Ireland Travel Diary: Crossing The Rope Bridge

As part of our tour in Northern Ireland, we visited Carrick-A-Rede where you can take the rope bridge challenge!

A coastal footpath leads the way to the rope bridge. The sights are pretty spectacular and there are lots of spots where you can stop and take in the beautiful landscape.

Carrick-a-rede Rope bridge

The rope bridge is a pretty big tourist stop these days so there will be a lot of people! We were on a tour bus that pulled up the same time as some other buses. Since we didn’t have long at this stop I wanted to get to the bridge quickly before the line was too long.

The rope bridge was traditionally used for fisherman who would cross over to the island to check their salmon nets. These days though it’s mostly tourists.

The bridge to Carrick-a-Rede island crosses over a 23m-deep and 20m-wide chasm. So crossing over it was fun… and a little scary!! It was pretty windy trying to cross it.

Getting to the bridge

Mom and I were on this tour together but I lost her somewhere in the crowd on my way to the bridge. I waited FOREVER for her to come join me in the line but she never showed. I knew that she wasn’t going to cross it (too scared) but I thought she would at least come and watch me do it.

Nope!! She said she was too scared to watch me so she stopped halfway down the trail. The service there was crap so we couldn’t even text each other to say what was happening.

I was mindful of the fact that there were two things I wanted to get out of this part of our tour. One of them was that I knew that I didn’t want to miss out on crossing this bridge so I went ahead without her.

crossing the rope bridge

Let me tell you, it was scary!!

It was SO windy! We weren’t able to stop on the bridge so I was trying to take a few photos without dropping my phone over the edge.

As scary as it was, I’m so glad that I crossed over to the other side. The view was amazing!

I took a ton of pictures but I knew that I wanted to get one with me and the view. I didn’t have anyone with me, and I definitely didn’t have my tripod, so I asked someone.

It sounds so simple right? I just asked someone to take my picture. Before mindfulness though, that would NEVER have happened.

I was always SO shy that talking to people was pretty much impossible for me. Now? I can talk to people without feeling anxious and scared. I feel like a door has opened to a whole new world and it is wonderful!!

This is why I’m always talking about mindfulness. It’s changed my life so much that I want everyone to know about it. This is a big reason why I trained to become a mindfulness teacher. Mindfulness is like this amazing gift that I have received and I want to share it with the world.

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