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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for Tigers in Ranthambore

Image
Spotted deer. All my photos The star of the Indian wildlife reserves must be Ranthambore. This is a massive area of some 392  square km and it is a great place to look for Tigers. This was my third trip to look for wild Tigers, so, hopefully, 3rd time lucky. My first attempt to see wild Tigers was in Chitwan National Park in Nepal and the second effort was Jim Corbett Reserve in India. Came close in both reserves, but just saw beautiful tiger tracks. Ranthambore is close to the town of Sawai Madhopur in Rajastan. Apart from the main attraction - the tigers - Ranthambore is also a famous heritage site with various ruins within the boundaries of the reserve. Local gathering wood outside the reserve Tiger painting at the train station My trip started with a hotel close to one of the railway stations in Delhi. All of my previous trips to India, I was doing consulting for companies in India, and I had only been accommodated in top of the range hotels, so this was my first
Read more

The Embassed Elephant

Image
Charging elephant - not my photo Yet another elephant story! Anyone would think I like elephants. Well, I do. They are amazing animals and I just have a few very interesting elephant stories to tell you. Just wait until I start on tigers! I love tigers. In fact, I pretty much love all animals and any travel option which includes looking for animals is right up my ally! Now, an elephant story from the dim and distant past! Many many years ago in a kingdom far far away, there was an elephant. No - back to the real story. Many years ago I was working on diseases of fish and we (I was working at Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute) had a meeting and we invited one of the world leaders in fish diseases from the UK to the meeting. This meeting was held close to Lydenburg (where many of the trout farms can be found). The director of Veterinary Services was also attending this meeting and as we were quite close to the Kruger National Park, we decided to treat our overseas guest to a visi
Read more

Jaguars and Macaws - A trip to the Pantanal in Brazil

Image
Wild Hyacinth Macaw Woodpecker - one of the many birds seen The Pantanal is a massive wetland area in Southern Brazil. It covers some 190 000 square kilometres and much of it (about 80%) is flooded during the wet season. Most of the animals which can be found in the Amazon basin can also be found in the Pantanal, but they are generally a bit easier to see in the Pantanal as there is a lot of open spaces. Much of the dry land in the Pantanal is actually farm land with bits of indigenous forest. The Pantanal is  also one of the best places on the planet to see jaguars in their natural habitat. Looking for Jaguars in the Pantanals have become high on the wish list of the affluent Eco-travels and is currently "the trip to do" . This has made trips to see the Jaguars really ridiculously expensive. I managed to find a much more reasonable trip after spending many hours on the Internet! If you look hard enough you will find what you are looking for! After doing some work
Read more