Brandon Wilson is an award-winning author
and photographer, explorer and peace walker whose inspiring
adventures have appeared in books, anthologies, international
magazines, newspapers and on the Internet.
A
voracious explorer of nearly one hundred countries, he is an expert
long-distance, ultralight trekker drawn to the world's pilgrimage
trails: the 2620-mile Templar Trail from France to Jerusalem, the
Camino de Santiago and Via de la Plata across Spain, and Norway's
St. Olav’s Way. He and his wife Cheryl were the first Western
couple to complete the pilgrimage trail from Lhasa, Tibet to
Kathmandu, and he was the first American to trek the Via Francigena
from England to Rome. In 2009 he will trek the Via Alpina red
route, 1500 miles from Trieste, Italy to Monaco. This eight-country
adventure will inspire a new book in 2010.
Wilson, a member of the prestigious Explorers Club and graduate of
UNC-Chapel Hill, is a peace and human rights
activist.
Recent Works
Include:
• Along the Templar Trail: Seven Million Steps
for Peace, Book of the
Year Award Finalist, ForeWord Magazine (book, January 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, 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: A Tibetan Trek of Faith, an IPPY
award-winner, now in its second edition (book, 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)
Writing
Awards:
•
Independent Publisher IPPY Award (Travel Essay)
• Book of the Year Award Finalist (Adventure/Recreation),
ForeWord
Magazine
• University of Pittsburgh Literary Award
Photo Awards:
•
National Geographic Traveler
•
Islands magazine
Memberships:
•
The Explorers Club
•
Artists Without Frontiers
• International Travel Writer's Alliance
• Templar Fellowship of America
Long Distance Lite
Trekker/Explorer:
•
Trekking the 1220-mile Via Alpina the length of the Alps, Italy to
Monaco, summer 2009
•
Pioneered 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
Special Interests:
Wilson
is intrigued by places of peace, having explored: Delphi, Mt.
Olympus, Knossos, Acropolis, Santorini, Holy Grotto of the
Revelation, Mycenae (Greece) Ephesus, House of Mary, Blue Mosque,
Rumi’s Tomb in Konya (Turkey) Crough Patrick (Ireland) Stonehenge,
Canterbury Cathedral (UK) Santiago de Compostela, Burgos & Leon
cathedrals (Spain) Cathedral of Notre Dame, Basilica of Sacre
Coeur, Mont-St.-Michele (France) Basilicas of St. Peter, St. John,
St. Mary, Assisi (Italy) Gozo’s Ggantija monoliths (Malta) Nidaros
Cathedral (Norway) Csestochowa’s Black Madonna (Poland) The Great
Pyramid, Sphynx, Luxor, Temple of Karnak (Egypt) Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, Via Dolorosa, Gethsemane, King David’s Tomb, Western
Wall, Cave of the Nativity, Mt. Carmel, Dome of the Rock (Israel)
Birthplace of Aphrodite (Cyprus) Djenne, Bandiagara (Mali)
Varanasi, Ajanta and Ellora Caves (India) Potala Palace, Jokhang
Temple, Tashilunpo Monastery (Tibet) Bodhnath Stupa, Kathmandu
(Nepal) Mt. Miyajima, Hiroshima (Japan) Phra Pathom Chedi, Phra
Taen Dong Rang (Thailand) Batu Caves (Malaysia) Chichen Itza, Monte
Alban, Cozumel, Tulum, Oaxaca (Mexico) Tikal (Guatemala) Haleakala
volcano, Mt. Kilauea, Piilanihale Heiau, Pu’ukohola Heiau
(Hawai’i), El Santuario do Chimayo (New Mexico)