Join Kathryn Thomas on the show for an incredible chat with Fergal Guihen, the Roscommon man cycling 23,000km from Ireland to Australia! 🚴♂️ Hear about his epic journey so far, a truly scary incident on the road, and the overwhelming kindness he’s received from people along the way. Fergal’s doing all this to raise vital funds for Mayo Roscommon Hospice & NorthWest Stop. This is a story of resilience, generosity, and adventure you won’t want to miss!
#IrelandToAustralia #CyclingChallenge #FergalGuihen #KathrynThomas #CharityCycle #MayoRoscommonHospice #NorthWestStop #Inspiration #EpicJourney #Roscommon
It’s hard to program your mind to to be like kindness is everywhere, but it is. You just have to actually be looking for it to see it. It’s the morning show with Katherine Thomas on Dublin’s Q102. Now, I know a lot of us think we’ve done something impressive when we cycle to work or maybe we even take a weekend spin up the Dublin Mountains. But today’s guest is taking things to a whole new level. He has cycled, well, he’s halfway there or almost or over halfway there. He’s cycling from Ireland all the way to Australia. No flights, no shortcuts, just two wheels, the open road and a serious sense of adventure. Fergle Gohan, uh, lovely to chat to you this morning, Katherine. How are you? Thanks for having me on. It’s great to get talking about the travels. Yeah. Well, listen, you know me. I’m a woman who I’ll talk travel all day long if they’d let me. But, uh, where am I actually talking to you? Where in the world are you at the moment? So, I’m currently in Indonesia. I think it’s my 26th country here. And I’m maybe 3 days outside the capital of Jakarta. I’m here in the back of this old man’s house. He’s a massive cycling community here in Indonesia. And uh they have all these little home stays you can stay in. So looking around me now like I’m after just going to the toilet there where it’s you know not a proper flush phone. It’s you know you have to throw the B and water into it. The hole in the ground even more. You throw the water in on top of it and yeah, it’s uh in a surrounded by other houses uh here. Indonesia is like the fourth highest population in the world. So, it’s uh pretty busy. Brilliant. Well, listen, I have been following you online for a good couple of months now. Your Instagram handle is Rossy to Aussie. So, you’re from Ross Common. You’re a Ross Common man cycling to Australia. I am. Um where did the idea come from? Why are you doing it? Where did the idea come from? When did you set off? Give us all the the background. Yeah, I guess uh I’m a nurse. Um I would have trained in St. James’s Hospital and when I was um you know 18 19 I would have been working along with people that unfortunately were passing away. So I would have spent a lot of time listening to their stories and getting to know them. So at that age you know it’s kind of really made me realize that I’m not going to be around forever. So when I did eventually qualify as a nurse, I worked for a year or two postco. Um but then I was really asking myself the questions, what do I what what do I want to do because I’m not going to be here forever. And uh I knew I love to travel and I knew I loved endurance sports, but that was more so running. I never once cycled before. So uh I thought it would have been too long now to run from Ireland to Australia. Uh so I mixed it up and I learned how seriously you had you had never really been into cycling at all. No, sure. I changed my first flat tire outside Paris. I had no clue. Oh my god. You see, I love this. I absolutely loved it. So, where did the idea come from then? So, I was planning to move to Australia anyways cuz I’m a nurse and as a lot of Irish uh healthcare workers and all backgrounds are moving out there for work. Uh so, I said I didn’t want to go out there and spend two years working away just to move home. I wanted to see a bit of the world while I could. So uh I guess that’s why I had Australia as the destination and uh I also wanted to do it for a reason bigger than me. So I got involved with the two charities that of course mean a lot to myself being a nurse palative care would have my great granny uh she would have been looked after by the rcom and mo uh hospice foundation and then I’m also doing it for a suicide prevention charity northwest stop suicide prevention and unfortunately I’d have family members and that would have passed away from suicide and most recently when I was uh 8 months into this cycle challenge my cousin Tom unfortunately passed away from suicide so it’s a cause that’s close to my heart and thankfully you But there’s a lot of donations coming in that can hopefully make families um not feel the way that my family did. So it’s all about prevention. Incredible stuff. How much have you raised so far? So so far I think we’re just touching the 80 grand mark which is far exceeded my expectations. So it’s just the kindness out there is amazing and yeah it’s uh great that I can show people the world why I’m seeing it myself. So I’m really taken back by it’s it’s brilliant. It’s brilliant. what you do, you take people on this adventure and to be able to raise that is an incredible amount of money. Like you set off in March 2024, um 23,000 kilometers to get to Australia. So you start you said you changed your first tire outside Paris. So talk to us. You you went through Paris, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria before cycling down to Greece. And then take us from Greece then across because I suppose that’s where it gets a little bit more challenging, I’d imagine, going through the Middle East and and onwards. Yeah, exactly. Like a lot of people I guess might have traveled to countries like Turkey before, but I never would have been any further east than Ber than um Munich. So when I crossed into Turkey, you know, it’s a ma Muslim country was all very new to me and uh I would have been camping a lot of my trip and there was so many days uh you just have this this fear like a lot of my journey has been facing fear straight on. So, I remember camping in a my tent in Turkey and uh just sleeping in this abandoned dressing room and all I could see was the moonlight coming in the crack in a door and I would just convince myself that someone walked by the door and that would happen over and over and over again all night and I ended up just getting no sleep. But all it is is your just imagination. It’s just yourself telling you that it’s your body just trying to create something to run away from. I don’t know how best to describe it, but uh I just had to convince myself that until I see danger, I’m not going to be afraid of it. So, I could hear noises at night anymore in my tent. I could uh whatever. But it’s not until I see a gun, a knife, or something like that that I actually will lose sleep. So, I had to recondition my mind for this type of travel. But the thing that surprised me, so that was my fear. But the other thing that surprised me was just a massive amount of kindness that would have come through like going through countries like Iran, Afghanistan. Like I didn’t plan to go through them countries, but as I went on through Turkey, I would have met other travelers coming the other way. And they went through Iran, Afghanistan. And I was like, you can go, you can go through there and not die. So obviously I was like, well, when am I ever going to be able to do something like this? And I just had to hit uh straight into it. And obviously a lot of fear entering these countries, but like I was rewarded 10fold with the kindness that would have come out the other end. Like there’s amazing to see these countries. And you know what? It is so good to hear you say that because all we’re doing is like seeing the kind of the negative and the buildup with Iran at the moment. Um Afghanistan of course we’ve got such connotations of of Afghanistan. I remember reading Derva Murphy’s book full tilt and she cycled from Ireland to India and again she spoke about the kindness of the Afghani people and the Afghani men particularly as well. So it is actually lovely and that those corridors and there are corridors that are still open that you can be cycling through there. Um are your are your parents still alive for? They are. Yeah. I actually uh I have four siblings and my mother and father thankfully are are still uh So what do they think? I mean your your mother back in Ross Common thinking of you going off like it’s it’s all very well saying oh everybody’s very kind but when you you know when you’re that far away going through these places it it’s kind of a worrying one for her I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. Well I would have met travelers going through that they would have done wild things all their life but for me you know I would have played Gaelic football all my life. I went off to university in Dublin. I would have moved back home. Like everything was you know bog standard like the way we kind of do it in Ireland. Nothing. I never would have went off like skiing or climbing mountains or stuff anything weird. So my parents would have been like what are you on about like why are you cycling from Ireland to Australia? But they never put pressure on me in the sense like career-wise or like whatever I was happy doing. But the one thing that they were really scared was they were like do you actually know what you’re doing? You know we’ll let you do what you want. They would never stop me. But they were always you know just we don’t want you to die doing something like this and if it is you know if you’re in the middle of it and you want to come home like do it. Don’t just cuz you met a public doesn’t mean that you can’t. So obviously a lot of tears a lot of me having to convince them cuz I had to convince myself that I really believe that the world is a great place and I would have had people telling me oh you’re going to die out there and I just had to ignore all this negativity and of course my parents did too but um it’s very hard in their situation where they’re obviously very worried about me. Did you have any negative um situations or dangerous situations? Yeah. Yeah. Um well only one that stands out and uh to put a preface on it, it’s uh Iran. It was one of my favorite countries. The hospitality and the kindness I came across. But uh unfortunately I did uh I was cycling along in Iran and people would have been handing me, you know, water and food out the window of moving cars. I’d stop for lunch at noon. They’d be trying to make me stay the night there. Like they you couldn’t get away from the kindness. So, I uh was coming out of the basin up onto like the desert uh landscape and I seen the first tree and I don’t know how long and I was going to hide under it cuz it was 45° outside. And as soon as I got to the tree, a car pulled in and uh I just had a good feeling that this was a bad person. And long story short, he handed me some juice and he ended up injecting something into it. So, I completely lost all motor motor skills in my hands and uh we had a bit of a fight. Um, he didn’t get anything robbed for me, but I ended up severely cutting, having a big wound on my on my leg. So, me in this awful state, I could barely even protect myself. It was the most vulnerable I ever felt. Uh I ended up get someone stopped and brought me to a hospital and uh yeah the kindness in the hospital then like everyone was apologizing that this happened in their country you know I didn’t have to pay for a thing cuz they were just like so like they were honestly embarrassed how a traveler can come through and someone would harm them. Um so it was a once-off case and just the kindness that would have come from that like the people how they would have been like they’re so apologetic and yeah it’s um it was such a once-off case. It is a pity. It did happen there. But uh yeah, it it was hard to continue after that. You know, I had Afghanistan afterwards, but it was easier to continue than it was to go backwards. And thankfully, I kept going. And look, I’m almost in Australia now. You’re almost in Australia. And and physically, how’s the body now? How you holding up? Yeah, like I said, I was never a cyclist before. I just pure ignorance. West of Ireland man. Uh I challenged my ignorance into a positive light. And uh yeah I guess the body is conditioned to keep going but I think I am seeing the effects of being on the road a while you know like going through Afghanistan my skin and my hands would have deteriorated completely like it was completely gone from uh the sandstorms the rough terrain uh then going through like minus 22 degrees in China you know like your body it’s enable for that but most recently the sweat like the heat and humidity in Southeast Asia having the cycle you know you’re talking 100 200 km through intense humidity that I look I I could go through cold all my life but whatever it is about the heat uh what my Russ common body it’s an able fart so but I hope your common skin has the uh plenty of sunscreen on as well um oh yes I’m a nurse now as well remember you’re you’re you’re all over it uh so what so what’s the the the arrival date in Australia that’s going to be a big one uh well four months ago if I’m being honest but right I’m a bit behind schedule, Catherine. But uh yeah, no, I I’m going to continue uh currently on through the Indonesian islands and hopefully get to Tammorste, which is a country a lot of people might have heard about. But uh once I reach there, I’m I’m going to be looking for boats that will hopefully take me to Australia, which I’ve been told is impossible. And look, it might be, but I’d like this trip. I’d rather try and fail than to not try at all. And then I’ll um start my journey in Australia in Perth cuz I have a sister and a baby nephew there. And I’ll continue all the way across the continent of Australia through Melbourne and finish off at Sydney Opera House in so fle you are some man for one man let me tell you my brother is out in Australia as he’s in Sydney so I’ll uh make sure you’ve loads of friends everywhere you go I know um the Irish communities every community you pass through you arrive like royalty uh but it is brilliant because you are doing an incredible thing you are raising uh so much money uh for charities close to your heart and also it’s a reminder to all of us. Get out and live. This is what we’re here to do. If if you could go back in time to tell yourself one thing before you set off, Fergle, what would it be? Um I would have believed a lot of things but it like I would have had doubts about it but all I had to say was just like be confident in how you think the world is. I would have believed the world is a kind generous place and that theory I had has come true. Everyone I’ve come across has been incredibly kind. Um, we have this perception from Western media, news, just in general. That’s how our bodies are programmed to just receive negative news. We don’t hear the the positive ones. And yeah, it’s hard to program your mind to to be like kindness is everywhere, but it is. You just have to actually be looking for it to see it. So, if I could say anything to anyone, it’s to just get out there and be kind to other people, but also get out and see the world. Um, yeah. And exactly like I’m raising funds for suicide prevention and I think getting out and seeing the world and uh experiencing putting yourself in uncomfortable situations is you know the thing to do. We live so much of our life in comfort and uh you’ll be surprised how much you can do. Fergen, it has been such a pleasure to chat to you this morning. Uh his Instagram page is called um Rossy to Aussie. You can donate there as well. Uh he’s cycling from Ireland to Australia. Uh such a great cause. Listen, travel safe, fertile. I’ll be watching. Thanks, Catherine. Take it easy. Take it easy. Bye. Byebye.