So… decisions decisions decisions… but the year’s started and it’s 2 months to the starter pistol, so I need to make some decisions! This is my plan for 2024 as it stands now on a hot afternoon on January 5.
Trying to map out my shifting plans and probabilities would require some 4 dimensional diagram likely to spark a descent into madness! So for simplicity, here’s the best rough plan I can lay out for now.
I’ll be ready to go after about the first week of March and need to be back by middish to late April, giving me my first opening.
March 1 is when the the starter pistol fires for my 27-week ‘tax challenge’, so I’d like to clock up some weeks before Afrika Burn at the end of April. This is a toss up between India or possibly Namibia.
So that means my second starter pistol goes off around mid May, and from there things are far more open.
Africa option:ÂStrab, the music festival in the south of Mozambique starting May 22, is very tempting. It may may not be practical but would be a good starting point for heading north through Mozambique and into Malawi etc. Our more tropical neighbours are much cooler in the SA winter, so it’s a nice time for taking my ‘Cape-to-Cairo line’ further north than Inhambane. Moz only gives a 1-month visa, so I won’t be able to linger long and will need to get into Malawi which has a 90 day policy and is a fair bit cheaper too.
South and Central America option:ÂI can’t speak for the whole continent, but Peru or at least Cuzco at the base of Machu Picchu is best in the southern hemisphere summer. My friend Lexy was there recently and she gave it a glowing recommendation, saying I’d personally love it and that it was well kitted for digital nomads, with a cool diverse ex-pat community that wasn’t overwhelming the town. Peru gives South Africans a 180-day stay without a visa, so it makes a good long-term base from which to explore the wider area without being rushed.
When the seasons turn (Asia) …
I honestly can’t at this stage say what I’ll end up doing come August / September / October, but I’m pencilling in some time to pop back into SA for a bit as I head east to Asia.
IndiaÂis a likely again as a stop further east, with the perks of a 90-day stay, being dirt cheap and 3-hour time difference that’s both easy to manage and allows for long lie-ins!. Diwali at the start of November is one possibility (Diwali is one friend’s bucket lister, but it was also described by another friend as a borderline warzone. Tough call, but it sounds a bit like Kashmire, which is in ‘high risk, high reward’ basket.)
After that it is pretty much open season on all ofÂAsiaÂand specificallyÂSouth East Asia. Sadly Thailand no longer gives 90 day stays, having reduced it to 30 days, which is still about as good as it gets in that region from what I’ve found so far. Fortunately though, there are heaps of competitive flights across the region, so border hopping is entirely doable, if a little taxing.
There are still a lot of countries in the region that I haven’t researched yet, so I hope to dig up a destination that will allow 60 or 90 days to be able to set up a home base, settle in and get ahead / catch up on work between other shorter-term destinations.
Back for a family Christmas?
And then if things work evenly vaguely to plan, I can be back in SA with my 27 weeks notched up with plenty of time to do Christmas shopping knowing that SARS will give me a late Christmas bonus come March.
But ja, like both this site and my life, this is all a work in progress and liable to change as the coming adventures unfold!
Last update: 5/1/24 (If you happen to be from the US, that means Jan 5!)