A colleague of mine at work
was telling me the other day about her plans to return to her homeland of South
Africa to spend Christmas and New Year. Although she loves living and working
in Scotland, she is obviously excited about going home to see family and
friends – at the time of the year when people tend to focus more on their
families.
Now my feelings about
Christmas and what it has turned into are well-documented throughout this blog.
When my colleague enquired if I was going away for Christmas I gave the
standard reply of no, it will be the usual routine. She suggested I should
consider getting away from the festive hullabaloo one year and, although
naturally biased, she recommended South Africa. But she also ventured a
neighbouring country for the true taste of Africa – Botswana.
With Scotland voting next
year on whether it should become an independent nation or not, I was interested
to read that Botswana became independent from Britain in 1966. It has a population
of two million people and what I found particularly interesting was the fact
that when it gained its independence 47 years ago, it was one of the poorest
countries in Africa. Today, nearly half a century later, it has one of the
fastest growing economies in the world.
Tourism plays it part. Although
much of the country is desert, virtually
all Botswana’s famous wildlife areas are located in the north of the country. Safaris in Botswana are a must when visiting the country and there are classic viewing areas home to
phenomenal concentrations of Big Game, as well as some of Africa’s finest
camps.
Geographically, Scotland and Botswana are thousands of miles apart. But as
two countries with untapped potential they may be closer than we think…
