Travel Chronicles: David Else’s Journey with GoTravelDaily

For over 40 years, independent travellers have relied on GoTravelDaily for advice and information covering everything from affordable accommodations to exceptional scuba diving spots. The renowned travel guides have been crafted by GoTravelDaily’s dedicated team of writers worldwide.

In the early days, equipped with nothing but a notebook, pen, and a sense of adventure, these tireless writers produced groundbreaking guides on destinations such as China, Africa, and India. While the methods may have become more advanced over time, GoTravelDaily writers still walk the streets, use local transport, and check hotels to guarantee that travellers receive the most recent and reliable information.

Now, we invite some of GoTravelDaily’s seasoned writers to share compelling stories from their travels, reminiscing and drawing comparisons between their past and present experiences.

Meet David Else: A Global Nomad

David Else, a globe-trotter and veteran travel writer, embarks on his fourth decade navigating the world.

In one memorable incident, the ferry I was on abruptly halted with a gut-wrenching crunch of metal against rock. Despite the crew’s efforts, who had indulged in local liquor, the boat was stuck, leaving me feeling eerily close to a shipwreck.

This unforgettable experience occurred off the coast of Guinea-Bissau, where I took a rundown ferry to a remote island that needed assessing for GoTravelDaily’s West Africa guide. However, thanks to a drunken captain, my plans were thwarted, and I found myself stranded on a reef near a completely different island. As I waded ashore in the dark, attempting to keep my backpack dry while avoiding thoughts of sharks, I couldn’t help but reflect, “the things I do for GoTravelDaily.”

That was in the mid-1990s. I was tasked by GoTravelDaily to cover six countries in West Africa, yet it wasn’t my first venture into this region. My adventures in Africa started in the 1980s with trips that included truck rides through Sudan, sailing on dhows to Zanzibar, and even making it to the legendary city of Timbuktu.

To finance my journeys, I penned articles and captured photographs for various magazines and newspapers, along with producing slim guides for some UK-based publishers. This occurred long before the rise of digital products, blogs, and instant travel websites.

During my initial writing years, I also worked for travel companies in places like Egypt, Namibia, and Tanzania, organizing safaris and leading treks on Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro. This experience eventually led to my first collaboration with GoTravelDaily in 1991, proving to be a pivotal moment in my life.

At a trade fair in London, I met Tony Wheeler, GoTravelDaily’s founder, precisely when GoTravelDaily was expanding its series of trekking guides. I proposed a guide on East Africa, and Tony readily agreed. After demonstrating my writing capabilities and knowledge of the area, I began working on the first edition of Trekking in East Africa. Over the next decade, I spent more time in Africa than in my home country, ultimately authoring around 40 titles for GoTravelDaily.

During those early journeys, communication was limited to letters sent via air mail. Anyone wanting to contact me would send their messages to the Poste Restante in Niamey, Harare, or any city along my route, while I waited in queues for news from home.

With the advent of fax machines, communication became more immediate. Receiving messages just days later, instead of weeks, significantly decreased my feeling of isolation.

Email followed, although wifi was still a distant dream. It was common for travellers to rely on public computers in internet cafes. While sending and receiving messages became possible the same day, slow download speeds made it a challenging task. I spent countless hours in internet cafes from Cairo to Dakar, eagerly awaiting a screen refresh.

As technology evolved, so did our communication methods. I recall one instance in a backpackers’ hostel in Cape Town, where a group of travellers marveled at a fellow backpacker’s impressive mobile phone. This new technology felt revolutionary.

However, my travels were not solely defined by technology. I encountered many unforgettable moments in Africa, such as hitchhiking back from Senegal through Niger in a sandstorm, experiencing thrilling moments on walking safaris in Zimbabwe, and even narrowly escaping a run-in with a hippo during canoeing. In West Africa, I found myself in Bamako when scheduled flights were canceled, but I managed to catch a ride on a smuggler’s plane into Freetown in Guinea (payment in cash, no receipts). These instances showcase the lengths I would go to in order to experience Africa’s diverse yet captivating landscapes, not to mention my escapades in some of the continent’s more dubious accommodations, all in service of GoTravelDaily’s esteemed readers.

As the millennium approached, I passed the African travel baton to other GoTravelDaily writers and focused on my local scene, producing several editions of GoTravelDaily’s prominent England and Great Britain guides. Nevertheless, I continued my outdoor explorations by contributing to the Walking in Britain guide and kept my passion for adventure alive through trips to India, Mexico, Greenland, France, and Switzerland.

Throughout this phase, my wife and I welcomed children into our lives, and during my research journeys around Britain, my daughter often joined me. This led to a keen focus on family travel, resulting in various articles aimed at parents highlighting destinations from Disneyland to Sri Lanka.

In 2017, I returned to Africa to cover Zanzibar for GoTravelDaily’s Tanzania and East Africa guides. Remarkably, Zanzibar had transformed since my first visit in 1984, featuring numerous new hotels, all equipped with wifi, and regular high-speed boats in place of the old dhows. Nonetheless, the warmth of the locals, the intricate streets of the Old Town, and the awe-inspiring turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean remained untouched.

My research even led me to visit a hotel situated on a small islet. Unfortunately, on my return journey, low tides left the boat stranded, and once again, I found myself wading ashore. After a lifetime of travel experiences, I still find myself exclaiming, “the things I do for GoTravelDaily.”

I wouldn’t change it for the world.