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Solo Bikepacking Around the World: Mind Mapping (Part 1)
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Earlier this year, Boru McCullagh started bikepacking around the world to experience new places and continue his battle with a major depressive disorder. “Mind Mapping (Part 1)” is a must-watch, beautiful new film by Finley Newmark that documents the first leg of Boru’s journey between the UK and Turkey. Find the film, a candid reflection from Boru, and a collection of film and digital photos here…
Mind Mapping (Part 1) tells the story of Boru McCullagh’s ride around the world to experience new places and continue his fight with depression—something that once dominated his entire life. The film, made by Finley Newmark, also marks the beginning of All Roads Considered (ARC), an ongoing project focused on exploring with an open mind and bringing stories of kindness, culture, the world we live in, and the people that inhabit it. Watch the film below and then scroll down for a reflection from Boru and some fantastic imagery from his travels.
“The proximity to which I came to not seeing anything means my emotions are constantly overwhelming when I witness the beauty this world has to offer.”
Words by Boru McCullagh (@marlboru_), photos by Boru McCullagh and Finley Newmark (@finley.newmark)
I told Finley Newmark, my friend and videographer, that I was planning something big by sending him a photo of my visa spreadsheet. He was confused at what was in front of him at first but soon realised this was a list of countries I planned on cycling through on a bikepacking journey around the world. It would mean leaving my job as head coach at Herne Hill Velodrome and saying goodbye to my friends, family, and community until a tentative date in the future that seems to always be getting further and further away.
It didn’t take long to plan the route. Once I applied the filters of climate at the time of year I’d be in a country and where there is currently conflict or civil unrest, everything became clear. The original plan was to chase summer across Europe, leaving at the end of August and routing towards Istanbul to cross into Asia and continue towards Iran. India, South East Asia, Australasia, something in the Americas and north Africa were also on the cards, before returning to London through the Iberian peninsula. I would entrust a Specialized Diverge to carry me on this ~34,000-kilometre journey.
It’s an idea everyone toys with – leaving everything in pursuit of exploration. A chance to meet unique people and bear witness to the landscapes of humbling beauty our world has to offer. Being put in so many unfamiliar places that you hope to gain some radical sense of who you are and what you really want from your life, exploring yourself as well as the path you cycle on.
But really, I needed to do something like this. When I was in my late teens, I was diagnosed with a major depressive disorder, which continued into a downward spiral of mental illness. I developed an eating disorder and, with the inability to care for myself in the most basic ways, was reliant on drugs in the hope they’d make me feel like what I thought I felt like before I was depressed. I was desperately trying to bond with something to bring me out of how I felt in the present, and that made everything worse.
In an attempt to improve my well-being and reach out to myself, I decided to pick up the bike again and set myself the new year’s resolution of going on one ride a month. Despite being a coach, I stopped riding when my mental health began to deteriorate and hadn’t ridden since I was a teenager, back when Finley and I would be ferried over to our local Velodrome by either of our parents. However, I was desperate to feel some pride that the effort I was making to try and grow from mental illness was having some success, however small, which is what that one ride a month meant to me. I began to put myself back into the world and stop retreating from it.
Two years after that decision, I wanted to do something to prove to myself I could put my wellbeing first, that I could rely on myself, and that I had overcome the depression in a way it would no longer limit me, hold me back, or inhibit me from having a future. I told my parents, Finley, and Charlie over at Albion what I was thinking of doing so I could have some accountability to follow through with my idea. I didn’t want this to be something in five years’ time that I never did.
Mind Mapping is a short film produced by Finley Newmark that shares part of this story. It spans the lead-up to this (now expected to be) year-long journey, the first month traveling through Europe, and the experiences the world has to offer as Finley joined me to cycle from Istanbul to Kayseri, a city in the centre of Turkey. And it dives into what gear to bring for a journey of this length, saying goodbye to the safety of home, the logistical problems that arise, and the mental challenge and beauty of traveling solo around the world.
This ride is in support of Mind, a mental health charity in the UK that gives advice and support to empower anyone experiencing mental health problems. Their aim is to campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding. So far more than £8,000 has been raised for the charity. You can donate here.
This is HUNT Production, in association with Specialized, Albion, and QUOC. With thanks to them all for their support of this journey.
I got a tattoo covering my arm so people would look at it for a different reason and I hate the way I had to get a tattoo covering my arm so people would look at it for a different reason.
We can heal and we can grow, but scars are permanent and it’s vital to hold continuous conversations to address those that we all live with so as to not let them take hold of us.
Opening up to someone takes a lot. It’s difficult, can feel embarrassing, even shameful. It’s nerve wracking, anxiety provoking and it makes your thoughts and fears of how you’re feeling very real. But, once you start, all the overlapping and underlying emotions are forced to order themselves in some legible way. The ‘conversation’ is an excuse, it’s more an opportunity to untangle things from within, yourself, by saying things out loud.
Opening up can at the most liberate, and at the least momentarily relieve some of your struggle. There are people out there who care for you and who will be a soundboard to provide a safe and healthy environment for that.
Don’t lock a door behind you proclaiming ‘I can get by’ or ‘it’s in the past’, to yourself. Keep that door open so you don’t accidentally lock yourself on the wrong side of it, where thoughts and feelings fester and the spiral exacerbates itself.
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