My Passion With Deirdre McDonald

Deirdre McDonald, a senior energy surveyor at Carter Jonas’ Harrogate office, on seeking that adrenaline rush.
Deirdre McDonaldDeirdre McDonald
Deirdre McDonald

Action. Adventure. Being right in the thick of it is my favourite place to be. I’ve been an adrenaline junkie for as long as I can remember.

The rush from trying something new, of testing yourself and pushing your body to the limit has always appealed. And being the all-round action girl I developed a passion for all things outdoors and adventure sports. Over the years I’ve taken part in many different physical challenges from the National Three Peaks to sky dives, marathons and triathlons.

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I think it’s the different elements that keep me hooked; the training and pushing yourself week after week in preparation, followed by the event itself to see if all that work has paid off, and then the exhilaration of the end of the race or challenge, knowing you’ve completed it. And not long after this feeling I’m looking for the next mountain to climb (quite literally in some cases).

I’m certainly not one to sit on the sidelines and watch others. Some of my very earliest memories are driving round in excavators and heavy plant machinery. My father owned a quarry in Ireland and it was like the biggest and best playground you could imagine. From then on standard children’s toys would never compare.

Over the last few years I’ve reverted back to my first love of motor-based challenges and travelled all across North Africa, Europe and the UK with my partner James Howard and his company Overland Junkies.

We have recently been to Morocco and completed a couple of trips to Europe, visiting Germany, Belgium and Amsterdam at the end of last year, including a skiing trip to Bulgaria over Christmas.

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There’s something about the freedom of driving a 4x4 and that it can cover pretty much all terrain, which is really exciting. We’ve climbed mountains, crossed deserts and seen spectacular vistas, all through the power of the 4x4. Over the years we’ve been to places and seen sites which the average tourist doesn’t and often can’t get to.

One of the best experiences I’ve had was in October when we travelled to Morocco by 4x4 and spent three weeks exploring mountain tracks, the city of Medinas and the great Sahara desert. We spent five days ‘off the beaten track’ challenged by huge soft dunes and moonscape hamadas. Our planning and preparation, superb equipment and top-of-the-range mapping paid off and got us safely back to civilisation. We encountered freak rain storms, challenging tracks in the mountains and hazardous roads. Overall, an amazing experience and definitely one of the best trips of my life so far.

Our next trip is planned for Tunisia and we’re also hoping to go to Croatia later in the year. Our aim is to keep challenging ourselves.

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