Fran Sandham's TRAVERSA in Outside Magazine

Outside's Go Travel and Style for Men, a quarterly published by Outside magazine, has recommendations for "Books for the Road" in the September issue. Included is Fran Sandham's marvelous Traversa, which chronicles his epic 3,000 mile trek across Africa, from the Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean. Part travelogue, part history, Traversa is an awe-inspiring and often hilarious testament to Sandham's grit, determination, and sheer obsession with the continent of Africa.

Fran Sandham Interviewed in Forbes

Author and adventurer Fran Sandham was recently interviewed by Rebecca Ruiz for Forbes.com. In the interview, they discuss his incredible 3,000-mile walk across Africa, which he chronicles in Traversa. Here are some highlights from their talk:

Is this kind of a trip for everyone?

I wouldn't say so, no. It just seemed a way of being adventurous in a traditional way. The drawback is the hard work. But people responded to me warmly when they saw I was traveling in a way that involved a degree of hardship. The local guys imagined I was tough and the women wanted to mother me and feed me. Virtually everyone I met--black or white--seemed genuinely enthusiastic about what I was doing, mostly because there was something intrinsically funny about it.

What was the best luxury throughout your trip?

Books. That was the only indulgence really. As I was traveling alone, that was the thing that kept me going. I would stop for three quarters of an hour and feel a lot more rested if I'd been reading than if I had been staring out to space thinking about the journey. It's certainly quite ironic that you're on a journey that's escapist in itself and that you'd want to escape from that with books.

You came close to mortal peril a few times. What was that like?

Bad things can happen in Africa, but bad things can happen at home. In Africa, because I was on such a mission, you have to accept that there's going to be some degree of risk. Overall, I was quite lucky. In a lot of people's minds, the dangers were exaggerated. There are dangers, but I think in some ways I was safer the way I traveled than as a conventional backpacker. They get off a bus and people know where they're going to be and what they're going to do. I always arrived unannounced.

Read the full interview here.

Fran Sandham's TRAVERSA in The New York Times Book Review Summer Reading Issue

Fran Sandham's TRAVERSA: A Solo Walk Across Africa from the Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean, has been selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the best travel books for summer reading (June 1 issue): "Inspired by the 19th-century Scottish missionary David Livingstone, Sandham leaves his drafty London flat and his job in a West End bookshop and embarks on an open-ended journey on foot across the Namibian desert to Tanzania. along the way, he collapses from heat exhaustion, runs out of plasters to soothe his agonizing blisters, swats away tsetse flies and endure the constant stares of astonished locals. At first annoyed by the attention, Sandham begins to look himself through African eyes: “Here I am, a white guy, plodding along with an enormous pack, my trekking poles giving me the appearance of skiing down the road, the bandanna wrapped around my head making me look like something from The Pirates of Penzance. Sometimes I forget I look rather singular.” Sandham’s self-deprecation and affectionate attitude toward the people he encounters lift this book high above the vast pile of African-adventure travelogues."

TRAVERSA: A Solo Walk Across Africa

Releasing next week is the extraordinary Traversa: A Solo Walk Across Africa from the Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean. Fran Sandham, a former bookseller and editor at Rough Guides, has written a funny and engaging account of his incredible 3,000 mile walk across the African continent. Part travelogue, part history, Traversa is an awe-inspiring and at times hilarious testament to Sandham's grit, determination and sheer obsession with the continent of Africa. Recently published to rave reviews in the UK, Traversa will be available in bookstores everywhere next week.