ArmaSkin News June 2020

News coverage in this edition covers

• Getting to know Australia
• African Bushwalk Experience
• ArmaSkin Toe Socks NEW RELEASE
• Product and event information and a June discount for readers.

 Getting to know Australia

Australia is geographically a big country. Roughly equivalent in area to the USA or Western Europe.

The history of Indigenous Australians began at least 65,000 years ago when humans first populated the Australian continent and its islands. This makes them the world's longest surviving civilisation.  There is still debate whether the first migration was a result of the earliest human migrations out of Africa or through Southeast Asia.  

At the time of first European contact, many estimates have suggested between 315,000 and 750,000 people lived in Australia, in diverse groups, but upper estimates place the total population as high as 1.25 million. In the 21st century there are around 800,000 Indigenous Australians with about 45,000 being recorded as full blooded.

Over that 60,000 year history an estimated 360 separate language dialects ( Australian Aboriginal languages ) were spoken.  At the start of the 21st century, fewer than 150 Aboriginal languages remain in daily use, and all except 13, which are still being transmitted to children, are highly endangered. 

Surviving these millennia are the names of the various local areas in which these languages were spoken. A sample are shown here for Victoria in a map prepared by  Tirin aka Takver.

You can see a complete picture of Australian indigenous cultural zones via this link AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia.

To help embrace this expansive and deeply intriguing nature of Australia's history we will be seeking to follow the example of one of our Australian Ambassadors Tracey, who posts as Tee in the Wild. Tracey regularly includes the designation of the "country" in which she is hiking. 

Below is a recent post from Tracey's feed featuring the Lal Lal Falls, "situated within the traditional country of the Wathawurrung people, is one of Victoria's most significant Indigenous cultural sites, as it is one of several recorded living sites of Bundjil- the Kulin peoples' creator spirit."

African Bushwalk Experience

Michael English from Cape Town, South Africa is turning his hand to writing about some of his bushwalking experiences as currently tours are closed down.

Here's a short extract to whet your appetite for Africa 2021. (or click the link in the title for the full article)

The Bushwalk Experience
Ranger Dave stops ahead of us on the animal path that we are following. We huddle up behind him as he crouches down over a huge pile of dung. 'Can anyone guess what animal this is from?' he asks. 'Um, Elephant?' ventures one of the group members. 'Correct,' he replies, as he reaches out and plunges his finger deep into the pile. Ugh! Gross, what is he doing? ‘I can feel it’s still warm inside which means that it's from last night. Just a few hours ago, a large bull elephant walked down this path,' he announced to the group. 'Now, if you come over here you can see the tracks.' 

One of our ArmaSkin Ambassadors, Amy Millican, has a business called Flyga Twiga which runs safaris to unusual locations in Africa.   If you'd like to get a taste of what is on offer follow this link to get more information about planning for an African Eco Training Experience. 

ArmaSkin Toe Socks NEW RELEASE.

After a careful introduction of our radically designed toe socks and a couple of iterations on materials we've now frozen the design and are ready to broaden the size offering to our customers.

Although there may be a slightly longer lead time for delivery the Short Black ArmaSkin Toe Socks are now available in Small, Medium and Large sizes.  These can only be ordered from www.armaskin.com

We have determined a new introductory price for the Toe socks of $69 per pair.

We are very keen to get more feedback on the toe socks plus pictures of them in action. 

Send in photos and if featured in an ArmaSkin News you'll be in line to receive one of our new No Bounce Belts.

Yukon 2020 Postponement

Sadly, with restrictions on personal travel in sensitive remote areas through which the Yukon River passes, Art "Karts" Huseonica and Lauren "Lolo" Sherwood have had to defer the start of their Yukon 2020 expedition to 2021.  Another 2020 adventure falls victim to Covid 19!

Undaunted, despite much of the project funds pre-invested and thus lost as a result of the deferment, Art and Lauren are committed to building their 2021 attempt pretty much from scratch.

ArmaSkin will of course be on board as a 2021 supporter.

If you have donated to the Yukon2020 Go Fund Me please note the message from Art: "Lolo and I were forced to postpone our expedition until May 24, 2021. Current global health concerns gave the Yukon Territory reason to deny us entry. We will honor any refund requests. Heads up; hearts forward."

On the Trail with Ann-marie

Ann-marie does a lot of her Western Australian hiking in Wajuk Country, about 30km South East of Perth.

"Sometimes in life you’ve got to just do it - and that we did. Morning hike in Wungong Regional Park with Captain Clint - lots of chats, awesome views & getting closer to this months goal."

Ann-marie is also featured in the steep and slippery decline shown in our lead photo.

ArmaSkin Overseas Deliveries

Amongst the many challenges associated with the Covid 19 pandemic we have experienced alarming delays of up to 2 months for ArmaSkin deliveries to the USA and Europe.

We apologise for the ddelays but sadly this is beyond our control.  If you are about to place an off shore order for $200 or over, please email ian@armaskin.com and we may be able to arrange a discount on an express  delivery for you.

Also, we highlight that for our overseas customers we do have some resellers offshore in UK, USA and Europe.   Reseller links are available from the Partnerships section of our website.

ArmaSkin Face Mask

For what to many appears to be common sense, there is great debate about whether to wear a face mask or not. We wrote a general information Blog post on masks which we think is pretty persuasive if the goal is to reduce virus transmission.

ArmaSkin Face Masks are now available in Small and Large with the differentiation of sizes being the distance from the bridge of your nose to the underside of your chin being more or less than 12cm (5 inches).

In Australia, social distancing efforts have delivered a dramatic downturn in new Covid cases. Here's an interesting link that compares global trends. Whether the Australian governments see it as important to encourage widespread mask wearing as the various restrictions are lifted is yet to be seen. If any state will go that route it seems Victoria would be the most likely candidate where new cases recently spiked to over 30 per day. Overseas a number of countries or states have encouraged mask wearing. In some other countries such has not been the case despite new cases being as much as 40,000 per day (USA / Brazil).

While we have high expectations on the performance of the ArmaSkin Face Mask, we are simply offering it for general purpose use. The Mask comprises 4 layers of Merino wool treated on single sides with SiFusion.  That's the same material we are using on our new base layers! Pricing is $39AUD plus delivery,

The Masks can be sanitised by washing in soap and hot water and thus are reusable.

As always with new products we would welcome any feedback on the product performance or pictures of it in action.

If you would like to order, please go to our website armaskin.com and look in the Corporate menu. 

SPECIAL NEWS READERS' 20% OFF!!!