The Great Africa Traverse

From Tanzania to Zimbabwe: an independent overland journey through Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia.

The Great Africa Traverse

Posted By Maurizio Pittau — 30th August '26

Audiobook

The complete 22-day journey across Africa, narrated end to end — in English and Italian

Listen to The Great Africa Traverse as an audiobook, the full 22-day journey across Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, narrated from beginning to end. Choose your language below: press play to listen online, or download the MP3 to take it with you.

The Great Africa Traverse

Audiobook · English edition · Narrated in English

DOWNLOAD THE AUDIOBOOK (MP3) ↓

MP3 file · Listen online or download to your device

The Great Africa Traverse

Audiobook · Italian edition · Narrated in Italian

DOWNLOAD THE AUDIOBOOK (MP3) ↓

MP3 file · Listen online or download to your device

Author

Maurizio Pittau

Travel

The Great Africa Traverse: The Complete Journey

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 13th September '26

Twenty-two days, six countries and thousands of kilometres later, The Great Africa Traverse is now complete. What began as an...

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Day 22 – Livingstone: Where the Lines End

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 8th August '26

The last morning began quietly at Jollyboys, bags half-packed, with the feeling that something was closing. One thing remained to...

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Day 21 – Chobe: When the Wonderful Becomes O...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 7th August '26

By the twenty-first day, something had happened to the way we looked at animals. Four game drives in South Luangwa had done it....

Travel

Day 20 – The Zambezi: The Same River, Twice

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 6th August '26

The deal was simple. Lorena would come white-water rafting if I would come on the sunset cruise. Neither of us wanted the...

Travel

Day 19 – Victoria Falls: Where the Lines Mee...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 5th August '26

Livingstone got there first, and in bronze he is still watching. His statue stands on the Zambian side, looking out over the...

Travel

Day 18 – Lusaka to Livingstone: The Slow Way...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 4th August '26

A woman on the bus couldn’t understand why we weren’t on a plane. I told her I had come to see the country between...

Travel

Day 17 – Lusaka: A Guest in the City

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 3rd August '26

Our taxi driver would not go to the market on his own. The reception had told us not to go alone either, so Bwembya drove us and...

Travel

Day 16 – Mfuwe to Lusaka: Plans Are Made to ...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 2nd August '26

Plans are made to be changed. The original plan was six hundred kilometres of the Great East Road on a local bus, a full day of...

Travel

Day 15 – South Luangwa: Learning to Look

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 1st August '26

On the second morning I brought the camera. The day before, I had gone out with binoculars and a phone, the way you do when you...

Travel

Day 14 – South Luangwa: A Guest in Their Wor...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 31st July '26

We were up at five, a light breakfast at half five, out before six into the cold on an open vehicle, the last stars going out....

Travel

Day 13 – Nkhata Bay to Mfuwe: The Seam Betwe...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 30th July '26

The alarm went at four, and we left at half past, into a night with a huge moon hanging over it. I was exhausted and could not...

Travel

Day 12 – Nkhata Bay: Three Candles and a Dru...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 29th July '26

The first morning in eleven days with nowhere to go. We woke in the wooden stilt house out over the lake, the veranda, the...

Travel

Day 11 – Livingstonia to Nkhata Bay: Down to...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 28th July '26

Woken by the lake, this time. The night before we had seen it only in the dark; that morning the whole drop below the Cob House...

Travel

Day 10 – Mbeya to Livingstonia: Twenty-Two H...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 27th July '26

We left the Beaco at half past six with a packed breakfast and a driver called Tumaini, who told us it means Hope. Hope took us...

Travel

Day 9 – Tazara to Mbeya: The Bill for the Pl...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 26th July '26

By the second day, the train was in my bones. The constant low roll over old rails, which the night before had been a lullaby,...

Travel

Day 8 – The Tazara: Ten Hours Late

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 25th July '26

The banana was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. It came through a lowered window somewhere in the middle of Tanzania,...

Travel

Day 7 – Dar es Salaam: The Day That Wasn&#82...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 24th July '26

The choir came back before dawn, louder than either time before, solos and women’s voices filling the dark room while it...

Travel

Day 6 – East Coast to Dar es Salaam: Not Tom...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 23rd July '26

The news came on Instagram. On the morning we were meant to make our way back to Dar and catch the Tazara the following day, I...

Travel

Day 5 – Zanzibar East Coast: The Beach as a ...

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 22nd July '26

The scooter coming towards us along the wet sand was almost the twin of the one I keep at home. Mine is a red Vespa PX 200. This...

Travel

Day 4 – Zanzibar: Outside the Frame

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 21st July '26

The clip cost thirty dollars. It happened on the sandbank at Nakupenda, in the middle of the day, but it is where I have to...

Travel

Day 3 – Zanzibar: A City You Listen To

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 20th July '26

At five in the morning, the choir began, and there was no arguing with it. It was still fully dark. The voices came from right...

Travel

Day 2 – Dar es Salaam: Buying Time

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 19th July '26

The argument, if you could call it that, happened in Terminal 3 in the small hours. Lorena, my wife, wanted the reclining chairs....

Travel

Day 1 – Dublin: The Lines I Chose to Follow

Posted by

Maurizio Pittau on 18th July '26

The argument was about time. Lorena likes to reach the airport with about twenty minutes to spare before the gate closes. I like...