2018 - A New Year to Travel

Mt Cotopaxi in Ecuador. First travel destination in 2018.
Well, it is the start of 2018. A new year. Who knows what this year will hold for us all. Firstly, a very happy and prosperous New Year to you all. I hope that all of your dreams come true and that you manage to stick to at least one or two of your New Year's resolutions.
It looks like 2018 will once again be another very busy year of travel for me. There are quite a few trips in the "pipeline", and we will just have to wait and see which come off and which do not. My travel plans will, unfortunately largely be based on what happens with the political situation in South Africa. At least with the change of the ANC president, the Rand has gained back a bit of the ground which it had lost, making a trip a little bit more affordable. However, the stronger Rand is not too much of a good news story when you are associated with an export driven company! The political situation could also have another impact on my travel plans for 2018. As a lecturer at a University, my heavy lecturing commitments are in the first half of the year and it is all but impossible for me to get away once my lectures start. So not much in the way of travel for me in the first half of the year (except for my upcoming trip to Ecuador and Colombia). Most of my travel is thus planned for the second half of the year. With Zuma's sudden announcement of "free tertiary education"and Malema telling everyone who wants an education to just arrive at their university of choice, I fear that the first semester will not have a smooth start. I really hope that I am wrong, but I am predicting trouble at the start of the academic year. This could seriously mess up my travels plans for 2018!
Humming bird - not my photo - mine were stolen!

Anyway - lets get back to dreamland and talk about travel. I know that there will be at least one trip in 2018. I am departing for Ecuador and Colombia on 13 January and will be back just in time to start with my lectures.
There are any number of trips which are in the pipeline. These include possible trips to Morocco and the Philippines (the most likely options for 2018). These trips are dependent on the registration of the product that I am accosiated with in these countries. There is also a possibility of a trip to Malaysia if I get invited as a speaker at the World Veterinary Poultry Associate (WVPA) Asia congress. There is also a possibility that I will be a speaker at a conference in Australia later in the year and there is a very strong possibility that I will have to go to India once, but most probably twice in 2018. There are also some developments in the Russian speaking block (Russia, Belarus and Ukraine), but these will most like be in 2019. There will be a trip to Thailand in 2019 as well.

Norther lights - not my photo yet!
I would love to take my wife and sister on a non-work related trip to Scotland in 2018. My poor loving w.ife watches me go off on trip after trip and it is about high time that I get her onto a long haul flight again. It is not aways possible for her to go with me on my work related trips as, believe it or not, I normally work very, very hard on these trips. A "non work related" trip would be great this year. My sister would really love to see Scotland (it is in our roots) and she would go crazy when she sees a real live piper.
When I last landed in Glasgow, there was one of the Iceland airways planes at the airport. This has started me thinking and I am busy hatching a plan! Iceland is a travel destination which is very high on my Wish list. There are also the "Northern Lights" in Iceland. Seeing the Northern Lights is also very high on my wish list. The very top of my wish list is, however, to see polar bears in nature. With global warming and the melting of the sea ice, I had better plan a trip to see polar bears before it is too late. Back to the first dream! A trip to Scotland and Iceland would be "quite nice" in 2018. Just not sure how I will be able to fit it in. Oh well, a bit of dreaming always makes the day nice! There are still a few trips left in these old bones, so I had better make the most of all of the travel opportunities I get and I hope that there will be a few more trips in 2018 which I can share with you.  
Location: Bloemfontein, South Africa

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