Brandon Wilson

My life has been a continual series of crossings. One of my earliest memories is of a little towheaded guy, maybe six years old, crossing the vastness of America with my Dad at the wheel of a ‘56 red & white Chevy. We sailed wide-eyed across cowboy country, the Rockies, and Mojave Desert until we simply ran out of land at the Pacific Ocean and California, that land of dreams. And then we drove back.

That peripatetic pattern was to become my life, my passion, as I explored the world and meaning one step at a time. My stories and photos are real, sometimes gritty, and reveal the daily triumphs and challenges of independent travel to some of the world’s most remote and untouched places. I hope they inspire you to get out there yourself and to “Never say impossible.”

BIO: BRANDON WILSON, Chev. is a Lowell Thomas Gold Award-winning author/photographer and explorer, a peace pilgrim and long distance trekker. He has explored nearly 100 countries, including making an African transect from London to Cape Town. Over decades, he’s been especially passionate about hiking historic long-distance pilgrim trails. In 1992, Brandon and his wife Cheryl became the first Western couple to trek the 1100-kilometer trail from Lhasa, Tibet to Kathmandu. Then he focused on Europe, trekking the Camino de Santiago Francés (twice) across northern Spain, then the Via de la Plata from Seville, and the Camino Catalan and Camino Aragonés from Barcelona. Brandon was the first American to traverse the 1850-kilometer Via Francigena from Canterbury, England to Rome. In 2006, he hiked and founded the 4500-kilometer Templar Trail, recreating the route of the First Crusades as a path of peace from France to Jerusalem. Later, in 2009, Brandon and Cheryl trekked the Via Alpina along the backbone of the Alps across eight countries from Trieste to Monaco, climbing the equivalent of 12 Mt. Everests. In 2015, he hiked the ancient St. Olav’s Way for the second time across Norway and Sweden on an Explorers Club Flag expedition. Most recently, he trekked the Alta Via 1 across the Italian Dolomites and the Tour de Mt. Blanc in France, Italy and Switzerland.

Brandon is a Fellow of The Explorers Club and was recently knighted by the Sovereign Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem/Knights of Malta. He lives in the French Alps.

Books:

• Over the Top & Back Again: Hiking X the Alps, a ForeWord Magazine Bronze Award-winner

• Along the Templar Trail: Seven Million Steps for Peace, Lowell Thomas Gold Award-winner for Best Travel Book; ForeWord Book of the Year finalist

• Auf dem Templerweg: Sieben Millionen Schritte für den Frieden (German translation)

• Yak Butter Blues: A Tibetan Trek of Faith, an IPPY Award-winner

• Yak Butter Blues: Una Caminata de Fe Por El Tibet (Spanish translation)

• A Tibetan Trek of Faith (Indian edition)

• Dead Men Don’t Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa

• On a Donkey’s Back; provided the Introduction to a collection of poetry and paintings by and about Nepalese Sherpas

• Naïve & Abroad: Spain, Limping 600 Miles Through History by Marcus Wilder; fifty photos with essay on the Via de la Plata

Anthologies:

• The Pilgrimage Chronicles: Embrace the Quest, provided the Introduction, photos and the essay “Metamorphosis: The Making of a Pilgrim”

• The Walkabout Chronicles: Epic Journeys by Foot; stories of hiking to Mount Everest and crossing the backbone of the Alps on the Via Alpina

• They Lived to Tell the Tale: True Stories of Adventure from the Legendary Explorers Club: essay “Life When Hell Freezes Over” about a year of surviving life in an Arctic Inupiat village

• Wounds of War: Poets for Peace: essay “Along Life’s Trail: War and the Environment Within”

• Hip Poetry: essay “Reflections"

Wilson’s photos have won awards from National Geographic Traveler and Islands magazines. His travel articles have appeared in publications worldwide and on the internet.

Website: http://www.brandonwilsonauthor.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrandonWilsonauthorexplorer/

Explore Facebook pages with book excerpts, tips and photos:

Templar Trail

Along the Templar Trail

Yak Butter Blues

Over the Top & Back Again

Dead Men Don’t Leave Tips