Traversa Fran Sandham Duckworth, 288pp, £16.99

“Traversa” is the name given to the unforgiving ocean-to-ocean trek across Africa. It is normally undertaken by those with a lust for riches and renown or by hopeless naïfs with something to prove. Fran Sandham would probably admit that he belongs more to the latter group. Starting from the inhospitable terrain of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, he haphazardly wends his way towards the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar, risking encounters with lions and bandits and acquiring suppurating blisters, giardiasis and malaria.

Sandham proves to be genial company, approaching the trials of the open road with self-deprecating humour. Less winning are the lapses into laddish banter, but at least you’ll know not to try the local brew down Lusaka way: with perverse relish, our hero describes the innocuously titled beer, “shake shake”, which comes with “small brown chewy bits floating in its murk”.

For the most part, the book is warm and entertaining. Sandham nimbly weaves anecdotes about his illustrious predecessors, notably Livingstone and Stanley, into the story and sensitively recounts the turbulent histories of the lands he travels through. Above all, it is his enthusiasm for adventure and the variety of human life that makes Traversa so memorable.

Jonathan Gharraie

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