The following is an article written by fellow blogger, Derek Cullen. He’s traveled all over Africa and as you will read he’s quite passionate about organizing and offering great day tours.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.
Travel will change the way you see the world
Riding a bicycle through Africa was to be the most profound experience that would change everything about the way I looked at the world and eventually, the beginning of a new career. You see, I began that journey for several reasons; my parents had passed away, I hated my career and a very serious depression was taking hold but the truth is that I had little more aspiration on this trip other than to do something interesting with my life. Little did I know, I would eventually find in Africa what I wanted to do for a living and furthermore, start a sustainable online business that would change the way other people see the world.
Searching for inspiration in Africa
And I’m not talking about becoming a travel writer or an adventure tour leader in Africa (Both of which I now do) but rather a business idea that came to me while sitting on a mountainside with my second hand bicycle. You see, I was exhausted from cycling that day and unable to continue up such an enormous hill but then the real reason I was so deflated was because I was entirely uninspired. After all, what had I been doing the past few weeks? I was here riding a bicycle through Africa but what was I actually experiencing in the local area other than scorching heat on deserted roads? Truth is, I was simply unable to find new experiences or day tours of any kind in these areas and this pretty much left me stranded when it came to having an immersive experience or understanding the places I was passing through.
Local experiences and day tours in Africa
I wondered about this every day and arriving in every town or city, I began to enquire with locals or campsite owners as to what kind of day tours and activities I might find in the area. It would turn out that there were in fact a large number of things to do but with so little online experience, most of these Africa day tours or guides were not listed online. In truth, this was mostly unsurprising but on the other hand it didn’t add up as there was Wi-Fi or online access for locals almost everywhere I went.
For the rest of that year, I would travel from one town to the next on my bicycle and continue searching for these local experiences and day tours but it was only upon reaching Kenya when I came to realize that I truly had something that everyone else needed. Yes, I realized in this more civilized part of Africa that even the most renowned operators who offered day tours in Kenya did not have access to a booking engine. In fact, in later research I would come to find that almost 70% of tour operators worldwide did not have access to a booking facility and in Africa this figure exceeded the mark of 90%.
It was at this point when I stopped wondering about the reasons why and began initiating what I knew would be a sustainable service. It was already built it in my mind and all that was left to do was cycle the rest of the way through Africa collecting data in order to go to work on it afterward!
Enter Daytourz.com – The easy way to find day tours in Africa
Anyway, it took a year of hardship just to come up with the idea as I cycled across scorching deserts in Namibia, over majestic mountain ranges in Ethiopia and through dangerous wildlife corridors in Botswana and today Daytourz.com is the world’s first website dedicated to booking local experiences and day tours in Africa. You know, it was just a simple bicycle trip that would lead me to what I now do for a living and an adventure that would change the way I saw the world but I’m mostly grateful for the new lease of life the process of travel has given me and for a day tours website that would then help change the way other people see the world.
Derek
As a disclaimer, I have not used their services but I do plan to do so on an upcoming trip. I am also not compensated for sharing this article. Derek and I have simply agreed to share each other’s information on each of our respective websites. We do not endorse or recommend each other’s services, simply want to share useful information with our readers.