On the Heysen Trail with Brittany

Brittany has now been on South Australia's Heysen Trail since August 16.   The Trail normally takes about 60 days to complete.

The Trail is named after Sir Hans Heysen OBE (8 October 1877 – 2 July 1968) a German-born Australian artist. He became a household name for his watercolours of monumental Australian gum trees. Heysen also produced images of men and animals toiling in the Australian bush, as well as groundbreaking depictions of arid landscapes in the Flinders Ranges. 

The 1200km Trail, is a multi-grade one-way hike that provides something for every walker, from a short stroll through the Adelaide Hills to a 60-day hike along its entire length.

The Trail is one of the world’s great walking trails and the longest dedicated walking trail in Australia. The 1,200 km southern trail head is at Cape Jervis and the northern trail head is at Parachilna Gorge in the Mt Lofty Ranges. 

At the southern end, terrain varies from beaches and sea cliffs to rolling hills and rural landscapes. In the norther parts of the Trail it crosses over the rugged peaks and valleys of the Flinders Ranges. The Trail passes through some of South Australia’s most diverse and breathtaking landscapes, traversing coastal areas, native bushland, rugged gorges, pine forests and vineyards, as well as rich farmland and historic towns.

We caught up with Brittany after she'd completed more than half of her journey from north to south for some comments for our readers.

Brittany told us, "Not too sure if I have any wise words of wisdom other than the fact that I would absolutely recommend doing a thru hike to anyone. Anybody who has even considered doing one, I would strongly urge to do it, because if there’s one thing I’ve learnt is that too many people wait too long to have a crack at it and it’s either too late or they wish they had of started sooner!

What to Wear on a Day Hike:  Set To Hike

If you are readying yourself for some day hiking you will likely gain useful insight from Hayley Warnock, one of our ArmaSkin Ambassadors, who loves creating regular instructive youtube videos for hikers.  Here's a link for you to view her suggestions on what to pack. 

Special Request

If you are an ArmaSkin fan and have a gmail address, can you please consider adding a review to Google.  Here's a link. Just a few kind words goes a long way and will be greatly appreciated!  

Just enjoying nature

We had such a positive response to Amy's wildflower pic last month that we thought we should  feature another this month.   

Again from Paradise Park in Portland Oregon. Without doubt August is a great time to visit!

Hayley's on track

To keep sane during the pandemic restrictions Hayley has been keeping up her run training, both for herself and for her customers seeking guidance on training plans.   If you are interested in getting some help from Hayley just email her at  hayleynewman83@gmail.com

Covid and the Dragon's Back!

The famed Dragon's Back Race in Wales is a race where one false step can have devastating consequences.

Sadly, here in Victoria (population 6.7m) our Covid story has seen us suffer from such a misstep.  But it is not all bad news.

In early June, Victorians were salivating at the idea of achieving zero case days and thus being able to break the shackles of restrictions and isolation. 

But rapidly, from mid July, Covid cases escalated from under 10 a day to six weeks later exceeding 700 a day. A breakout had occurred largely because of a failure in the quality of quarantining returned overseas travellers.

As the climb in cases grew the Victorian Government made mask wearing compulsory and introduced a 5am-8pm curfew. Currently the State is still in lockdown with only essential businesses and travel permitted. Almost all schooling is being done from home.

One of the most difficult challenges was how to rapidly scale up contact tracing efforts.

With those measures in place, daily cases have now returned to sub 20!

But the devastating human price paid from over 700 deaths from 17000 cases, not to mention the economic losses incurred by the broader community, over those 12 weeks shows how precarious the journey is and will continue to be.

So the proof is there that Covid can be contained provided that we all respect the guidance provided by medical authorities and stay the course no matter how inconvenient.

The following graphic provides a simplified view of the factors in place over this 12 week period.

 

 USA wildfire donations

As you might have seen, the USA is going through a very tough fire season.  Kieara Lonning, one of our ArmaSkin Ambassadors in the USA has offered for sale some of her neat sticker sets to help raise some funds for the fire fighters.

If you'd like some of the sticker packs (US$10/pack) please email Kieara at  frogkisser07@gmail.com   She will let you know how to process your purchase. All proceeds from the sale will go to the United Way of Lane County fire fund.

Get ready for your first 10km hike

Earlier this month one of our hiking friends, John Feeney, of The Hiking Society wrote a blog for us giving his advice for preparing for your first 10km hike. 

This and all our other blog posts are available on our website via this LINK

Delivery timing update

While it does appear that delivery times are improving, particularly in Australia, it is very likely that overseas deliveries may become slower as pandemic conditions in many countries remains worrying.

Adding onto that is that we are only 12 weeks away from Christmas!!!!!

NOW is the time to order to be sure that you can have your ArmaSkin gift in hand for your best friend!   Use code SeptNews for your 20% discount in September.

ArmaSkin Masks Update.    20% off!

Happily with the drastic reduction is cases for Covid in Victoria, demand for our masks has been dropping.  Consequently we are eliminating the Custom model from our range but maintaining the more technically sophisticated Pro Tech Mask and the Consumer Tech Mask, both of which use the ArmaSkin merino silicone material.

Click on code SeptNews to order your Tech Masks in September with a 20% discount..

More details on ArmaSkin masks can be found on www.armaskin.com

Lead picture

Thanks to Sharon for the fresh lead picture.  We're all looking forward to hitting the trails in better times.

 

Free for the avid hiker

If you would like to get a regular dose of free interesting articles for hikers you can subscribe to our FREE on-line ArmaSkin Hiking Magazine.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LATEST EDITION

AND if you are a blogger or have an interest in reaching this community, we might very well include your material in our Magazine for free. Just email ian@armaskin.com to discuss.

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MONTHLY opportunity to win FREE ArmaSkin - please share your picture stories with us.

Stories from you, the happy wearers of ArmaSkin, are our most powerful learning and marketing tool. We thus encourage you to tell us about your experiences and adventures with ArmaSkin.

For your chance to win your choice of a pair of ArmaSkin liner socks simply email : sales@armaskin.com a picture of you on the go using an ArmaSkin product together with a short comment about the picture. Or you can #ArmaSkin in a social media post that could come to our attention.

If the picture is featured in a 2020 edition of ArmaSkin News the monthly prize is yours. 

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Special September Discount:   20% off on your purchase before the end of September 2020.  Just use this link which automatically applies code SeptNews.