About David

 

David has undertaken numerous remote trips on several continents, including crossing the Tanami Desert and traversing the infamous ‘Gibb River Road’ drover’s track in Australia’s Kimberley region, exploring the Skeleton Coast in Namibia, and in 2023 becoming one of a small number of people to have hiked the whole of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada – twice!

David has written several guidebooks and contributed both text and photographs to other publications. His guides include Italy’s 500-mile ‘Grande Traversata Delle Alpi’ and the popular guide to the 2650-mile Pacific Crest Trail in the United States. He is a committee member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild (OWPG), and editor of ‘Outdoor Focus’, the quarterly journal of the Guild.

With a background that includes a BA in International Development and an MSc in Environmental Impact Assessment, including time at Makerere University in Uganda, David has always seen travel through a lens of economic and social development, as well as associated environmental and wildlife impacts. Understanding that visitors can bring revenue where there was none before and can take away understanding and respect for the lives of others. The opposite is also true. In excess, tourism contributes to erosion, pollution, price and creates resentment. With awareness of these issues comes responsibility, to make choices and choose words carefully when informing and guiding others.

Alongside travel writing, David works with academic researchers in a university context, to create social and economic impact from research through commercial and social ventures. This too is a journey and adventure. Projects emerge from the research world that generate opportunity, but rarely with a clear pathway to realise that opportunity, or the funding to do so. Working with teams to explore ways to achieve sustained impact in the world, David advises on value proposition, market discovery, business model planning and venture creation.