Dead Men Don't Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa [Hardcover]

Brandon Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0977053652 | ISBN-13: 978-0977053650

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 London 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 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.

From the Lowell Thomas gold award-winning author of Over the Top & Back Again, Along the Templar Trail, and Yak Butter Blues.

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, legendary adventurer, 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." ~ Joseph W. Bean, 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." ~ RealTravelAdventures.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

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

DEAD MEN DON'T LEAVE TIPS: Adventures X Africa by Brandon Wilson is, at first glance, a story about a couple’s seven month, 10,000-mile, 17-country trans-African odyssey – overland across Africa from Morocco to Cape Town. After their organized overland safari turns into a nightmare, they set off across Africa alone.

More an adventure story than a scholastic treatise on Africa, this book takes readers across Africa as these "everyman" travelers photo-stalk mountain gorillas, breakdown in the Sahara for two weeks, hunt with Pygmies, climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, explore the Serengeti, hop a "gun-run" through Mozambique's civil war, raft Zambezi rapids and arrive in South Africa as Soweto erupts into violence.

It is humorous, anguished and brutally real. Nothing is painted in the typical writer's wide brush extolling one beautiful sunset or another glorious setting. This book exposes the humor and frustration of crossing a land where the rules change daily. The reader experiences first-hand the ups and downs of independent travel in a land still little-known by Western audiences.

On the other hand, it also lends a human face to the continent that is vastly different from the one portrayed in the news or non-profit commercials.

From the award-winning author of YAK BUTTER BLUES: A Tibetan Trek of Faith. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Author

This book was recently updated (May 2009), correcting a few wrong or misspelled place names. We also made sure to clarify that it was an expedition taken when Zaire was still Zaire and Mozambique was still in the midst of a civil war. Hope this helps clarify matters for future readers.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Pilgrim's Tales, Inc. (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977053652
• ISBN-13: 978-0977053650
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,645,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I had my first taste of life on the road at six--and haven't stopped. It began in an old red and white Chevy, with a burlap-covered water bag strapped onto the front grill. With my father behind the wheel, we sailed wide-eyed across the wide expanse of an uncluttered America and I was hooked on travel--my sweet addiction.

Writing true travel adventures has given me the rare opportunity to combine my two greatest passions: travel and writing. Now there are four books in my adventure travel series that shed light on choosing roads less taken and never saying "impossible" to our most outlandish dreams.

"Yak Butter Blues," my first book, is about a historic 650-mile trek that my wife and I made in 1992 across the wild Himalayan plains from Lhasa to Kathmandu. Facing lung-burning altitudes, slow starvation, dehydration, blizzards, and bullets, every day became an exercise in survival, trust and "letting go". Relying on the kindness of strangers, we were soon taken into Tibetan homes where we witnessed their bravery in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. (Now also in a new Spanish edition translated by Ramon Solé and friends).

My next travel adventure book, "Dead Men Don't Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa," chronicles a crazed seven-month overland journey from London to Cape Town across some of the wildest regions of Africa with the most bizarre traveling companions. Warning: This is not the postcard perfect Africa of travel magazines. This is the raw, gritty Africa that travel guides only warn you about.

Yes, travel changes you. Yet our travel can impact others. In 2006, a friend and I set off on 2620-mile trek from France to Jerusalem to re-create the route of the First Crusades--and to transform it into a modern path of peace. The exciting step-by-step account of our inspiring journey, "Along the Templar Trail" interweaves adventure, history, Knights Templar, politics, and mysticism into a tale that makes you feel as if you're walking with us. I was heartened to hear that it recently won the 2009 Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best Travel Book from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation. Now it's also been published in a new German edition ("Auf dem Templerweg") translated by Imke Healy.

Finally, I've just finished writing my fourth book in this series of true travel adventures. This one is different in many ways. It chronicles a trans-Alp trek my wife and I completed last fall - a hike across eight countries from Trieste to Monaco on the Via Alpina. Moving at high altitudes, hut-to-hut, it was the most difficult journey we've taken. Imagine 111 days of rain, mud, deadly ticks, crumbling trails, and climbs (and descents) of 3,000-feet each day, then add the awesome beauty, weird characters, culture (and food) of the Alps. Yet it's a more humorous look at the Alps (everyone needs to laugh more these days)--as well as at our typically head-long rush to reach for another gonzo dream. Incidentally, it's the first Via Alpina travelogue published in English and it recently won the 2010 Book of the Year Bronze Award (travel essay category) by ForeWord Reviews.

All of my books include photos and maps. They have also been released in Kindle editions.

Join me on these unforgettable step-by-step journeys. And never miss the chance to follow your own dreams.

To talk about my books and learn more, please join me on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brandon-Wilson-Adventure-Travel-Author/156521417709244

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare journey into the heart of Africa, November 3, 2005

By 

C. W. Gortner - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Men Don't Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa (Paperback)

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 resiliancy of those who travel beyond boundaries not only in search of meaning, but also of understanding.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The most boring and shallow travel account ever read, February 19, 2008

By 

Heoe "heoe" (france) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Men Don't Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa (Paperback)

I bought this book following Amazon's reader reviews but found it a pain to read.
From the start the author can't bear the way he chose to travel (overlanding with a group) and his fellow travelers... well, when on a low budget, stay graceful! If one can't stand other human beings AND can't afford a way to travel suitable to both his arrogance and means, why do it anyway?

The "traveler" seems to wander through Africa with American centered prejudices and poor references of a narrow minded background.
The reader is continuously faced with his self centered obsession for his own boring motives (if any) that he thinks anyone cares about. He makes the reader witness all his irritations and frustration of a pure misanthrope, "forgot" to check the proper geography and history and spelling of the names of the countries he goes through, remains ignorant of the world, cultures and people and till the end totally misses the whole point of traveling.

Everything, even the slight excitement he seems to feel when encountering wild animals is awkwardly written, in dry insensitive words without style.

Oh, those hundreds of dull phrases in italic! Those infinitely repeated "burro" like donkeys have Spanish names in Africa, "black" like there's a need to remind us of the color of Africa's inhabitants.
What is Lake Kiva? Lake Tanzania? Are there really "caimans" in Africa? What is a "wild west town" to anyone not American? When were there only 700 black rhinos left? "Zaire, these days, after years of war, known as DRC": check exactly when the name changed? Victoria Falls, the world highest cascades? Since when does Michelin rate up to five stars? Any need to be condescending and transcript everyone's accent again and again while oneself has no clue about foreign languages? Any need to be rude, pushy and obnoxious when addressing people?

In this long boring account of what seems to have been an ordeal to him that we are forced to share, the only human encounter that seems to have somewhat pleased the ever complaining author are... another white couple traveling and Whites in South Africa.

This is a shallow disappointing report that would disgust anyone who wishes to travel to Africa.
Thanks God we know better.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and Enjoyable, March 31, 2006

By 

Shirley Priscilla Johnson "Author/Reviewer -... (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dead Men Don't Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa (Paperback)

This was my first experience reading about the travel adventures written by Brandon Wilson and I have to say it was one enjoyable one.
We are taken with Brandon and Cheryl Wilson as they travel the length of Africa. We start our adventure right from the beginning and all the woes that transpire in preparation and sometimes some of the unfortunate, like Brandon catching the flu. Once aboard for the true beginning of their adventure they are grouped with nearly two dozen people who in themselves are a story ready to be written.
Then our couple goes it on their own and it is here that they truly get into the meat of their journey, meeting natives, experiencing incredible landmarks and truly tasting of Africa.
This work is very well-written, is brimming with giggles and down to earth reality and the photos bring the reality of the read to life. I enjoyed this one; I believe you will too.