Journey through hell for Cork sporting hero

When you have won six All-Ireland camogie titles with Cork, there are few things that will intimidate you.

However, a trip along the world’s most dangerous road might just send a frisson of fear down the spine of Rebel sports star Ashling Thompson.

That is the daunting task facing the Milford woman when she appears in the next episode of Uncharted With Ray Goggins on RTÉ1 on Wednesday at 9.35pm.

Ashling, 35, joins another Irish sporting hero - Paralympian Ellen Keane - on the challenge to travel to Bolivia to the start of ‘Death Road’, where they meet host Goggins and embark on a gruelling seven-day challenge.

A hair-raising descent of the world’s most dangerous road is just the start of an incredible journey, as the duo trek close to 100km through the dense cloud forest of Bolivia.

The pair and Goggins will have to negotiate raging rivers, punishing terrain, and wild jungle as they climb ever higher into the Andean mountains.

As the three of them climb higher into the mountains, the altitude starts to affect them all. Ray is suffering from a bad cough and his lungs are rasping.

On the fifth day, the majestic peak of Huayna Potosi reveals itself to them. 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.

In the series, adventurer and former special forces soldier Goggins take well-known Irish faces from the worlds of politics, music and sport on extreme outdoor expeditions through some of the most remote and treacherous environments on Earth.

Along the way, he aims to pushing each participant far beyond their comfort zone in the ultimate test of survival and resilience.

As he and the participants face the wild together, the experience becomes more than just an adrenaline rush — it’s a deeply emotional journey.

Bonds are forged, stories shared, and vulnerabilities surface, as Ray guides participants through a transformative wilderness challenge.

Ashling is a personal trainer by occupation, so can that help her to cope with the challenge.

Her ally, Ellen, 30, is a retired Paralympic swimming gold medallist from Dublin, who competed as an amputee - so both will be tough nuts to crack.