Thanks to everyone who provided thoughts/feedback on how I could break up the 60 countries I have left to visit. I’ve managed to group things together based on suggestions, and would still love to finish by fall of 2016 if at all possible. Right now, thinking is:
Next Month: Visiting a friend in Lagos, so Nigeria will bring me down to 59 to go.
September: Togo, Ghana, Benin – not real firm, but hoping to squeeze it in. 56 to go.
October: Still working on plans, but it’ll be 10 days to either do Algeria and Andorra, or Bolivia and Ecuator. Either way, that will make 54.
November: All booked for Serbia and Montenegro, bringing things to 52.
December/January: My annual crazy new years trip is booked, and I’ll hit Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Eritrea bringing me to 49. I’ll also get a few days in Sudan, although I’ve technically already been there in transit. Excited to see a little bit more.
February: Hoping to get in a long weekend dive trip to Belize….and get down to 48.
April 2014: Whichever trip I don’t manage in October I’ll do in April. That will make 46.
Also, by spring 2014 I have to other trips planned, just not sure when:
Jamaica for a long weekend will make 45
Work trip to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan will happen in the next six months, making 43.
That should bring me through spring 2014. By end-2014 I hope to hit:
St Kitts and Nevis (42 to go)
Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Niger (37 to go)
Tanzania, Uganda, Comoros, Madagascar (33 to go)
Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Syria (29 to go – this might get broken up into two trips)
Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde (via Senegal – 26 to go)
Cuba (25 to go)
Angola, DR Congo, Congo-Brazzaville (22 to go)
Then, next December/January into 2015:
Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Western Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu (16 to go)
Spring 2015:
East Timor, PNG, Solomon Islands, Mongolia (12 to go)
Late 2015:
Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tome e Principe (8 to go)
That just leaves: Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone. I’ll probably try and hit Malawi on the Tanzania/Uganda trip.
Then, plan is in summer 2016 to hit the Bahamas (leaving 1 to go) and finally end it all in September 2016 in Iceland!
How is everyone else’s planning coming along?
5 Responses to “The Final 60: A Plan…”
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I’ve got about 92 to go. I’m planning a big push of about 24 countries from December to April. West Africa in December, Sudans and Eritrea in late January, South Pacific in February, Congos and more of West Africa in April. It will definitely get harder from there. Not looking forward to Chad and CAR.
By the way, when you get to Iceland, Air Iceland does a nice fly in and fly out day trip to Kulusk Greenland in the summertime. I know Greenland isn’t a country, but the map looks better with it colored in.
What about Nauru?
Just trying to organise a trip to Yemen for November. The tour agency said they had visa rejections in August, hopefully only a sporadic thing(?),
Jason, are you preparing trip reports for your two trips to West Africa: Nigeria in August; and Togo, Ghana and Benin this month? Looking forward to both of those.
Were you able to get an Algerian visa for your proposed trip next month? The Algerian visa is notoriously difficult to obtain. How did you go about getting the visa?
Thanks
I’ll get the Nigeria one done soon – just gotten really behind! Off to West Africa next week for six countries, so will get that done too!
The Algeria trip’s been canceled – for now.