| Dead Men Don't Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa |  | Author: Brandon Wilson
Publisher: Pilgrim's Tales, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 361,810
Media: Paperback
Pages: 276
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.6
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 couples seven-month, 10,000-mile "dream" odysseyoverland 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 Africas 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 Africas 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 traveledacross a land little fathomed.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
 A rare journey into the heart of Africa November 3, 2005
C. W. Gortner (San Francisco, USA)
13 out of 13 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.
Entertaining and Enjoyable April 1, 2006
Shirley Priscilla Johnson (USA)
13 out of 14 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.
Africa brought to life November 11, 2005
Dr. Robert Rich (Australia)
13 out of 14 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/
A True African Adventure... March 10, 2006
Hadley Goodman (Wrightsville Beach, NC)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
As a well traveled person myself, I was originally interested in reading "Dead Men Don't Leave Tips" as a guide for planning an upcoming trip to Africa. Once well into the book, it became more than a guide to Africa, but an in-depth, often times laugh-out-loud humorous look at the pitfalls of group travel in such a magical country.
Brandon Wilson's sense of adventure and colorful use of imagery leaves the reader eager to turn the page to see what happens to this motley crew next. Although entertained by the antics of this group I was much relieved when he and his partner were able to break free from their travel companions and I reveled in their independent spirit. I cringed right along with him at the "Ugly Americans" he described as his fellow Overlanders, and I danced with the tribes they met along the way. I felt the nervousness of the unknown as he traded money on the black market, and the frustration of being scammed by the young locals in the busy street markets. I found myself thirsty as they crossed the Sahara, and eager for a shower as they went weeks without access to proper facilities. I gasped for breath as they summited Mt. Kilimanjaro, and relished in relief and accomplishment on the descent. But most of all, I felt the thrill of experiencing a magical cultural found off the beaten path in the depths of Africa.
Wilson clearly depicts the highs and lows of experiencing other cultures, and I thoroughly enjoyed (and learned from) his experiences. Traveling through Africa is not for the weak at heart, and "Dead Men Don't Leave Tips" is a great place to start learning how to navigate through such an unpredictable adventure. Through it all, I look forward to planning my upcoming adventure, and feel certain it won't include an Overland Outfitter.
Brandon is a tougher man than me March 6, 2006
Jim (Somewhere)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Brandon, author of 'Yak Butter Blues' has now written about a 7-month trek covering almost all of Africa. You're going to laugh and cry. With his wife Cheryl, they start out on a whole-continent-bound bus with the most eclectic collection of travelers I've ever read about. I couldn't stop laughing. But, despite the humor, Brandon also describes the sometimes heart-breaking images of people and places in the Africa you don't hear about from the Travel Guides. He really captures these moments, both good and bad. Highly recommended. [smile]
Showing reviews 1-5 of 24
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