The End of an Era

It is the end of an era. I have to get a new passport. Not because it's expired, but because there is no room left for visa or stamps. Well, there is actually a fair bit of room left, but a certain country in the South of Africa is particularly fussy, and will only let you in if you have 4 blank pages.

I don't understand how this makes sense, as the entry stamp is about an inch in diameter, so clearly can be squeezed in anywhere, but apparently, as I found out when I tried to go to Cape Town in October, they don't agree.

After my 2 gap years, and various other holidays in-between, my passport is looking pretty full. As certain countries have very pretty visas which take up a whole page, and you only get about 27 pages once the printed ones have been counted, it's hardly surprising.

(This Kenyan Visa is one of my fav's as it has the Big 5 on it!)

(Thailand, Bolivia, South Africa)

(Nepal - going in and out of Tibet)

In 2009 when I was heading to South Africa, I panicked as I only had 3 entirely blank pages in my passport, and was worried that they wouldn't let me in, so I paperclipped them together so that noone else would stamp on them first. As it happened, crossing in from Namibia, they really didn't care, and so stamped elsewhere. My pages have survived being paperclipped together, through 20 country entries since then (Australia-New Zealand-Cook Islands-New Zealand-Fiji-New Zealand-Chile-Bolivia-Argentina-Bolivia-Peru-Panama-Peru-Argentina-Brazil and then Gibraltar, Malaysia-Singapore-Malaysia and South Africa), until I got to Cape Town in October, when they advised that they were seriously thinking about sending me straight back to England.

(My coolest stamp - although I'm not sure it's allowed - Machu Picchu)

(My 'annulado' - cancelled stamp. I got stamped into Uruguay in Buenos Aires, and then my flight was cancelled so I stayed in Argentina and my visa was cancelled)

So, as I'm heading back to Cape Town in January, I'm currently passportless as I'm applying for my new one.

(I love that the stamps say where you've been in and out off - very cool when you're travelling overland. This page shows Zanzibar (they count it as a different country to Tanzania so you get stamped in and out), Fiji, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia)

It's a sad state to be in. Not that I was planning on heading out anywhere between now and then, but I don't like feeling that I can't.

But...I am excited to have all those blank pages to fill up again.....