Sounds like you had a great hike! I was particularly interested in the part about preserving food without a fridge. I'm not sure how they manage with milk, but I think raw milk has to be consumed within a few days. They can always make dairy products that last longer, though. In Portugal, smoking and salting were traditional methods of preservation. Even today, cod isn't eaten fresh; it's submerged in large quantities of salt and then soaked in running water for a few days to remove the salt before it's eaten. Smoked meat is still made in a traditional way, too.