My trip is now over. I'm now back in the San Francisco Bay Area, starting my new job at Google. It seems appropriate to give some summary data:

Countries visited, with UN HDI standard of living scores and official homicide rate per 100,000:

USA - 0.956 : 5.0
UK - 0.947 : 1.28
Hungary - 0.879 : 1.38
Bosnia - 0.812 : 1.86
Serbia - 0.826 : 1.46
Romania - 0.837 : 2.51
Bulgaria - 0.840 : 2.54
Turkey - 0.806 : 6.94
Iran - 0.782 : 2.93
Bahrain (airport) - 0.895 : 0.92
Jordan - 0.770 : 1.75
Israel - 0.935 : 1.87
Palestinian Authority - 0.737 : 3.84
Egypt - 0.703 : 1.3
Ethiopia - 0.414 : 19.3
Botswana - 0.694 : 21.5
Mozambique - 0.402 : not available
South Africa - 0.683 : 34 (alternative source gives 69)

Most interesting countries:
1: Iran
2: Israel
3: Ethiopia

Most pleasant countries:
1: Israel
2: Bosnia
3: Romania

Best food:
1: Dashan Restaurant in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2: Ramadan meal in Tehran, Iran
3: Bobote in Stellenbosh, South Africa

Most Awesome Animals:
1: Lion Cubs, South Africa
2: Cheetah, Botswana
3: Bears, Romania
4: Great White Sharks, South Africa

Equipment List:
Keen Hiking Sandals
IPhone
Headlamp
Canon powershot camera
Under-armpit money belt
Ultra-compact Sleeping bag
Inflatable Pillow
1 mosquito net - never used because hotels had nets
8 pairs of underpants
3 pairs of socks
Swimming trunks
1 short sleeve REI running shirt
1 long sleeve REI thermal top
1 Sierra Designs packlight waterpoof
1 REI hiking shirt
2 smart long-sleeve shirts (bought in turkey for Iran)
1 polo shirt (bought in turkey as hot and needed more short sleeve stuff)
Two pairs of REI hiking trousers - zipped pockets to obstruct pickpockets
Malarone
Emergency medical kit
Lonely planet guidebooks
Wallet, passport, and credit cards
Toiletries: shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, nail clippers
Compass
Two tension straps - used for all sorts of things
Kelty 75litre backpack
Two waterproof bags for holding clothes
A set of eagle creek luggage packing bags
Sunglasses

That's it. Almost everything came from REi

iPhone apps used:
Globemaster - offline copy of wikitravel. Super useful.
Offmaps - gps and mapping when offline.
Currency converter 
Skype - make phone calls even when your iPhone won't connect to the local provider
Outliner - for planning