Inspirational. Adventurer
Based: Cape Town
David Grier is an inspirational speaker, celebrity chef, author and extreme adventurer, having just completed the first ever solo Madagascan challenge, a paddle from Africa to Madagascar (a distance of 500km) and then running the island from south to north, a distance of 2700km. Previous to this David did the first ever continuous joint run of the Great Wall of China, some 4000km in 98 days. Plus the first ever continuous run along the coast of South Africa from Oranjemund via Cape Town to Mozambique, 3300km in 80 days.
David was born on the 16th of January 1960 into a Cape wine farming family in South Africa, and with this base he never lost his roots for the love of the outdoors. With food, wine and adventure close to his heart, David set out to take all of his passions to the extreme, and explore the limits of the human mind and body. After he studied management at hotel school, David set out into the industry and became one of the countries youngest hotel managers at the age of 21.
Two years later David started his first in a chain of successful restaurants, and has an international television cooking series on the way. David is always pushing his adventure side as well. Summiting Mt Kilimanjaro, running the Comrades Marathon, the 2 Oceans Marathon, the Puffer Ultra Marathon, and the Le Grand Raid – the worlds hardest single stage mountain race, 128km. David’s books, Courage and Rice, a photographic journal of his adventure along the Great Wall of China, Hope in Thyme, a photographic journal of an inspirational journey around the coast of South Africa and Burnt Vanilla, a journey across Madagascar, are now available to buy on this website.
Spices, Tea and Philosophy
“My run from north to south down India ……
Starting in Kashmere, in the foothills of the Himalayas, at the most northern temple, I began this epic run down India, travelling through 10 provinces which, in the end, felt like 10 different countries. A journey that I felt that I was so prepared for, taking in all that I had learnt from my previous runs, only to find it was to be a journey that nearly got the better of me.
From day one it became an internal mental battle, struggling to remain focused and positive. Every day was a fight to take a negative situation and turn it positive. Plagued by injury, sickness, doubt and overwhelmed by the demise of humanity all around me, each day became a search for some straw of hope to hang onto for that day. In the end, as a team, we managed to turn it around by lifting the bar, pushing me harder and harder, finally running 50km a day for weeks on end. Through this physical achievement I began to believe that I could do it and managed to shut off the world around me. There was never a time that I could get into a rhythm and just run because of the mass of people around me all the time, the continuous barrage of questions and just plain honest interest in what I was doing. I finally reached the southern tip of India, 93 days later and covering a distance of 4008 km.
A country of beauty, friendship, spirituality, flavours and chaos, “don’t go looking for India, India will find you” – once again, a journey bigger than me as an individual, it was a journey to make a difference in the lives of children born with facial deformities, cleft lips and palates.”