BRANDON WILSON is a Lowell Thomas Award-winning author/photographer, travel expert and explorer whose inspiring adventures have appeared in books, anthologies, international magazines, newspapers and widely across the Internet.
A
voracious explorer of over 100 countries, Brandon has hiked over
12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles). An expert ultralight trekker, he
is especially drawn to the world's great pilgrimage trails,
including the Camino de Santiago and Via de la Plata across Spain
and Norway's St. Olav’s Way. His fascination with these walks began
in 1992 when he and his wife Cheryl became the first Western couple
to hike the Buddhist trail from Lhasa, Tibet to Kathmandu, Nepal.
He later became the first American to trek the Via Francigena from
Canterbury, England to Rome. Then in 2006, he and a French friend
re-blazed the 4500-kilometer trail from France to Jerusalem naming
it the Templar Trail in their honor.
Most recently, Brandon and Cheryl hiked from Trieste, Italy to
Monaco on the Via Alpina and other trails. This 1200-mile,
eight-country trekking adventure inspired his newest book,
Over the Top &
Back Again: Hiking X the Alps.
Wilson, a member of the prestigious Explorers Club and graduate of
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is a peace and human
rights activist.
Recent
Works Include:
•
Auf Dem Templerweg: Sieben Millionen Schritte für den
Frieden, German translation by Imke Healy (book, Pilgrim's
Tales, 2011)
• "Via Alpina: Not Another Walk in
the Woods", Backpacking
Light,
(feature article and photos, web magazine, 2011)
• Over the Top & Back Again:
Hiking X the Alps, with
illustrations by Ken Plumb (book, Pilgrim's Tales, 2010)
•
Yak Butter Blues: Una Caminata de Fe Por El
Tibet,
Spanish translation by Ramon Solé and
associates (book, Pilgrim's Tales, 2010)
•
Along the Templar Trail: Seven Million Steps for
Peace,
Lowell Thomas Gold Award winner for Best Travel
Book (2009), Society of American
Travel Writers Foundation;
also
shortlisted for Book of the Year
Award,
ForeWord Reviews
(book, Pilgrim's
Tales, 2008)
• Introduction to
On a Donkey's Back, a collection of poetry and paintings by
and about the lives of Nepalese porters, Yileen Press, (book,
2008)
• Essay with 50 Via de la Plata
photos featured in
Naïve & Abroad: Spain, Limping 600 Miles Through History
by Marcus Wilder, (book, 2008)
• "In the Steps of Romans,
Pilgrims and Templars", Backpacking
Light,
(feature article and photos, magazine, 2008)
• "Life When Hell Freezes Over"
(story), featured in
They Lived to Tell the Tale: True Stories of Adventure from the
Legendary Explorers Club, The Lyons Press/The Globe Pequot
Press, (anthology, 2007)
• "Give Me My Pen" (poem), part of
Voices for Africa, (anthology, 2007)
• "Thoughts from Along Life’s
Trail: War and the Environment Within" (essay), appeared in
Wounds of War: Poets for Peace (anthology, 2006)
• "The Camino de Santiago: A Transcendent Walk Across
Spain", The
Maui News (feature article and photos,
newspaper, 2006)
•
Dead Men Don’t Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa (book,
Pilgrim's Tales, 2005)
• "Tropical Tango to Micronesia," and "On One Small Barrier
Isle", Ocean (feature articles, magazine,
2005)
• "St. Olav's Way: Trekking the Trail of Norse Kings",
Backpacking
Light (feature article with photos,
magazine, spring 2005)
•
Yak Butter Blues, an IPPY award-winner, now in its second
edition; Spanish edition, October, 2010 (book, Pilgrim's Tales,
2004)
• "Peaceful Reflections from the Pilgrimage Trail", Confraternity
of St. James Bulletin, London (booklet, 2004)
• "Via Francigena-Trekking the Forgotten Highway to Heaven",
International
Living, Ireland (article, 2004)
• Iubilantes
Annuario,
Italy (feature articles, booklets, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008,
2011)
Literary Awards:
• 2010 Book of the Year Bronze
Award (Travel Essay), ForeWord Reviews, Over the Top &
Back Again
• 2009 Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best
Travel Book, Society of American Travel
Writers Foundation, Along the Templar
Trail
•
2008
Finalist,
Book of the Year Award
(Adventure), ForeWord Reviews, Along the Templar
Trail
• Independent Publisher IPPY Award (Travel Essay), Yak Butter
Blues
• University of Pittsburgh Literary Award
Photo
Awards:
• National Geographic Traveler
• Islands
magazine
Memberships:
• The Explorers Club
• Artists Without Frontiers
• International Travel Writer's Alliance
Long Distance Lite Trekker/Explorer:
(WILSON AT
MT. EVEREST, TIBET)
•
Trekked the Via Alpina and other trails for 1900 kilometers the
length of the Alps, 2009,
ascending and descending about 700,000 feet in 111 days, the
equivalent of 12 Mt. Everests
• Founded the 4217-km.Templar Trail, France to
Jerusalem
• Trekked Israel National Trail, Haifa to
Jerusalem
• Part of the
first Western couple to trek 1000-km pilgrimage trail from Lhasa,
Tibet to Kathmandu
•
Trekked 400-mile St. Olav's Way pilgrimage trail, Oslo to
Trondheim, Norway
• Trekked the 1,000-km Via de La Plata, Seville to Santiago,
Spain
• First American to
trek the 1150-mile Via Francigena pilgrimage trail, Canterbury,
England to Rome
• Trekked
the 455-mile Camino de Santiago (Frances) pilgrimage trail across
Spain twice
• Trekked Alps thru Switzerland and Italy
• Trekked 600-km. thru the Dolomites to Salzburg,
Austria and Prague
•
Trekked traditional regions of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus
• Trekked the Alps and Pyrenees, France and
Spain
• Trekked to Mount
Everest Base Camp, Tibet
•
Trekked High Tatras
• Trekked Croagh Patrick pilgrimage trail, Ireland
• Climbed Mt. Goldeck, Austria
• Climbed Mt. Valora, Italy
• Climbed Mt. Democrat, Colorado
• Climbed Mt. Zeus, Greece
• Climbed Mt. Olympus, Greece
• Climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
• Climbed Mt. Nyiragongo Volcano, Zaire
• Climbed Mt. Miyajima, Japan
• Climbed Te Rua Manga, Rarotonga
• Traveled overland by Bluebird bus from Venezuela to Mexico
• Independently traveled the West Indies, Montserrat to
Trinidad
• Trans-African safari, through 17 countries from top to tip
• Shot Zambezi River Class V Rapids, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
• Traveled the "gun-run" through civil war in Mozambique
• Photographed mountain gorillas in Zaire
• Chronicled Eastern Europe in transition in 1989 as the Berlin
Wall fell
• Independently traveled around the world from the South Pacific to
Asia to Europe
• Lived in an Inupiat Eskimo village for a year on the edge of the
Arctic Ocean
• Organized Pacific Northwest expeditions to investigate Sasquatch
sightings
• Circumnavigated US/Canada on a major roadtrip in a beat-up
stationwagon