The Ordinary Doing the Extraordinary
Daragh Cronin on cycling through Africa at just 22 years old.
Interviewed on the 25.04.2025
Daragh Cronin describes himself as “the furthest thing from a cyclist you can imagine.” Yet this 22 year old Irishman pedalled the full length of Africa from Marrakesh in Morocco to the Cape of Good Hope in Capetown, South Africa. A journey that took 204 days, that saw him cross 19 countries and cycle 13,428km, simply to chase a dream of reaching places he’d never heard of and seeing places beyond his wildest imagination.
When Daragh set out from Ireland in January 2025, his intentions were clear. Adventure should demand something from you. It should push you physically and mentally. Having never cycled much in his life, he deliberately chose the one form of travel that would allow him to feel every inch of the world beneath him. With no training, no experience, and no real idea of what he was signing up for, he bought a bicycle and booked a one way ticket to Morocco.
“Lots inspired me. My mother, Sharon, who gave everything to show us a bit of the world. She inspires me the most. My friends too, who I hope to inspire like they have inspired me.” He wanted to prove something to himself. In his own words: “I wanted to show that anything is possible if you commit to it fully.”
The deciding moment came while he was working in a factory with a friend he’d made on the factory floor, Darragh Roche. He told the friend about his dream, and the friend said, “Book the flight.” So he did. Right there. Without a bike or any gear. The flight was booked first. Everything else followed.
"I think dreams are the thing we think about when all the noise is gone. When we’re sitting in bed late at night or day dreaming in work, dreaming about something bigger. A dream should scare you, like Africa did for me. I wasn’t quite sure what my dream was, I’m still not entirely sure. But I’m closer to finding it than I was a year ago. I knew I wanted to see the world, to go places I’d never even heard of. To do things and meet people from all walks of life. I knew I wanted to test my limits, to see what I was made of. That’s the dream I think, my dream anyways. A dream is something that should make you truly feel alive, something you can feel in the pits of your soul. Once I committed to chasing that dream and not letting anything get in the way, at that moment I’d never felt so alive. there is no reason you should never chase your dream. We’ve one go at life and there’s no point in wasting it by doing the thing we’re told to do. We should be doing the thing we were born to do. It’s different for everyone, but everyone has a dream. When my time has come to call it a day , I want to look back and say that I gave life a good shot, that I didn’t hold back. That I chased the life I wanted and did some good along the way. Taking the first step towards a dream is the hardest part, once you’ve done that, the rest falls into place and the path opens up."
“I knew I was about to embark on a crazy adventure and it turned out to be exactly that. I travelled through some of the harshest environments in the world and met some of the kindest souls. Every day was filled with pain and suffering but every day was filled with learning and experience. I am living my dream every day.”
One of the biggest tests came almost immediately. The Sahara. For Daragh, crossing the Sahara became the first and most defining hurdle. He says: “Finishing the length of the Sahara showed me I could do it. I just had to keep going.”
"By the time we reached Senegal it felt as though we’d finished the first hurdle, we’d crossed the Sahara. We averaged well over 100km a day for weeks and dealt with temperatures ranging from above 30 degrees to as low as zero degrees. Leaving the Sahara behind me was a feeling like no other. Trading sand for greenery was beautiful. "
Another unforgettable moment was riding the Mauritanian iron ore train through the desert, a side adventure during his journey south. Known as one of the most dangerous train rides in the world, it was, in his words, “insane.”
"We rode into Nouadhibou and started the first side quest of the expedition. I was lucky enough to be travelling with some amazing people I’d met along the way and I managed to meet even more cyclist on this side quest. We boarded the Iron ore train in Nouadhibou, after bribing some police officers and boarding in the middle of a sand storm. Myself and the seven other cyclist loaded up the bikes into the empty carriages of the iron ore train, which was destined for a mining town called Choum in the depths of Mauritania. The carriages were empty so we settled in for a cold and loud night. We rattled across the freezing Sahara desert, being thrown about these steel carriages as we rode through the night, under the desert stars. After what felt like an eternity, but was more like 18 hours. We jumped off the train just before the mining town. We said goodbye to the other travellers we’d met. Myself and my new friend Theo, then found ourselves waiting next to the tracks, in the middle of the Sahara desert for about 20 hours. We finally heard the now fully loaded iron ore train coming our way. In the dead of night we quickly jumped onto the train, trying our best to avoid detection. We hid deep in the carriages that were now over flowing with Iron ore. We spent the next 15 or so hours, surfing atop the packed iron ore, cruising through the vast nothingness of the Sahara desert. It was an experience like no other, one I still can’t believe I did. Watching the sunrise over the Sahara desert, surfing along the most dangerous train in the world. It was truly awe inspiring. It was a side quest I will remember forever, a story I’ll tell my future children."
What surprised him most was not the physical hardship but the generosity he found along the way. He says:
“The unexpected experience that changed me the most is the sheer amount of times I was invited into people’s homes and villages. Random people with far less than I have. They treated me like family and asked nothing in return. That constant generosity was unexpected to say the least.”
Lessons have been constant, and they have shaped him deeply. Daragh emphasizes that the challenge is physical but ultimately becomes a test of mental toughness.
“The isolation, being in the middle of nowhere for long periods, was extremely hard. It took getting used to but it is in those moments that you learn the most about yourself. You learn to love yourself and to trust yourself and to push yourself despite what your body and mind are telling you. The mind quits long before the body, a lesson I learnt over the course of my 204 day expedition."
Severe food poisoning in Senegal became one of the hardest tests. Daragh cycled for about five days, more than 500 kilometers, while being extremely sick.
"It broke me but also showed me how strong I am.”
Connect with Daragh here.
© 2025 Grit & Dust (The Ordinary Doing The Extraordinary). Photos © 2025 Daragh Cronin. All rights reserved. No part of this article or images may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without prior written permission.