Greetings from Malta!
We've been out touring the fortified cities of Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua today, also known as the Three Cities of Malta. It's a fascinating place to walk around, with parts predating the Middle Ages and impressive walls overlooking the famous harbour here.
I left the group just now chatting away over coffee so that I could make this week's video blog, and it was that snapshot of travellers connecting that filled my thoughts for this week.
It's both inspiring and fulfilling for me to watch members get to know one another - in some cases forming immediate friendships - because it represents the most difficult part of our vision for Wheel & Anchor coming to fulfillment.
As I say in our webinars, we're here to help our members be well-travelled and well-connected. The well-travelled part is relatively straightforward (we've got lots of adventures!) but the well-connected part is quite a bit more nebulous.
The well-connected part refers to the idea of community, but what does it mean to be a 'community of likeminded travellers', anyway? This too is a bit vague, though the essence of what we mean is summed up in the values of our Traveller's Creed.
Largely it's about openness, learning, and the joy of the shared experience. In aspiring to such ideals, we bring our higher selves to the endeavour, which is generally what I observe in action across all of our trips.
And this, I think, is the thought I'm trying to communicate - a community is a participative thing, and it really only comes together when we as travellers embrace the spirit of openness that travel brings and decide to get to know one another.
We can set the stage with the shared values and various opportunities on trips for people to explore on a free day or have dinner together, but it what it really takes is each person stepping out of their shells for the seeds of community to flourish.
And ultimately that's why I say it's inspiring and fulfilling to see it happen. It's the part of it the vision that we can at best influence, but not control. It's something bigger than us, that emerges when we do things as 'us'.
And on the note of doing things as 'us,' I'd still like to one day get back to doing events in Canada so travellers could connect prior to a trip...but it's not on the radar for us at the moment with all the trips we have planned and in the pipeline.
But even if we were doing them, they can't cover the country all at the same time. It's just a thing we Canadian travellers have to work with - it's hard to meet anyone you're travelling with until you get in destination.
To me this makes the emergence of community all the more special - I think people get the 'likeminded' part of it, and I think most people resonate with the idea of bringing their higher self to the group. For this I am most grateful, and I will continue to try to find new ways to deepen our sense of togetherness.
Leaving the connection part and going back to the travel side of things - I'm pleased this week to release our LiveAways: Koh Samui program for 2024. We've got in split into 3, 2-week blocks that can be combined with our 2024 Bali trip and/or our Mauritius / Reunion Island LiveAway (coming soon).
We made a few tweaks from this year's program, most notably shifting to a hotel right on the beach in Chaweng for better access to dining options etc. We'll also have a really unique wellness week option in Koh Phangan for 2024 that isn't quite ready to release, but will be soon.
Apart from that, we've also added a bunch of upcoming webinars for 2024 trips in your newsletter, including Ireland, Namibia & Botswana, Sicily. Do join us for one or several of those should you be interested.
I'll leave it there - there are lots more adventures to come, and more community to build...do get in touch if you'd like to come along 🙂
Cheers!
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