How to get from South Africa to Egypt

Okay, how’d I choose this route?  Three key factors came into play:

Visas

Almost every country on the GSM route allows American travelers to obtain visas at the border, or local embassy, for little to no cost.  A traveler’s visa for South Africa? Free.  A visa for Swaziland? Free. Malawi? Free.  How about Rwanda? Free.  Here’s a neat fact: an American passport is like the black card of passports.

Of course “free” doesn’t include the bribes I’ll  inevitably need to enter a few countries, but we’ll cross that bridge, or border, when we get there.

Public Transportation

I don’t plan to do much driving, so I’ll have to rely on cheap, relatively reliable public transportation.  Because of several ambitious trans-African transportation projects over the past century, thousands of miles of road and train tracks connect most of the countries on the GSM map with one another.  Getting around won’t be easy, but it’s definitely possible.

(Relative) Safety

While I’m a fan of exploring the diverse aspects of life and culture in Africa, I’m also a fan of safety.  And the future.  That means traveling wisely, paying attention to current travel warnings, and staying out of active conflict zones (that means you, Libya).

With all three factors in mind, choosing the route from South Africa to Egypt became easy.  Now I just have to do it.

What do you think?

Also, S/O to my buddy Clayton Rosa (@clayton_rosa) for an awesome graphic design of the GSM map.