By now, everyone in the World Traveller Club should have received their April shipment, and the may shipments are well on their way.
I had great fun picking the theme for the inaugural trip. After all, the first trip will set the tone for your entire voyage!
So for our first trip together, I wanted to take everyone to a region close by that is near and dear to my heart: The Australia Alps.
We're getting ready for our wintersport season, such as it is, so this area has been on my mind.
The Australian Alps consists of two
biogeographic subregions: the Snowy Mountains including the
Brindabella Ranges, located in New South Wales and the Australian
Capital Territory; and the Victorian Alps, located in Victoria. The
latter region is also known as the "High Country",
particularly within a cultural or historical context.
While I mainly visit the alpine region in winter, there are many gorgeous things to do there in summer. It's dry and has a stark beauty all of its own. but that dryness comes with an ever-present danger: Bushfires.
In 2009, the bushfires were so devastating and
widespread, they are now known as the Black Saturday fires.
Just this summer, fires raged around
the mountains almost all the way to the peaks. The images from those
fires were striking. I was planning the club colours during that time
and I could smell the smoke. I wanted to do something that reflected
what was reality in our area.
The variegated colourway for this month
was inspired by photos of yellow and orange fires and billowing
blue-grey smoke against a deep blue sky.
The tonal colour is inspired by the
Pygmy Possum, a tiny marsupial native to only the Victorian Alps, and
whose already small habitat was vastly decreased due to the fires.
And there you have it. Our April trip. May travellers will be going somewhere different, and then it's time for our April travellers to pack their bags and hop on a virtual plane to somewhere completely different.
