The Great Africa Traverse


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

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The Great Africa Traverse


  • Home
  • About the Journey
  • About me
  • Audiobook
  • Versione italiana

TAZARA

Travel

Day 9 – Tazara to Mbeya: The Bill for the Pleasure

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, had worked its way into me, and when I tried to write in the notebook my hand shook with it. Outside, the country kept changing. Beyond the savannah had come the wet Kilombero valley, green and full of water, and [...]

Continue Reading... 26th July '26 Maurizio Pittau

Travel

Day 8 – The Tazara: Ten Hours Late

The banana was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. It came through a lowered window somewhere in the middle of Tanzania, handed up from a platform while the train sat still under a sun it wasn’t supposed to be under, and I have thought about it ever since. But I am ahead of myself. We got to the Tazara station in the morning. [...]

Continue Reading... 25th July '26 Maurizio Pittau

Latest Post


Travel
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...

Travel
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...

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Copyright © Maurizio Pittau - The Great Africa Traverse 2026 • All rights reserved.

Severn WordPress Theme by EckoThemes. Published with WordPress.