About the Author

Bruce Kirkby has pursued a life of adventure, undertaking major expeditions to remote locations around the globe. After graduating in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University, Bruce had a brief (six-month) office career, before his love of the wilderness and a craving for physical challenge tore him away.

A professional guide, Bruce has spent much of the last ten years in arduous environments, leading whitewater rafting and canoe expeditions on remote northern rivers (including the Tatshenshini, Nahanni, Firth, and Burnside), jungle explorations in the Central American rainforest, and sea-kayak voyages along Belize’s barrier reef. As a mountaineer Bruce has climbed throughout Canada and around the world, twice reaching the summit of Mt. McKinley (North America’s highest peak), and he was a member of the 1997 Canadian Mt. Everest Expedition.

Three of Bruce’s journeys have been featured in National Geographic video documentaries, including a raft descent of Ethiopia’s legendary Blue Nile Gorge. His photographs have been featured in Outside magazine, American Photo, Maclean’s, Explore, and Men’s Fitness.

While not in the field, Bruce lives in Calgary, where he is currently organizing a one-hundred-day foot journey across Tibet’s remote Chang Tang Plateau.

Reviews

“Wonderful and richly rewarding…[Sand Dance] is an immense achievement, as book and journey, one that made me gnash my teeth, laugh and weep for both sorrow and joy. And one that made me wish devoutly that I’d been there too.”
–Globe and Mail

“Sand Dance is destined to become a classic. It’s not only a fine literary work, it’s beautifully produced as well, peppered with Bruce Kirkby’s evocative photographs and lovely touches of Arabic script. Highly recommended.”
–Explore

“Sand Dance is a thrilling read for anyone who finds the desert, or the Middle East, alluring.”
–Edmonton Journal