This week's Uncharted: 'it's going to be hardcore'

RTÉ News​

27-05-2025

When Ray Goggins describes a task as "hardcore" you know that he isn't being hyperbolic - and that's he labels the challenge faced on this week's Uncharted with Ray Goggins.
On this Wednesday night's episode, paralympic gold medallist Ellen Keane and six-time All-Ireland Camogie star Ashling Thompson travel to Bolivia to the start of the fabled "Death Road" and meet Ray Goggins' latest challenging journey.
This hair-raising descent of the world's most dangerous road is just the start of an incredible seven-day journey for Ellen, Ashling and Ray as they trek close to 100km through the dense cloud forest of Bolivia.
The trio have to negotiate raging rivers, punishing terrain and wild jungle as they climb ever higher into the Andean mountains.
As the trio climb higher into the mountains, the altitude starts to affect them all.
On meeting Ashling and Ellen in Bolivia, Ray warns: "We are going to negotiate some of the worst and most dangerous terrain on the planet - it's going to be hardcore, you are going to be at altitude so it's not going to be for the faint hearted. It will be hellish at times"
Ellen recalls crossing a makeshift wire bridge over a fast flowing river. "I had to figure out how to get across a little differently to everyone else," she explains.
"Ray was not offering help too soon which was really reassuring to me because it meant that he believed I could do it.
"When you are a person with a disability, everyone always expects you not to be able to do something or to always need help, and I don't like that narrative," she adds.
"I can do anything that Ashling does, I just have to do it a little differently. I think that's a really important lesson for people to learn that it doesn't matter how something is done, as long as it is done at the end of the day, that's the most important thing."
As well as the endurance factor, Uncharted with Ray Goggins is also about getting inside the head of the participants.
Opening up around the campfire three nights into the trip, Ray questions Ashling about her anxiety. She's quite candid about her experience.
She reveals: "I was constantly tipping away with the camogie but I had a fairly bad car accident and camogie was the thing that always kept my feet on the ground....when that was taken away, I completely lost control of my life."
Ashling also points out that camogie later saved her, recalling: "Something clicked in my head . . . eventually I got called back up to the Cork squad and all of a sudden, my life completely changed."
The pair form a strong bond throughout the trip, with Ellen telling Ashling: "I actually don't know what I would do without you, I'm glad that we are here together"
Ashling compliments Ellen's mental strength as the expedition intensifies: "The resilience she shows, nothing can stop her, anything is possible when it comes to Ellen Keane and I love it," she says.
On the fifth day the majestic peak of Huayna Potosi is revealed. This is the final, most brutal of challenge of them all.
In two days, the group will need to traverse sheer ice walls, snow fields and mountain glaciers as they to attempt to summit the 6088 metre peak. It will be the toughest test of their lives.