Visit Every Country In Africa

The adventure

No continent tests a country counter like Africa. There are more nations here than anywhere else, and the journey between them is half the story: dusty border posts where a stamp takes an afternoon, bush taxis packed to the roof, ferries across Lake Malawi and long overland days through the Sahel, the rainforest and the savannah.

The rewards are enormous and wildly varied. You can stand in the spray of Victoria Falls, sit an hour from a family of mountain gorillas, watch the sun rise over the pyramids of Giza and climb the red dunes of Sossusvlei. In between come the places almost nobody visits, from São Tomé to Chad, where you are often the only foreign face in town and the welcome is all the warmer for it.

Why it’s epic

• Victoria Falls, on the Zambia–Zimbabwe border, where the Zambezi drops more than 100 metres along a curtain of water about 1.7 kilometres wide.
• Mountain gorilla treks in the forests of Uganda and Rwanda.
• The pyramids of Giza, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.
• Island nations such as Cape Verde, Mauritius, the Seychelles and São Tomé and Príncipe, a world away from the mainland.

What it is

Africa has 54 countries on the UN list, more than any other continent, from Morocco to South Africa and Cape Verde to the Seychelles.

How to do it

Overlanding is the best way to cover lots of ground cheaply, as I did across West Africa. Fill the gaps with flights via hubs such as Addis Ababa, Nairobi and Johannesburg.

Top tip

Check the FCDO advice early. Some countries in the Sahel are off-limits for long periods, so take your chances when they open up.

Need to know

• Many African countries need a visa arranged in advance, and some only issue them in your home country, so research each one well ahead.
• Several countries require a yellow fever vaccination certificate on entry, and malaria tablets are needed across much of the continent.
• FCDO advice changes often, especially in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, so be ready to take your chance when a country opens up.

Why it’s on my list

Not done yet. If you’ve done it and have tips, tell me about it.