Brandon Wilson is an award-winning author
and photographer, explorer and peace walker whose stories 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 Buddhist pilgrimage trail from Lhasa, Tibet
to Kathmandu, and he was the first American to trek the Via
Francigena from England to Rome.
Wilson, a member of the
prestigious Explorers Club and graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, is a
peace and human rights activist.
Works:
• Yak Butter Blues: A Tibetan Trek of
Faith, an IPPY award-winner, now in its second edition (book,
2004)
• Dead Men Don’t Leave
Tips: Adventures X Africa (book, 2005)
• "Thoughts from Along Life’s Trail: War and the Environment
Within" (essay), part of Wounds of War: Poets for Peace
(anthology, 2006)
• "Give Me My Pen" (poem), part of Voices for Africa,
(anthology, 2007)
• "Life When Hell Freezes Over" (story), part of They Lived to
Tell the Tale: True Stories of Adventure from the Legendary
Explorers Club, The Lyons Press/The Globe Pequot Press,
(anthology, 2007)
• Along the Templar Trail: Seven Million Steps for Peace,
(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, April
2008)
• Essay with fifty-photos from the Via de la
Plata featured in Naïve & Abroad: Spain, Limping 600 Miles
Through History by Marcus Wilder, (book, summer
2008)
Writing Awards:
•
Independent Publisher IPPY Award
• University of Pittsburgh Literary Award
Photo Awards:
•
National Geographic Traveler
•
Islands magazine
Memberships:
• Artists Without Frontiers
• International Travel Writer's Alliance
• Templar Fellowship of America
Special
Interests:
Wilson
is intrigued by places of peace: 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 pilgrimage churches
(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) Chichen Itza, Monte Alban, Cozumel,
Tulum, Oaxaca (Mexico) Tikal (Guatemala) Haleakala volcano, Mt.
Kilauea, Piilanihale Heiau, and Pu’ukohola Heiau
(Hawai’i)
Long Distance Lite
Trekker/Explorer:
•
Pioneered the 4217-km.Templar Trail, France to
Jerusalem
• Trekked Israel National Trail, Haifa to
Jerusalem
• Trekked 400-mile St. Olav's Way pilgrimage trail, Oslo to
Trondheim, Norway
• Trekked the Via de La Plata, 1,000-km. from 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 350-km. thru the Dolomites and Alps to
Salzburg, Austria and 250-km. thru the Bohemian forest to
Prague
• Trekked
traditional regions of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus
• Trekked the Alps and Pyrenees, France and
Spain
• Trekked to Mount
Everest Base Camp, Tibet
•
Part of the first Western couple to trek 1000-km pilgrimage trail
from Lhasa, Tibet to Kathmandu
• 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
Gear
Sponsors:
2007:
GoLite (ultra-light backpack and raingear), Via de la Plata across
Spain
2006: Montrail (footwear), GoLite, (backpack) and LEKI USA (Nordic
poles), Templar Trail
2005: GoLite (ultra-lite backpack), Camino de
Santiago across Spain
2004: LEKI (trekking poles), St. Olav's Way, Oslo to Trondheim,
Norway
2000: Eagle Creek (backpack), Via Francigena, Lausanne, Switzerland
to Rome, Italy