A Northern Ireland man has travelled from Australia to Northern Ireland on a bike – a journey which has taken him two and a half years!
David McCourt (36), who now lives in Australia, decided to cycle 24,000 miles from his new home in Melbourne to his old home town in Cushendall.
Born in the County Antrim village, David and his family moved to Australia in 2005 when he was 17-years-old, however he’s never forgotten his roots.
He explained: “My family moved to Melbourne 20 years ago but I always remember where I’m from. It’s been a dream of mine for a very long time to do a massive bike ride after my bestfriend travelled around Australia and came back with some amazing stories.
"I was meant to leave in June 2020 but Covid hit and I had to delay the journey for a couple of years. But as I got closer to the trip the idea of cycling back to Cushendall from Australia really took hold. It felt like a cool thing to do, to cycle from my new home all the way back to my old home. And that’s what I set off to do.”
David, a mechanical engineer, left Australia in June 2022 and arrived in Cushendall October 2024 passing through 26 countries.
However, as expected, David’s epic journey was not all ‘plane sailing’ being hospitalized four times, suffering a broken arm, an insect bite, numerous upset stomachs and countless punctures.
He continued: “I started my journey going through the centre of Australia. But while travelling through Broome in Western Australia I crash and broke my arm. I did such a good job of it that I needed surgery which they couldn’t do in Broome. I’d just spent four months and travelled nearly 4,500 miles and had to return to Melbourne for a three month recovery.
"So I was pretty disappointed to say the least!”
However once back on the road, David flew to Indonesia and then made his way up through south east Asia and then flew from Thailand to Bangladesh.
He explained: “Broadly speaking I went through south Asia up to the Hymalaya into Pakistan, up China then into central Asia, Afghanistan and into the Middle East. So the likes of Iran and Iraq, I was there for about four months, on to turkey and then up into Europe and up through the Balkans.
"I then took a ferry from Spain to Ireland and have cycled around for the last three weeks travelling up the West Coast. I’ve been visiting family in Cobh, Coleraine and ending my trip in Cushendall on Sunday evening.”
Unfortunately the final leg of his journey was one of bitter sweet following news that his Uncle John Scollay from Cushendall was dying with cancer and had only days to live.
"There were mixed feelings coming into Northern Ireland. It obviously represented the end of the trip, the final leg, but it was also heartwarming to see family and hear familiar accents which was really cool,” he added.
“However coming into Cushendall on Sunday evening was a bittersweet end to the trip because my Uncle was diagnosed with terminal cancer only eight weeks ago and I really want to say
