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𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗧 𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗥𝗞

@grantclark10

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☻ photography, writing, adventures, art
✷ @ctcannonchallenge founder
❆ #endurance22 team, Antarctica
⍟ biked solo Cairo to CT | SRMR01 | LEJOG

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WE FOUND IT!!! Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, which hasn't been seen for 107 years appeared on our subsea team's scanner last Saturday. Sitting upright and almost perfectly preserved 3008m down on the sea floor. She looks beautiful 😍 We've had to keep our lips sealed for a few days, but today the official press release goes out. With just 3 days remaining to locate her, you could feel the tension building, but the world's most challenging shipwreck search has ended successfully. You could almost feel our entire ship rise higher in the water as a weight was lifted off the expedition's shoulders. Its been a rollercoaster ride of an expedition.

The footage is absolutely incredible and also filmed in 4K for the first time. It's hard to overstate how much work has been put in and how good this team has had to be to across the board to pull this off. For Mensun Bound, our Director of Exploration, its been a 10 year journey including a failed attempt in 2019. For the subsea team its been the most complex project ever undertaken with several world records being broken in the process.

I was involved in the recovery of the sub for our last dive and as Ellie was brought safely and gently down onto the back deck, everyone started clapping and cheering. I had proper goosebumps. It's been quite incredible to be a part of history in the making and playing a tiny role in the latest chapter of the Shackleton story. Mostly I've loved being part of such a wonderful multi-disciplinary, multi-national team of people. I've learnt so much, been exposed to some amazing minds and people and cultures and this trip reminded me again that while there are some real dicks in this world, good people will always far outnumber the bad ones. I've been fortunate enough to spend the last month with some of the best ones.

Congrats to the Endurance22 team and the SA Agulhas II crew, you guys really deserve this 👏 A bit of feel-good news in a crazy world at the moment.

Images Credit: Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust
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#endurance22 #antarctica #shackleton #endurance #shipwreck #adventure #saagii #saagulhasii #travel #science #weather by @grantclark10

A while ago, on a ride back from the King's Blockhouse cannon on Table Mountain, I peered over the edge of Tafelberg Road and saw another cannon that I had never noticed before. With the success of awesome local initiatives and challenges for trail runners like @ryansandes @13_Peaks and the wildly popular @gone_outdoor Gone2Gone series, it occurred to me that there wasn't anything similar for cyclists.

I started doing some research into cannons around Cape Town (I even joined the Cannon Society 😄) and eventually came up with a mixed terrain route that links 16 cannons together and takes cyclists 160km through this crazy beautiful city, around the peninsula and back over the mountain.

Ultimately I wanted to make it a tough, but accessible local cycling challenge and adventure. And if you were going to attempt it in one day, it shouldn't be easy. I also hope that eventually it will attract some crazy people who want to run the route! And make it Cape Town's local 100 miler. But it's one thing having an idea for a concept, it's another doing the work to launch it, and then wondering if it's a good concept or if people would be keen to take it on.

@marc_erasmus joined up with me and helped to push me to finish off creating the route. And so the @ctcannonchallenge was finally launched this weekend 🎉 Even if it ended today, it's been so amazing watching the first riders this past weekend take on something I created and generally have a blast, amongst some real type 2 suffering 😂 Cheers guys.

And a MASSIVE thanks to these guys who got totally excited when I explained the adventure to them and who were amped to launch the challenge and partner with me. If you want to support good people and products, these guys are awesome:

@jackblackbeer
@eastcitycycles
@moltentoffee
@switchback_sports

Looking forward to seeing more people (and hopefully more women) take on the @ctcannonchallenge and create their own stories and adventures...

📸 @bridaybrummer
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#ctcannonchallenge #adventuremore #capetown by @grantclark10

A SHORT STORY (ABOUT THIS DIVING PLATFORM) |

When I was 14, I had to learn a forward 2¹/₂ somersault off the 5m platform at Sea Point Pool. I'd been dreading the training session all week and now it was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning and I was standing on the top platform waiting for my turn and wondering why I wasn't at the beach with my mates learning how to surf. Also I don't love heights. To make it even worse, a crowd of people had stopped on the promenade to watch us train. Great.

When it came to new dives, my coach would shout 3, 2, 1 and then I would go. She must have counted down about 20 times, but I remained frozen to the spot. Eventually, I remember an older diver came up to encourage me. It must have worked because my coach started counting down and I found myself moving forward to start my run-up. I launched off the platform and started counting my somersaults and watching my spots, water, sky, water, sky and break. I absolutely nailed it. Like 9/10. There was applause from the promenade gallery. Yuss, I owned that dive.

But now, I had to go up and do it again. This time I went on the first countdown. I started watching for my spot to break again, water, sky, wat- wait was that water or sky?? Oh shit. This is going to hurt. I landed flat on my back. I don't think I even went under the water. There was no applause, only gasps and a lot of oooohs. After recovering my ego I had to go up and try it again. And I nailed it. After that it became one of my favourite dives.

I'm not even sure what the point of this story is, but when I was 14, I harboured great disdain for cyclists. With their weird dorky helmets and tight lycra outfits (I was spending most of my time in a speedo, so I wasn't exactly holding the high ground). And I also definitely didn't do early mornings. Anyway I took this photo at 5:40am a couple of weeks ago while waiting for my local cycling group to arrive. Wearing my dorky helmet and some very tight lycra. My 14 year old self would've been so bleak with me.
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#platformdiving #cycling #photography #story #writing #shortstories #nostalgia by @grantclark10

You will struggle to find a more fun, more unique event than the Tanqua Kuru Bicycle Race.

It really feels less like a bike race and more like a collection of crazy unique moments stitched together by two wheels. The riding is incredible, but somehow it's not really about the bike, it's about the people and the community and the fact that you are having huge amounts of fun in one of the most unique and beautiful locations on the planet. And it's just 4 hours from Cape Town.

Racing planes down an airstrip. Sunset drinks overlooking the desert. Ice-cold Cokes (in a glass bottle!) from a lonely vending machine in the middle of nowhere. A spin over the desert in a @sling_aircraft. A special burn under a full moon. That's a lot to fit into two days. @supermantri and his crew set out to build something different and they absolutely succeeded. Thanks Jezza.

The bike is really just the excuse, the experience is the point. Lose yourself. Find yourself.

@the_tanqua_kuru_bicycle_race by @grantclark10

This is a bit late. Lots of scenes last month! I think this used to be referred to as a latergram. Is that still a thing?

During one of my city wanderings, I visited a tiny triangular patch of land in the East Village called the Abe Lebewohl Park. I was drawn by the photograph opportunity, but I found out it's also got quite an interesting story. The land was first bought by the city in 1799, but is now named after a Ukrainian immigrant whose family was split apart and sent to different countries during the second World War. After eventually tracking each other down and reuniting, the family immigrated and settled in Brooklyn.

Abe Lebewohl grew up in the city and eventually opened and operated a diner throughout the 70's and 80's called the Second Avenue Deli. He became well known because he would quietly feed broke artists, old locals, cab drivers, and homeless people for free if they couldn’t pay. The deli eventually came to be described as "possibly the Big Apple’s most well-known delicatessen” and it became known worldwide as a hotspot for celebrities and regular Joe's.

Abe was a survivor of the Holocaust and he was murdered in 1996 walking to the bank and robbed of $10,000. The gunman has never been caught and there's still a reward available for any information leading to the arrest of those responsible.

To this day, people still regularly leave stones, notes, and flowers in the park in remembrance of Abe.
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#postcards #newyork_ig #movingpostcards #capetown by @grantclark10

Grand Central Station
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#spi_geometry #streetphotographyinternatìonal by @grantclark10

Last few NYC things. Gugs, China Town and the Manhatten Bridge.
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#guggenheimmuseum #streetphotography #newyork_ig #spi_geometry by @grantclark10

I'm not sure when, but at some point early in my life, I saw some black and white photos of Coney Island and the amusement park and the wooden boardwalk and it got stuck in my consciousness as this "very American place". Sort of like that photo of the workmen sitting high up on the construction beam having lunch looking over New York (which I later discovered wasn't fake, but it was staged for a publicity stunt - you knocked that one out the park guys 👏🏼).

So anyway, I've always been curious to see Coney Island in real life. It's been operating continuously since the late 1800's which is pretty wild and is also - fun fact - where the hotdog was invented in 1867! 🌭 Nathan's hotdogs (in one of the pics above) has been serving them for over 100 years on the famous boardwalk.

Yesterday my aunt and uncle from Brooklyn took me down there for a visit and then we headed to what I was repeatedly assured was the best pizza place in Brooklyn, if not NYC. Thanks for an excellent American afternoon guys!
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#coneyisland #streetphotography #newyork_ig by @grantclark10

Grand Central Station is pretty special. You know it's a beautiful space when you have Oyster Bars, a Whispering Hall and a central clock worth $20M sitting in the middle of the Main Concourse. And I don't even have a good pic of the gorgeous constellations painted onto the ceiling.
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#photography #newyork_ig #grandcentralterminal by @grantclark10

New York doesn’t really ease you in, it just punches you in the face as a friendly hello. Everything is competing for your attention. But if you can filter out some of the noise, it's also shots for days.
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#nycphotography #streetphotography #nightphotography by @grantclark10

This is the story of Just Nuisance, the only dog ever to be officially enlisted in the Royal Navy.

Just Nuisance was a Great Dane born in Rondebosch, Cape Town in the late 1930s, but his real story begins in Simon’s Town, where he more or less adopted the Royal Navy. Or they adopted him, it’s unclear who chose who.

He quickly became part of daily life though, following sailors through town, sleeping in their quarters, and most notably, taking trains between Simon’s Town and Cape Town as if he had somewhere official to be. He never had a ticket and he regularly got thrown off the train. At 6'6 when he stood on his legs, he took up entire benches and often refused to move, making boarding and disembarking tricky. This led him to affectionately become known as Nuisance. Eventually though the state rail authorities had had enough and issued an ultimatum: control the dog, or he would be put down.

So the Navy had a think and then they enlisted him! Just Nuisance became an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy, complete with papers, a ration allowance, and most importantly, the legitimacy to ride trains without being removed. He was enlisted on 25 August 1939 and his surname was entered as "Nuisance" and, rather than leaving the first name blank, he was given the moniker "Just". It's worth noting that his service record was not exemplary. Aside from the offences of travelling on the trains without his free pass, he was also noted as being absent without leave, losing his collar and refusing to leave the pub at closing time. Bad dog.

During World War II, he didn’t fight in any battles, but he became a constant presence for sailors passing through Simon’s Town, offering a kind of uncomplicated companionship that was always gratefully accepted.

As he got older, his health declined, and in 1944 he was put down due to complications from a road accident. He was buried on Red Hill overlooking False Bay, with full military honours, including a gun salute and the playing of the Last Post, one of the very few animals ever to receive these honours 🐕‍🦺🎖️ Good boy.
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#postcards #capetown by @grantclark10

I keep thinking about this place. It genuinely felt like making your way through a fantasy land at the top of the Magic Faraway Tree. We made our little home for the night next to a glacial lake at 3000m which was pretty cool. (You can just make out @stephvgelderen making video postcards on a rock in the bottom corner 😊) by @grantclark10