Then we rocked up at Nae Limits Adventure
It was easy riding on Niall and Eoghan’s Tour de Scotland until the singer decided to try canyoning and did in his ankles
We looked at a video of it first and it looked like people of all ages could enjoy it
BROMANCES are close, emotionally intense, non-sexual bond between two (or more) men. There are many highprofile examples; George Clooney and Brad Pitt exhibit classic symptoms. Ed Sheeran and Niall Horan would also fit the profile.
But closer to home the term is best suited to best pals Niall Breslin and Eoghan McDermott. Having met in London several years ago the 2FM DJ and the Blizzards frontman became inseparable, forming a key part of the Irish London brat pack (Laura Whitmore and Niall Horan are also card-carrying members). When they returned to home shores they both landed work on the Voice of Ireland.
It was because of a bromance that the Scottish tourist board approached them to take a cycling break across the highlands to help promote Celtic relations.
‘Having a Scottish mother and having sisters and brothers living in Scotland there was always a connection with me and Visit Scotland wanted to promote their country’, Bressie explains. ‘The market between Ireland and Scotland is huge and cycling is the fastest-growing sport in the world so they put two and two together and came up with us. It was the idea of cycling through the highlands. It is lovely; there is nothing better than having a route set out for you rather than leaving your house, pedalling about for a bit and then heading home. It was like the Tour de Scotland but poor Eoghan didn’t have a hell of a lot of experience. I brought him because I wanted to have the craic and banter but the reality was that he was three miles behind me the whole time so it didn’t really matter.’
The cycle across the picturesque heritage area was t o prove more than just a trundle through the heather. Day one started around Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park; the largest inland waterway in Britain. For experienced rider Bressie some of the climbs were challenging, but for novice McDermott, the lack of any meaningful preparation left him, well, saddle sore to say the least.
‘The pain was excruciating, like it was agonising’, he says. ‘It took about a day and a half and, by then, I had to cycle a large portion of it standing up. And they are uphill a lot. It is something nobody ever warns you about. I can cycle a bike but why are the saddles so bony? Honestly if you are a professional cyclist and that aerodynamic saddle is going to give you an extra kilometre in your race I can understand that. But if I was doing it again I would get a hot water bottle saddle and just mount it to the bike. If you are going to take up cycling I would recommend doing a few break-in days before going on any serious cycles. It was tough but it was amazing when I got through it.’
Day two saw them set off from Tarbet, an idyllic Scottish village also known as the gateway to the beautiful peninsula of Kintyre in the southwest portion of Argyll, Scotland.
A couple of cold baths and almost 200 kilometres later, Eoghan had managed to get his cycling legs and both celebrities fell victim to the beautiful scenery.
There is an opinion that Ireland and Scotland share a similar countryside, filled with various woolly animals, stone walls and rolling fields. Not so according to the intrepid cyclists.
‘It reminded me of New Zealand,’ Bressie says. ‘It was so beautiful and the landscape was insane. The weather didn’t go our way but I always say you know a good place when the weather is that crap and you are still enjoying it. We cycled between 80 and 100 kilometres every day and that was fine but it was quite hilly in places. But we would stop and take it all in but I suppose because the first few days the weather was so bad you couldn’t stop for long so we kept moving and clocked up the kilometres.’
All the while during the chat the pair rather fetchingly finishes each other’s sentences or vociferously disagrees. But the beauty of the landscape was, for once, indisputable.
‘There was something ethereal about the whole thing, majestic and Connemara is my favourite place in the world, hands down,’ Eoghan says nodding in agreement. ‘It is beautiful and rugged but the highlands were beautiful and majestic and rugged. It is a very special feeling and pure Lord Of The Rings stuff. The first few days felt like an endurance race because the weather was so bad. It was really unforgiving and then we hit the third day and it was glorious sunshine and that was just such a different experience. It was outrageously beautiful and so different to Ireland, which I wasn’t expecting, it was so foreign.’
While both men were away from their respective partners they insist that they were on their best behaviour. Saddle soreness and extreme tiredness kept the pair of them in check despite the radio star’s desire to unearth a Scottish version of Copper Face Jacks.
‘We didn’t do much,’ Eoghan insists. ‘ The first place we stayed was Loch Lomond which is pure luxury and that was fab. But we were so wrecked we just ate and crashed out. Cycle by day, Scottish Coppers by night it was not.’ Bressie smiles and sips his coffee. ‘Eoghan had this idea that we would go out and party but I was telling him that by 5pm, we were there eating our dinner just shattered. If you are going on a cycling holiday part of the holiday isn’t going out and getting trolleyed it is about chilling out in the evening, maybe having a few beers and going to bed. That is what we did. I would love to go back and go up to the north around Aberdeen and that area by the Shetlands and there is still a lot of exploring left to be done. But before the next trip I am going to make sure Eoghan has some sort of training done beforehand because I did feel sorry for him. But despite all his boy band looks he kept going.’
As if spurred on by the clement weat he r on the third day McDermott found his bicycle legs and the pair pedalled on through the rolling hills to the foot of Ben Nevis. It was in the shadow of the great
mountain that they managed to race a rare sight, the Hogwarts Express in all its glory.
‘We kicked off on the third day and we were at Fort William under Ben Nevis’, Eoghan says. ‘I didn’t realise that it is a real working train and I think it is expensive enough to get a ticket and tourists come from all over the world to ride on it. So you can get the Harry Potter train that goes for an hour journey through the highlands. It is the full steam train,
the Hogwarts Express and we had a photographer who wanted to get a picture of us alongside the train. But there was a delay with the train and we were waiting for the train to come along and eventually it came and it caught us off guard and we went pedalling after it and the photographer was on the hill trying to get this perfect snap. And just as we were about to cruise alongside it this big white transit van roars past us and blocks the shot. We’d waited a half an hour for nothing. But they got a snap and it was a cool experience.’
Alas that is where the cycling tour was cut short when an ill-fated trip to an adventure centre landed Bressie in hospital in Glasgow with a dislocated ankle and torn ligaments in the other ankle.
‘We were meant to do 580km and we did 340,’ Breslin says. ‘We wanted to break up the cycle and we rocked up to this place called Nae Limits Adventure centre. They had a rake of stuff. They asked us what we wanted to do from kayaking to Extreme canyoning so we said that because it looked great. We looked at a video of it first and it looked like people of all ages and fitness could enjoy it.’
Eoghan takes up the story, keen to help his partner in crime give a fair accurate version of events.
‘We got the wetsuits and the abseiling belts on and the idea was that you got to the top of the mountain and you go down a river bed but the river is still flowing through it and you abseil through waterfalls. We got down three stages to it and we came to the edge of a waterfall and the guide very explicitly said: ‘‘Now the plunge pool that you are going to drop into is very deep and wide but it isn’t long. So you have to step off. Your intuition would be to jump off and clear the waterfall but you have to step off and drop step down.’’ And then Brez goes for his gold medal Olympic leap.’
It would have been easy for him to panic but being no stranger to injury from his time as a rugby player with Leinster, he assessed the situation and tried to stay calm.
YOUR intuition is not to step off, it is to jump. Every instinct of every human is to jump. And as I was in the air I knew I was done. My immediate reaction was I thought both my legs were broken. I knew I had to get up on the rock, take a deep breath and figure out how to get out of there. Because one of the options was to abseil down the 50 or 60ft cliff or go back up the canyon. So we had no option but to go back up. The guide said we could order a helicopter but I said no way because if these legs weren’t broken I would never live this down. It was scary in the moment but the guides were amazing. I had to go on my knees because of the pain and I knew my ankle was gone. I’m disappointed because this was one of the highlights of the holiday because we did a couple of jumps before that and I was buzzing.’
Eoghan has a different take on the event. ‘I was just delighted I had finally found something I was better than Brez at. It was good for my ego. But the two guys who were with us happened upon these other two guys who were out for a social climb and so they roped them in and made a rope and pulley system around these trees. And fair play to Brez he had to climb back up the way we came on his hands and knees with two crocked ankles.’
The net result was Niall wearing a cast and boot for four weeks. He is currently trying to get in shape for an ironman race in Dublin in August and has also vowed to return to Scotland next year to complete the circuit.
‘I am capable of cycling or swimming I just don’t know about the running. I put a lot into it; I am doing a documentary about the whole aspect of it and your mental health. I was really positive about the whole thing. I surrounded myself with positive people and in the past when I got injured I just used to wallow in pity and depression but this time I sat there in Scotland thinking of what I could still do rather than the things I couldn’t, so I will still do it.’
Eoghan sums it up perfectly when he says: ‘ Even with Bressie’s fauxpas it was an amazing way to see a part of Scotland you would never see. I would do it again in the morning and I’m sure the big man would too.’