I have heard about how rugged and beautiful the countryside of Ireland is, but I had no idea how beautiful it really is. Now that I am hillwalking one of the more known parts of county Donegal, I get to know first hand just how beautiful it is. Although the country doesn’t have a lot of mountains, it does have a lot of hills. The Altantic Ocean slams into these parts and carves out portions of these hills to create cliffs which fall precipitously into the sea. At the ruins where we were at Horn Head, I got to see one of the cliffs from above. I had to take extra precautions when taking photographs of the cliffs as not a few people have lost their lives walking here, presumably being knocked off balance by a stray wind or just losing their footing.
I figured that the powerful winds here on top were too dangerous to take for granted. You can actually lie against the wind and not fall because the wind was pushing you back. Much like how Michael Jackson did in one of his music videos, except there was wind involved here. Anyway, I crawled my way to the edge of the cliff to get photos of the other side of the cliff. I figured that the smaller profile made by lying down instead of standing up against the wind would make it more difficult to push me to the edge of the cliff. I had a few good looks at the cliff but I didn’t really want to go any further lest I become another statistic. Once you fall there, no one will be able to find you.
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