April 24, 2008

Presenting: Brandon Wilson - Author, Photographer and World Traveller Shares Tales of a Pilgrim

As I have gotten older I have found myself getting increasingly disenchanted with my regular rat-race life, and I have actively searched out individuals who have walked a different path. On my website you will find many people who have quit their corporate jobs and created new lives, much more spiritual and meaningful lives that are not dominated by the quest for consumption and material gain.

One of these people is author and photographer Brandon Wilson. Read here about his unique path and his special insights as a world traveler and pilgrim.

1. Please tell us about yourself. Where are you from, what is your background?

I grew up in Pennsylvania’s Ohio Valley, went to university in the South, and have been moving farther and father west throughout my life. Now I live in Hawaii. If I head west again, I run the risk of starting all over again as I cross the International Date Line. I’m facing a weird time-space dilemma.

Brandon Wilson, author/pilgrim, amid the poppies of Hungary
Image © Brandon Wilson

2. Some events shaped you and kindled a passion for travel when you were very young. Please tell us more.

I discovered the freedom and addictive lure of travel at an early age. When I was six years old, my father and I set off across America in a red and white Chevy with a burlap bag full of water strapped to the grill. To a bright-eyed kid, there was something magical about the open road, not knowing what lies around the next bend. Hey, there still is. My father and I feasted on a now-extinct America along Route 66, complete with teepee motels, plastic cactuses, and characters straight out of a Tarantino film. I was hooked. That trip planted a seed in my fertile imagination that grew into a passion for travel and exploration.

3. In the 1980s you decided to change your life. What were you doing before, what made you want to make a change and how was your transition to a more unconventional life?

Up until that point, like many people, my chance to get away was limited by my job, bank account and perceived responsibilities. I’d been trained in communications and tried to fit into the bizarre mold (or algae) of the corporate world. Well, I never adapted well to cubicle-life. Thank God. I ended up on the creative end of the biz, but even then I realized that this was like dressing a pig in pajamas. It was still a pig.

In the mid-80s, my wife Cheryl and I quit our jobs in a remote Arctic Eskimo village, bought a round-the-world air ticket and took off for a year. It was a chance to defrost as we worked our way though a mental checklist of all the places we’d ever dreamed of exploring: from India’s Taj Mahal to the tombs of Luxor to the nude beaches of Greece and spas of Japan. It was an exhaustive and eclectic list.

Brandon Wilson at Mt. Everest base camp
Image © Brandon Wilson

Traveling on just $30 a day, we learned how to travel and live like a local wherever we landed. That was a valuable lesson, as it easily dispelled the myth that you have to be “rich” to travel. Independent travel was far better anyway than being stuck in a tour group and surrounded by all the folks you hoped to avoid at home. Besides, it was a lot more fun to hop a ride on a Thai train, teach “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” to local guys and buy grilled kabobs out the window.

4. Your first big pilgrimage happened in 1992: you and your wife went to Tibet. Why did you decide to go on this trip?

Honestly, at first it appealed to us as the ultimate adventure. We’d grown up with the mystery of Tibet. The Land of Snows had been cloistered for so many centuries. After the Chinese invasion in 1950, its borders had been closed off and on for decades. Travel was limited to a few propaganda-laden tours.

So there was little surprise when we applied for a visa and were told that it was an “impossible” journey: there was no food, no place to stay, no maps, extreme weather, nose bleed altitudes, no way to communicate, yada yada. The more the Chinese insisted it was “impossible,” the more I wanted to do it. To top it all off, visas weren’t being issued. So we decided to go to Nepal and apply again there. If we couldn’t get a visa, we’d sneak in and move from village to village relying on fate or karma.

Prostrating Pilgrims in a cloud of incense, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet
Image © Brandon Wilson

As luck would have it, in Katmandu we discovered the border opened just the day before—for the first time in decades. Synchronicity. The Chinese gave us sixty-day visas. Their only restriction was that we’d have to take their tour in Lhasa, but then we could walk 1,000km back to Katmandu along an ancient Buddhist pilgrimage trail.

Even before we left the Himalayan capital, we were surrounded by soldiers and reminded of the harsh conditions facing Tibetans today with their brutal occupation. So we bought a set of prayer flags with the intent of presenting them to the King of Nepal—if we made it back to Katmandu—in the hope he would fly them as a symbol of solidarity with the Tibetan people.

5. Please tell us about some of the practicalities involved in this trip: what about luggage, where did you sleep, how did you deal with the physical demands of this experience?

We carried backpacks with a tent and sleeping bags, plus all the gear you’d expect on a Himalayan expedition at 12-17,000 feet. However, we only took five days worth of food, expecting to buy more along the way. Just outside of Lhasa, we bought a Tibetan horse named Sadhu, who quickly became our buddy and a terrific icebreaker with the locals.

Cheryl and Sadhu adrift on the wild Tibetan plains.
Image © Brandon Wilson

6. Please tell us about your route and some of the complications.

In 1992, things were much different than they are today. Most of the east-west road was gravel and poorly marked. The “latest” maps didn’t even show the airport. Over the next forty days we found ourselves a little lost, we were shot at by Chinese soldiers, we walked through a blizzard, puked from a bronchial infection, I cracked a rib from coughing over a dung fire, plus it was always uncertain where (or if) we’d find food, water or a place to sleep. Much to our chagrin, there were very few stores or markets along the way and I quickly lost 25% of my body weight. (As a weight loss plan though, I really can’t recommend it.)

7. What about your experiences with the locals? What did you learn about Tibetan culture?

All those difficulties made us more dependent on the kindness of strangers. As it turned out, we only used our tent two nights. The rest of the time we were invited into locals’ homes. We slept on their floors or in their courtyards or stables and often shared a cup of yak butter tea with them. Many of them were former monks and spoke a smattering of English. In secret, they’d unveil their altar and speak of their steadfast faith in the Dalai Lama’s return. I was astounded by their unshakable faith and have since become a staunch supporter of their human rights.

Young Lhasa monk. Image © Brandon Wilson

8. What did you learn from this experience and how has it affected your life?

It taught us the beauty of slow, deliberate travel. Discovering a place and culture by walking is such an entirely different experience than traveling by car or even bicycle. It slows down reality and allows you to wallow in the minutiae. You reconnect with the earth and have time to work through harbored feelings, ideas and emotions. You disconnect from the frenzy of the modern world and reconnect to the more natural one. Walking becomes a Zen-like transcendent experience, a trampoline for the mind.

9. Please tell us about the book you wrote about this experience "Yak Butter Blues".

Each day along the way, I wrote about our experiences while they (and the blisters) were still fresh. I described the unique people we met as well as the thoughts passing through my sun-addled brain. The award-winning book is a true story of our survival interwoven with that of the Tibetan people. It is candid, gritty and provides an intimate look at a culture facing extinction. We feel honored to have preserved this moment in time and felt a responsibility to set adrift this message in a bottle so that others can discover an inspiring glimpse of the Tibetan people’s courage for themselves—hopefully before it’s too late.

In Everest's Shadow approaching the North Face
Image © Brandon Wilson

10. You also did some extensive travelling through Africa and wrote another book "Dead Men Don't Leave Tips". What was this trip all about?

Following our year circling the globe, we returned to the States, easily choosing Hawaii as a more temperate and tolerant location. Still we only lasted another four years before wanderlust struck again. Cheryl and I quit our “career” jobs, sold our house and cars, put everything into storage and set off once again for the unknown.

After backpacking across Eastern Europe on a shoestring for a few months, we landed in Berlin just in time to help chip away at the Wall. Then determined to explore Africa, we joined a do-it-yourself safari out of London bound for Cape Town. We figured crossing seventeen countries over seven months would be enough of a challenge without having to deal with all the bureaucracy and baksheesh along the way. So we’d let the “experts” handle that. What a mistake. In theory that made sense, but our expert driver and his assistant were as new to Africa as we were. We soon decided we’d rather risk dying at our own hands rather than theirs and set off on our own.

All in all, it was a wild experience as we traversed an unpredictable, ever-changing continent. We crossed the Sahara, went whitewater rafting down the Zambezi, climbed “Kili,” hunted dik-dik in a Pygmy village, photo stalked mountain gorillas and hopped the gun-run across Mozambique during its civil war. And that was just the beginning… Besides providing a great series of adventures, quirky characters and comic mishaps, the book allows readers to experience the diversity of Africa while adding a human face to a misunderstood continent.

Quiet moments in fields transport you to simpler times
Image © Brandon Wilson

11. A few years later you embarked on the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Northern Spain. Please tell us more about that experience.

Our Tibetan odyssey really changed the way we looked at travel. It was such an intense experience. Upon returning I found myself seeking something that might begin to compare. By chance, I heard about a medieval route that crossed Spain from the French border to Santiago de Compostela and the burial place of St. James the Apostle. So by the fall of 1999, I gladly set off with a backpack and joined others from around the world on this ancient path.

For the beginner pilgrim, or peregrino, days are certainly more organized than in Tibet. The trails are well marked, the scenery is varied and beautiful, there are inexpensive hostels to stay each night, and plenty of small cafes and good local wine to satisfy your hunger. Yet again, there is that rare chance to disconnect from the din and clutter of the outside world, to travel outside while traveling within.

The way to Santiago is well-marked and well-trodden
Image © Brandon Wilson

12. You also covered the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome. Why did you choose this pilgrimage route and what did you experience?

The pilgrim’s cape fit me well. Walking on pilgrimage trails became my passion. I no sooner returned from Santiago than I started thinking about my next walk. Of course, in between I had to earn a living at writing, but my mind was never far from the trail. Before long, I heard about another path that had recently been re-established. It followed the route of Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, from England to Rome. So, over two summers I retraced his journey, walking one year from Switzerland to Rome and another from Lausanne to England. I discovered the same serenity on the trail and the same friendliness and curiosity by locals along the way—and the red wine was a vast improvement over yak butter tea. They tell me that I’m the first American to walk that trail and hopefully my notes and mentoring make it more feasible for others to follow.

San Gimignano preserves its medieval heritage down to the smaller
details. Image © Brandon Wilson

Stay tuned for Part II of this interview where Brandon will tell us about his pilgrimage from France to Jerusalem and many other fascinating experiences.

Brandon Wilson’s books are available from your favorite bookstore or Internet bookseller. For previews and free pdf articles about the trails mentioned, visit: http://www.pilgrimstales.com. Photos from his walk to Jerusalem may be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pJaLpWZWbU

Useful Books: