I did not grow up believing the world was mine to move through.
That is the honest starting point. Travel was not something women like me were handed. It was something I decided, one passport stamp at a time, that I was going to take for myself.
The goal is simple on paper. 40 countries before I turn 40. In practice it is one of the most deliberate, most personal, most expensive and most freeing commitments I have ever made to myself.
This post is where I keep the record. It will be updated every time I land somewhere new.
Why 40
Because 40 felt like the kind of number that required proof of a life being lived. Not a life being observed from the couch. Not a life being carefully managed around what was safe and sensible and expected. A life where I showed up in places that did not know my name, figured it out, and came home changed.
I also want to know the world before I make any more permanent decisions about where I want to be in it. Travelling teaches you things about yourself that staying still simply cannot.
Where I have been so far
South Africa is home. I have lived in Johannesburg, the Eastern Cape, and now Cape Town. I have driven through Mpumalanga and stood at the Drakensberg. This country is mine and I am still learning it.
Cyprus gave me my first real taste of the Mediterranean. Warm, unhurried, and quietly beautiful.
Thailand I have visited three times. Phuket for the water. Bangkok for the chaos and the food and the feeling that anything is possible at any hour. I keep coming back.
Azerbaijan surprised me. Baku feels like it exists in two centuries at once. Gabala in the mountains with snow and silence taught me that I need both the city and the stillness.
Georgia I did not just visit. I lived there. Tbilisi became mine in a way that only happens when you stay long enough for a place to stop performing for you.
The United Kingdom was London and Dartford. Extended time. The kind of trip that teaches you that no fantasy destination solves anything, but also that a grey city in winter can hold extraordinary warmth.
Singapore is immaculate, efficient, and more interesting underneath the surface than it first appears.
Malaysia I reached by bus from Singapore. The border was easy. The food was extraordinary.
Indonesia, specifically Bali, has the kind of beauty that makes you suspicious of your normal life when you return to it.
South Korea is coming in November 2026. It has been living in my head since the first K-drama I watched and refused to admit I was obsessed with.
The countries still on the list
I am 10 countries in. I need 30 more. While I am based in Cape Town I am turning my attention to Africa first. Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zanzibar, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius. These are all reachable by bus or short flight and several of them I can do on a budget that does not require me to wait.
That is 8 African countries I can tick off while still at home. Combined with Seoul that brings me to 19. Almost halfway.
The second half of the list is still being written. More of Asia. Parts of South America. Europe done slowly. A few places I have not decided on yet because I want to leave room for the kind of trip that finds you.
The tracker
Countries completed: 10. Countries remaining: 30. Next destination: Seoul, South Korea, November 2026.
This post is updated every time I land somewhere new.
