Dead Men Don't Leave Tips

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

Brandon Wilson is an award-winning author and photographer, explorer, internationally published adventure-travel writer and expert light trekker. A voracious explorer of nearly 100 countries, (and 12,000 kilometers by hiking), he'’s particularly passionate about inspiring others with the possibility of discovery through long-distance trekking. Hours spent walking in those African jungles first opened his eyes to the deep satisfaction of traveling ‘one-step-at-a-time’. By slowing down, he believes, we absorb the hidden ‘magic’ in the world. We travel outside–while traveling within.

After traversing Africa (as chronicled in Dead Men Don't Leave Tips), he and his wife Cheryl went on to become the first Western couple to trek 1000 kilometers (650 miles) over the Himalayan plateau from Lhasa, Tibet to Kathmandu. Their story is told in the IPPY award-winning true adventure tale, Yak Butter Blues.

Besides crossing Tibet, the author has twice hiked the famed Camino de Santiago across Spain, the Via de la Plata, the St. Olav’s Way across Norway, and he was the first American to complete the 9th century, 1150 mile Via Francigena trail from England to Rome. In 2006, he and a friend re-blazed the route of the First Crusades from France to Jerusalem, naming it the Templar Trail. (This story is chronicled in his book Along the Templar Trail (named 2009 Best Travel Book by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation).