About the Book
Description: What does it take to follow your dreams? "DEAD MEN DON'T LEAVE TIPS: Adventures X Africa" by Brandon Wilson is an edge of your seat tale about a couple's seven month dream odyssey - 10,000 miles across Africa from top-to-tip. After their "ship of fools" safari turns into a nightmare, they set off across Africa alone. DEAD MEN DON'T LEAVE TIPS takes readers onto the crazed roads of African adventure and into the hearts of its people-while transforming the travelogue into a raw, penetrating, more poignant genre. From the award-winning author of YAK BUTTER BLUES: A Tibetan Trek of Faith. From flap: What does it take to follow your dream? Quite a bit, if your "dream" involves crossing Africa. That's what one couple discovers when they set off on a seven-month overland journey from Morocco to Cape Town. As dedicated independent travelers, they'd already traveled around the world. But was a trans-African odyssey too much for even them? Who do you "cadeau?" How do you create tantalizing dishes from grubs? Or avoid having a spear tossed through your camera? With trepidation, they join an English do-it-yourself overland safari.Flung into the midst of twenty-one odd companions, they're shocked to discover that many of them have never even camped before.
And the "guides" know Africa as well as the dark side of the moon. After their dream turns into a nightmare, they eventually set off across Africa-alone. DEAD MEN DON'T LEAVE TIPS is a captivating tale filled with a passion for travel, spontaneity and unbridled adventure. It is often funny, sometimes anguished, yet always real. Nothing is held back or glossed-over. Wilson takes you onto the crazed roads of Africa, through the everyday ups and downs, and into the lives and hearts of its people. He shows us once again that the real joy of travel is the thrill of getting there. Reviews: "Journeys of body and soul in every sense of the word...Interlaced with this honesty and detail are Wilson's beautiful prose, obvious passion for adventure and a deep inquisitiveness about other cultures, making this book a pleasure to read. Highly recommended." ~ Midwest Book Review "A masterful crossroads of characters, exotic places, history and human drama in a rig that never stalls, and allows the devil to drive his own ill-behaved backyard..."~ Richard Bangs, author of "Mystery of the Nile" "Entertaining and a monument to those who would take on the challenge of land travel across one of the most dangerous, unhealthy continents in the world.
" ~ Heartland Reviews "Honest, gritty and insightful...it makes the world's most exciting continent read just like that." ~ John Heminway, author of "No Man's Land: A Personal Journey into Africa" "I was swept away by the drama and storytelling...Wilson is never a tourist. He travels heart-first with both feet solidly on the ground and his curiosity always in high gear. He is exactly the right person to be writing travel books for the rest of us." ~ Maui Weekly "Travel writing at its most sublime, a paean to Africa in all her contradictory beauty, and a tribute to the resiliency of those who travel beyond boundaries not only in search of meaning, but also of understanding." ~ C.W. Gortner, author of The Secret Lion "One of the most engaging travel books we have read." ~ RealTraveldventures.com "Powerful and gripping story...Fascinating, informative, humorous, poignant, surprising...a terrific read from first page to last-would make a popular addition to any personal or community library Travel section." ~ Midwest Book Review, Travel Shelf "Aficionados of travel books will delight in "Dead Men Don't Leave Tips".
..a hybrid of Paul Theroux and Tom Robbins, combining the raw frankness and keen observation of Theroux with the intelligent humor & playful language of Robbins...Readers who have a penchant for traveling will happily devour this book and be sorry it ended. I was!" ~ A. Buklarewicz, Reviewer, Amazon.com
Table of Contents:
Introduction Chapter I. Gale Force Getaway Chapter II. Afffricaaaaa! (Morocco) Chapter III. Survival In The Sahara (Algeria) Chapter IV. The Cosmic Dance (Mali) Chapter V. Voodoo Wakes, Python Snakes (Togo/Benin) Chapter VI. Baboon Platoon (Nigeria/Cameroon) Chapter VII. Ubangui Anguish (C. A. R.) Chapter VIII. Jungle Trance, Pygmy Dance (Zaire (Congo)) Photo Gallery Chapter IX. Gorilla Stalk, Volcano Walk (Zaire/Burundi) Chapter X. Whirling Wildebeests (Tanzania) Chapter XI. Land of the Masai (Kenya) Chapter XII. Challenge of Kilimanjaro (The Climb) Chapter XIII. Border Extortion (Tanzania) Chapter XIV. Leave Your Pants at the Door (Malawi) Chapter XV. Road of Pain, Legacy of Shame (Mozambique) Chapter XVI. Zambezi, Sea of Torment (Zimbabwe) Chapter XVII. Barking Dogs, Invisible Walls (South Africa) Chapter XVIII. Assembling the Mosaic (Retrospective) About the Author Other Books by the Author
About the Author :
BRANDON WILSON is an award-winning author and photographer, internationally published adventure writer, explorer and expert light trekker. A voracious explorer of over ninety countries, he's particularly passionate about inspiring others with the possibility of discovery through long distance trekking. Trekking in Africa and across Tibet opened his eyes to the deep satisfaction of traveling 'one-step- at-a-time'. By slowing down, he believes we absorb the hidden magic in the world. We travel outside-while traveling within. Besides crossing Tibet, the author has twice hiked the famed Camino de Santiago across Spain, the St. Olav's Way across Norway, and he was the first American to complete the 9th century, 1150-mile Via Francigena trail from England to Rome. He also enjoys wandering long-distance GR trails across Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Tuscany, the Pyrenees, Dolomites and Alps. These physical, mental and spiritual journeys help fuel his irrepressible wanderlust. Dead Men Don't Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa premiered in November 2005. His first book, Yak Butter Blues: A Tibetan Trek of Faith won an Independent Publisher IPPY Award in 2005 and Wilson's photography has received awards from National Geographic Traveler and Islands magazines. The author is a member of The Explorers Club and Artists Without Frontiers. He is an ardent supporter of human rights.
Review :
"Brandon Wilson jacks the vehicle of trans-African adventure for a ride so real you breathe the dust and drip the sweat while trundling down off-the-beaten tracks outstanding in the number and quality of their ruts. If adventure drives are a genre, Wilson has created a smarter, more brazen, more sweeping subspecies. This is a masterful crossroads of characters, exotic places, history and human drama in a rig that never stalls, and allows the devil to drive his own ill-behaved backyard..." ~ Richard Bangs, author of "The Lost River" and "Mystery of the Nile"/adventurer/executive producer "Richard Bangs Adventure" "Dead Men Don t Leave Tips is an adventure journal only the craziest traveler would take as a guide. But we can dream, can t we? ...I was swept away by the drama and the storytelling in Wilson s book...Brandon Wilson is never a tourist. He travels heart-first with both feet solidly on the ground and his curiosity always in high gear. He is exactly the right person to be writing travel books for the rest of us." ~ Joseph W. Bean, Book Reviwer, Maui Weekly "Brandon Wilson's DEAD MEN DON'T LEAVE TIPS is that rare event: a travel book that transcends its genre to become a transformative journey of the soul into a disparate and gorgeously challenging culture, as seen through the eyes of a man determined to experience life as it is, rather than as it's presented to us. Eschewing the typical tourist African safari, Wilson and his travel companion, along with a host of madcap dysfunctional fellow travelers, embark on a wildly funny, poignant, and at times terrifying, trip across the African continent. From the rapacious markets of Marrakesh to the stunning breadth of the Sahara and haunting domains of the Masai, Wilson brings to life in lucid prose the smells, sights, and sensations of being a foreigner in a strange land, who yearns for communion with the world he has set out to explore. This is travel writing at its most sublime, a paean to Africa in all her contradictory beauty, and a tribute to the resiliency of those who travel beyond boundaries not only in search of meaning, but also of understanding." ~ C.W. Gortner, author of The Secret Lion "World traveler and writer Brandon Wilson follows his stories of Tibet in "Yak Butter Blues" with an even more sensational recounting of his trip across the African continent in a new book, "Dead Men Don't Leave Tips." In language that does justice to the beauty of the land and its people, Wilson takes the reader with him on his daring seven-month, 10,000-mile journey by truck, bus and foot from Morocco to Cape Town in South Africa. It's a spellbinding journey that captivates the reader with thundering falls, blistering deserts and grassy plains. Suffocating streets and shouting vendors contrast with proud tribesmen, quiet jungles and majestic gorillas. Wilson writes a magical story, indeed, laced with humor and tragedy. Well worth reading, "Dead Men Don't Leave Tips" brings Africa to readers on an intimate level not to be found elsewhere." ~ Andrew F. O'Hara, author of The Swan: Tales of the Sacramento Valley/journalist "Like all good writing, this book does a lot more than entertain. One would expect to learn about Africa - its people, animals, landscape - from a travel book, but, without lecturing Brandon gets us to see social conditions; the gap between rich and poor, urban and starving. Racially, he is colorblind, with respect for all people, while sometimes justly indignant about cruel or exploitative behavior. Brandon is a writer with the eye of an artist, a basic decency and social conscience that in another book made him the champion of the suppressed Tibetan people. He has the humor of a cartoonist and the old fashioned ability to tell a good story. I strongly recommend this one to you." ~ Dr. Bob Rich, award-winning author of thirteen books, counseling psychologist "Travel writer Brandon Wilson has done it again with his latest book...It's a great read in the
