We’re joined by Derek Cullen for episode #101 of Paddy Holohan’s No Shame Podcast. Derek is an Irish adventurer who’s challenges include cycling across Africa, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail & Most recently navigating 3000km around the entire coast of Ireland in 78 days.

During this weeks show, Derek discusses the tragic loss of his parents within two years of each other & how it led to a self destructive path of excessive drinking. After the parties dried up, Cullen was deeply depressed, unmotivated & exhausted from boozing hard.

In a desperate bid to stop the spiral, Derek walked out of his job, sold all his belongings & booked a flight to Cape Town. It was there he purchased a bike for 150 dollars & began cycling across Africa. The first 3 weeks of his journey were tough, he almost gave up, the depression wasn’t going away & he was considering returning home.

However he stook to his guns & having successfully crossed the Namibian desert, he realised he’d accomplished something big. For the first time in a long time, he felt good again. One year later he’d reached Cairo, on the same bike & completed his first major adventure.

Since then, Derek has opted to walk rather than cycle as he prefers the journey to go as slow as possible so he can fully immerse himself in the experience.

Cullen documents his adventures with a camera & you can check out all his amazing content across all of his social media platforms including Youtube, Facebook & Instagram under the banner of Derek Cullen outdoors.

After spending time working as a tour guide, Cullen hiked 2,652 miles from Mexico to Canada across the Pacific Crest Trail in 2018. In May 2019, Derek walked the Camino de Santiago.

Upon returning to Ireland he set himself the challenge of walking to Kerry. Setting off from his brothers home in Firhouse, armed only with a camping back & camera, Derek began to fall in love with the Irish country side. He enjoyed it so much that he ended up walking around the entire country in 78 days, returning to Dublin just last week.

He tells Paddy of the places & people he met on his journey around Ireland & talks of the personal satisfaction he got from his most recent adventure in his home country. Derek has many more plans for 2019/2020 but for now he has relocated to the wilderness of the beautiful Donegal for a 2 month period of isolation, away from all of the day to day distractions.

It’s quite fitting  & somewhat coincendental that our guest for episode #101 is an adventurer. Our very first guest way back on episode #001 of the No Shame Podcast, Damian Browne, was also an adventurer. Looking back at what Damian has achieved then is incredible & we’ve no doubt that in two years time we’ll be looking at all of Dereks achievements in a similar fashion. ar

The full episode #101 of Paddy Holohan’s No Shame Podcast is available now across all the usual platforms including iTunes, Spotify & YouTube.