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Dead Men Don't Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa | 
 enlarge | Author: Brandon Wilson
Publisher: Pilgrim's Tales, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $15.25
You Save: $1.70 (10%)
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Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 91147
Media: Paperback
Pages: 284
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0977053644
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780977053643
ASIN: 0977053644
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
DEAD MEN DON'T LEAVE TIPS: Adventures X Africa is an edge of your seat tale about a couple s seven-month, 10,000-mile "dream" odyssey overland across Africa from top-to-tip. Against their better judgment, two confirmed independent travelers join a bewildering band of companions and clueless guides. As their dream of crossing Africa becomes a nightmare, they set off across the continent alone. And that makes all the difference. Join them as they meet mountain gorillas face to face. Melt down during a blistering Saharan breakdown. Hunt dik-dik with Pygmies. Climb Africa s highest mountain. Feel the raw power of the Serengeti. Hop the "gun-run" through a civil war. Rush down thundering Class V Zambezi rapids and dive into South Africa s cauldron of turmoil. This engaging story is filled with a zest for life, travel and unbridled adventure. It offers a humorous, sometimes anguished, yet always candid look at taking the road less traveled across a land little fathomed.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Entertaining and Enjoyable April 1, 2006
Shirley Priscilla Johnson (USA)
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
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.
A rare journey into the heart of Africa November 4, 2005
C. W. Gortner (San Francisco, USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
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.
Africa brought to life November 11, 2005
Dr. Robert Rich (Australia)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Dead Men Don't Leave Tips
by Brandon Wilson
I've read travel stories by Brandon Wilson before, so knew I'd be entertained, amused and instructed. His story of a crossing of Africa did not disappoint me.
Leaving domesticity in Hawaii, Brandon and his brand new wife Cheryl joined what proved to be the do it yourself safari from hell. From the hot dry hell of the Sahara to the humid hell of the jungle, through starving villages and squalid cities, we follow a picturesque group of pilgrims. Brandon's writing makes the reader feel the heat, the discomfort and even despair, while giving one laugh after another. Living it was difficult. Reading about it isn't. If I wrote about the travails of camping beside a swamp infested with malaria-bearing mosquitoes, I might bring tears to your eyes, and have you grit your teeth. Brandon gives you a belly laugh instead.
Not that it was all misery. It is clear that Brandon and Cheryl felt well rewarded for their endurance. His passages about wildlife, scenery and friendly people sometimes approach the poetic.
Like all good writing, this book does a lot more than entertain. One would expect to learn about Africa -- its people, animals, landscape -- from a travel book, but, without lecturing Brandon gets us to see social conditions; the gap between rich and poor, urban and starving. Racially, he is colorblind, with respect for all people, while sometimes justly indignant about cruel or exploitative behavior.
The language is always lively and entertaining, clear and lucid with amusing little word-paintings: `a Swiss cheese swatch of dirt road;' `we were finally waved on our way-and after only four hours;' and `It was a sleepy place-so quiet you could almost hear trouble simmering.'
Brandon is a writer with the eye of an artist, a basic decency and social conscience that in another book made him the champion of the suppressed Tibetan people. He has the humor of a cartoonist and the old fashioned ability to tell a good story. I strongly recommend this one to you.
About the reviewer: Dr Bob Rich is a multiple award-winning writer and professional editor http://bobswriting.com/
Mzungus in Africa February 5, 2006
Jill Malter (jillmalter@aol.com)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Can one cross Africa from tip to tip, North to South? Yes. And there are plenty of ways to do it (a friend of mine even walked it alone, not something I would recommend). But no matter how you do it, there will be problems. There are visas to get, possessions to take or leave behind, and languages to learn (or else you rarely get to talk with and maybe stay with the natives you probably came to Africa to meet). Your vehicle will probably break down or get stuck. You may run out of food. There will be all sorts of unexpected delays (as I found out when I was in Africa). And you will almost certainly get sick at some point. Life isn't always easy for Mzungus ("mzungu" is Swahili for "white person").
In this amusing book, we follow the exploits of Brandon and Cheryl Wilson as they travel the length of Africa. Part of their trip is with a group of nearly two dozen rather diverse and "individually bizarre" people. For the rest of the trip, the Wilsons are on their own, and they then find it somewhat easier to meet people and make friends in the places they visit.
Our travellers do get to see some true highlights in Africa. They do visit Marrakech, in Morocco. Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Lamu in Kenya. Mount Kilimanjaro (they climb it all the way to Gillman's Point, at an altitude of over 18000 feet). Victoria Falls. They try the Zambezi rapids in a raft. And much more.
I found the description of South Africa interesting. After all, I've read books that boast about the end of South African apartheid. But how is life in that country these days? I've heard some bad things, and this book if anything confirms them.
Oh yes, the title. If some maniacs drive you around unsafely, you may want to remind them that you won't give them a tip unless you remain alive.
This is a well-written and funny travel story. It includes a bunch of surprisingly fuzzy black-and-white photos. Anyway, I like this book and I recommend it.
Midwest Book Review March 23, 2006
Mayra Calvani (Brussels, Belgium)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
Dead Men Don't Leave Tips is the thrilling, captivating true tale of a honeymooned couple who quit their job, sell their home and cars, and leave everything behind to achieve a dream: cross Africa on a seven-month, 10,000-mile journey from Morocco to Cape Town.
Join professional travellers Wilson and Cheryl as they bargain with villagers, struggle with incompetent guides and government officials, pass sleepless nights in deplorable accommodations, cross the Sahara amidst sand storms and blistering heat, meet gorillas and Pygmies face to face, and climb Mount Kilimanjaro, reminding us all along that simple things such as a nice meal, a shower and getting cash can become the ultimate luxuries.
The tale is poignant with ironic humor and human drama. Each chapter begins with a witty, profound African proverb, and in the middle section the author includes interesting B&W photographs to complement his account and give a clearer picture of Africa's sights and sounds.
What's striking about Wilson's books (he's also the author of the IPPY Award winner Yak Butter Blues) is that his journeys are not only physical but highly spiritual as well. His are journeys of body and soul in every sense of the word. The author writes with honesty and a sharp eye for detail, making this an invaluable amalgam of information for readers of adventure travel or anybody who is considering "do-it-yourself" safaris or simply visiting Africa. 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. Having already reviewed Wilson's previous work, this reviewer is already looking forward to his next. Highly recommended.
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