating the same message time and time again. Every time she got somewhere she met someone and a boring discussion about the environment ensued.
Once you keep saying the same thing it loses its punch and this book didn't have that punch.
The only time I felt any engagement was when the author was cycling to meet a deadline towards the end and I felt there was some jeopardy but it didn't last.
I was glad to finish this tortuous book that needed serious editing.

[Vaiva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this one; maybe my favorite book of the year. It's a nice mix of travel adventures and environmental stories from the local communities. It shows what a sheer belief in a mission and determination can do while telling stories from the local communities, conservationist stories and eco-activism stories scattered across South America. When reading it, some many questions and ideas popped to my head that I know I will be thinking (and recommending it) for a while.

For a longer review, you can go here

[Terry Grigg · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enthralling mix of a long-distance bamboo bike journey, traveller’s tales, historical facts and figures, colonialism, biodiversity, environmental degradation and some alarming statistics all wrapped up in a very readable descriptive narrative. Just the way I write my travel books, so full marks there. And she went to many of the places I missed out on, so good to fill in some gaps. It was such a shame I didn’t see her presentation in Inverness, as it was all booked up. Anyway, a great effort and I recommend it highly.

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this to give to someone for his birthday and decided to read it myself before gifting it...lol I unfortunately thought it was pretty boring and didn't end up giving it away! It was quite dry, repeated the same message over and over again and didn't really have any sort of "plot" or storyline to keep me interested. I wanted to love it, I wanted to get inspired to ride a bike down South America, but this book was not that book for me sadly.

[suneater · Rating 2 out of 5]

fell short of my expectations - i'd hoped for more beautiful writing, and i felt that the climate issues were brought up in a very surface-level manner. it felt like i was being tossed a bunch of facts with no further in-depth analysis, and heavily edited monologues from 'characters met on the road'.

[wedg · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am jealous of kate rawles, sounds like such a fun adventure. lots of the lessons in this book are fairly obvious, but what's enlightening is the light it shines of people who are still so clearly stuck in the past, and how there are people risking so much to right that wrong. also i wanna go to patagonia

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with some other reviews, it did get repetitive with environmental facts even though the message was so important

I was more into the cycling part of the story, which really picked up at the end

[Jennifer Antulov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspirational and thought provoking. I enjoyed the fact that Rawles takes the time to explore the world in a detailed and careful manner.
I respect the way she faces the reality that the powerful, corrupt and greedy abuse the planet.

[Rachel Philp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heard Kate Rawles talk about her amazing journey at Dundee University. What an inspiring and brave thing to do. The book brought more of the trip to life and was a very good read.

[Elen Boore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading about the author’s experience travelling from Colombia to Ushuaia. Interesting to learn about various initiatives throughout South America which seek to protect biodiversity.

While an important read, the narrative was at times un-engaging.

[Charlotte Beauvoisin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extraordinary achievement!
One of those books that grabbed me right from the start - I didn't want it to end (so put it to one side for a few weeks so I could look forward to picking it up again).
Kate Rawles took 13 months to cycle solo from one end of Latin America to the other. It's a fabulous series of adventures. I so admire her vision and stamina.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the amazing scenery she passed through. It certainly whet my appetite to spend time in Latin America, although I would have liked more insight into local cultures.
However, the life cycle is not that kind of book. It's far more than a travelogue: Kate was on a mission to explore environmental issues - and solutions - and this was a research trip more than anything else. She is a retired lecturer from the UK who specialises in "outdoor philosophy"and environmental education.
Kate has an easy-going writing style that is engaging and personal. Occasionally, there were small details that didn't really add to the story, hence 4/5 rating, but for vision and determination, I give the book 5 out of 5.
As a travel blogger and podcaster, I know how hard it is to travel and keep on top of all the notetaking as you go. My gentle travels are nothing compared to lugging a tent, cooking equipment and all life's essentials on a bike for all those months.
The world needs more Kate Rawles. The life cycle has been endorsed by a long list of environmentalists, campaigners and authors and deserves a far wider readership. I can't wait to read it again.