Five visas, one departure date

The visas are in the bag! It's taken just under four weeks to get five visas and one new passport, but we are finally set for part 2 of the 'Beeg adventure'. And we have a departure date - 5 September - and most of our itinerary.

For family and friends (or random blog-reading wierdos) following our trip this is our confirmed itinerary so far:

• 5 Sept: Joburg to Casablanca (via Abhu Dhabi)
• 1 Oct: Casablanca to Cairo
• 9 Oct: Cairo to Mumbai (via Abhu Dhabi)
• 12 Nov: New Delhi to Istanbul
• 29 Nov: Istanbul to Caracas, Venezuela (via Frankfurt)
• 3 Dec: Caracas to Miami (via Bogota)
• 13 Dec: Miami to New York

As from here onwards it could be:

• New York - Mexico - San Francisco - Sydney OR
• New York - San Francisco - Mexico - Buenas Aires - Sydney OR
• New York - San Francisco - Mexico - San Francisco - Sydney

We are still trying to work out which of these routes will be cheapest. I can tell you that finding out that information is an exhausting exercise, where you suddenly find yourself flicking across a dozen websites and feeling as if you are being sucked into the computer. I don't know how people managed in the days before the internet, but the term 'information overload' is one constantly ringing in my ears and I'm sure 'madness induced by internet search' is a rapidly growing clinical condition.

Just one little example:

Objective: Buy tickets from Caracas to Miami or Fort Lauderdale on 3rd or 4th December

1. Frenetic searching Caracas to Miami flights
2. Frenetic searching Caracas to Fort Lauderdale flights
3. The direct flights are too expensive.
4. Look at cheaper flights with one stop over.
5. The cheapest flight is via Port of Spain (2hr stopover) to Miami
6. Where is Port of Spain I ask myself? Somewhere in the Caribbean?
7. Open another window, Google Search: It's the capital of Trinidad & Tobago.
8. Do I need a transit visa? Does Larna need a transit visa?
9. More frenetic Google searching
10. According to Trinidad and Tobago's tourism website - incredibly, Zimbabweans are among those who don't need tourist visas, but Kiwis and South Africans do.But do we need transit visas?
11. Google can't answer, so I ring the T&T embassy in Pretoria. Yes, the 'poppie' on the end of the line tells me after consulting someone, I need a transit visa.
12. Back to my Expedia results - looking for flights to Miami via somewhere else. Find $400 tickets via Bogota.
13. Double check to make doubly sure Bogota is, as I suspect, the capital of Columbia. It is!
14. According to SA Dept of Foreign Affairs website I don't need a visa for Columbia. Numerous other websites including Lonely Planet, say Larna does not need one either. We're in business.
15. I book the Caracas to Miami via Bogota tickets!

(If you made it to the end of this list, I congratulate you!)