The final 60 countries

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m down to 60 countries left to visit, with 136 visited so far.  This struck home last week as I was trying to find somewhere suitable to go for the 4th of July weekend, and wasn’t able to find anything that really worked for four days.  That got me to wondering if I’ve finally hit “that point” where things are going to get difficult.  So, I did a breakdown of the 60 remaining:

2 I am saving for last.  I’m planning Iceland as my last country, since I figure it’s somewhere friends and family will be interested in coming along to.  However, having said that, I can just see fate intervening and having a transatlantic diversion and ending up there earlier by “accident.”  For that reason, I’m saving the Bahamas for second to last since it’s easy to get to, and I figure I can talk people into it.

That leaves 58.

Later this year hopefully, I’m planning a trip to Bolivia, Ecuador, and hopefully the Galapagos.  This trip needs way more than a 4 day weekend, so can’t do it until later in the year.

That leaves 56.

I’m starting to plan my annual crazy New Years trip to crazy places.  I’m thinking this year of trying to hit Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Eritrea, and maybe (let’s just assume I manage it) Algeria as well.

That leaves 52.

Hopefully later this fall will be a extra-long weekend to Belize for Scuba and  a long weekend with a friend in Jamaica.  Also hoping to find time to do Serbia and Montenegro together.

That leaves 48.

Although it’s not planned yet, I have a friend who frequently visits West Africa for work, and one of the next times he goes I plan to go Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria overland.

That would bring me to 43.

At this point, my plans are much, much more uncertain because the countries get harder.  Some rough plans:

Comoros and Madagascar grouped together at some point, probably grouped with Uganda and Tanzania.

That brings me to 39.

Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine as a group will bring me to 36.

I’ll probably take a good long trip at some point and do Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Cape Verde, Mali, and Mauritania from Senegal.  Bringing me to 31.

Cuba and St Kitts still remain, probably trips of their own at some point….St Kitts for diving maybe.  Those two trips make 29.

I’ll likely do the two Congos together in one trip, and hopefully throw Angola into that mix.  That makes 26.

Tajikistan and Turkmenistan go nicely together and I may swing work trips there…that makes 24.

There’s the South Pacific – not sure these will all fit in one trip, but I’ll definitely hit Fiji, and from there I have Kiribati, Nauru, Western Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu.  That makes 17.

The ones I’m unsure of fall into a few groups:

Africa:  Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Sao Tome e Principe

Asia: East Timor, PNG, Solomon Islands and Mongolia

Europe:  Andorra – probably a long weekend trip from Barcelona

Any suggestions how to group these?  Obviously a few longer trips is preferred, but I’m open to ideas!  The end is in sight!