Traversa by Fran Sandham (2007, Duckworth Overlook) is the author’s account of his 3,000-mile solo walk across Africa. Starting on the Skeleton Coast in Namibia, the walk takes Sandham through the vast expanses of the Namib Desert, via the majestic Victoria Falls and Lake Malawi to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean off Tanzania.
The title of the book is taken from the name given to the overland expeditions across Africa undertaken by the Victorian explorers, most notably Livingstone, Stanley and Grogan, from 1850 onwards.
Sandham, who has traveled in over 40 countries and worked as an editor for Rough Guides, says it was his fascination with these explorers that brought him to Africa. However, it took a terrible New Year’s Eve party and eight pints of lager for the idea of escaping the morning commute into London and undertaking his own modern-day traversa across Africa to enter the realm of possibility.
The overblown confidence of a drunken man, one might think. And yet one year later, after living like a pauper in order to save enough money to finance the trip, Sandham arrived on the Skeleton Coast, with an 80-pound pack he could barely lift and without support or back-up of any kind, to start his walk.
Self-deprecating Humor
Written predominantly in the present tense, which gives the book an engaging immediacy, it nevertheless takes a few chapters to get into Traversa. Sandham is a humorous writer, often self-deprecatingly so, but the book initially reads as a linear, rather run-of-the-mill traveler's tale that requires some perseverence.
He also has the infuriating habit of (seemingly) going out of his way to make his life even harder than it already is. Setting off in the burning sun with a hangover, for example; or eating a diet of such junk it would barely have nourished him had he still been working his sedentary job in a London bookshop.
Having said this, he finished his traversa three-and-a-half stone lighter than when he started. This is indicative of the enormous amount of energy he burned daily and the constant struggle he faced to find sufficient food in a region where one in three children is malnourished.
Audacious Undertaking Makes for Compelling Reading
However, there is something undeniably compelling about the sheer audacity, or perhaps insanity, of Sandham’s undertaking. Once the idea of commandeering a donkey in Namibia to help carry his luggage has been abandoned and Sandham starts walking in earnest, it is almost impossible to remain detached.
Even reading the book between cool sheets with clean, running water just yards away, one cannot but be drawn in by Sandham's descriptions of the almost indescribable desert heat, utter exhaustion and very real danger of lion attacks, as well as the colorful characters and unconditional acts of kindness he encounters along the way.
The details of the Victorian explorers, which are woven through the book and bring an unexpected historical perspective to what could easily have degenerated into a self-centered yarn, make Traversa a fascinating testimony to the unquenchable curiosity and bloody-minded endurance of true adventurers. And even though most places on Earth have now been conveniently packaged by travel agencies, Sandham proves with this book that true adventurers still exist in the 21st century.
Purchasing details and an excerpt from the book can be found on Traversa’s dedicated website.
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