Maui resident Brandon Wilson’s walk from France to Jerusalem was not just for the scenery

Reviewed by Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Maui resident Brandon Wilson’s book “Along the Templar Trail: Seven Million Steps for Peace” follows a typical travel narrative path in many ways. Descriptions of the life on the road and the people you encounter. The food, the sites, the culture, the language.

But Wilson’s tale deviates from the norm not only because he walked from Dijon, France, to Jerusalem, Israel, but because he did it to promote peace.

Over five months and 2,620 miles, Wilson trekked through France, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Cyprus and Israel.

The route traced much of the Templar Trail, named after the road that Godfrey de Bouillon, a leader of the First Crusade, and the original Knights Templar traveled on their way to battle in the Holy Land in the ninth century. Wilson thought it would be especially appropriate to travel on a route that once was a warpath.

He wanted to dispel people’s notions of America as a materialistic, aggressive country and speak about peace at every chance he got. Eventually, Wilson hopes that the route he took can become a peace pilgrimage route for others.

For Wilson, walking “allowed me to free my mind, or ‘clean my hard-drive’ as it were.”

From Dijon to Istanbul his traveling companion was a Frenchman named Emile. They left in April 2006 and Wilson finished his trek to Jerusalem in September.

One constant in the ever-changing landscape of languages, accommodations, cuisines and road conditions was the steady stream of what Wilson calls “angels” along his walking path. Whether they were giving him a place to sleep when there was no hotel, offering him tea or melon, or just pointing him in the right direction, he writes, “Generosity was universal, unfettered by nationality or religion.”

While Wilson encountered skeptics and a few angry people along his path, he writes that most people were receptive to his message. He found particular revelations in meeting Muslims on his journey.

“Along the way, any preconceptions I had about Muslim cultures had vanished. Our ways of life might be different, but underneath the surface we were not dissimilar after all – more alike than politicians dare to admit,” he writes. “To a person, we all desire (and deserve) peace in our lives.”

Wilson has made seven pilgrimages to date, the first being a trip across Tibet with his wife in 1992 and the latest a 625-mile walk along the Via de la Plata trail through Spain. His trekking experience is apparent in the way he packs light, travels quickly, and economizes.

I could have done with a little less focus in the book on some of the problems Wilson had with his traveling companion and perhaps more concrete evidence of how he plans to establish his walk as an official peace pilgrimage route for others. But overall “Along the Templar Trail” was a fascinating tale of how one man experienced a trip through a diverse number of countries and yet found more similarities between people than differences.

“Along the Templar Trail” is available at www.pilgrimstales .com or through Amazon.com.