Uncharted Traveller

Tag - Hiking Donegal

Hiking Donegal: The Choice Is Always Yours

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This photo was taken while hiking Donegal, Ireland a few of weeks ago. I was travelling the west coast of Ireland while trying to work remotely in my tent each evening. It ended in disaster.

It was a logistical nightmare in which I was unable get any connection or signal to work online. As a result, I was very concerned during this trip about the constant thoughts of failure and the many reasons that almost stopped me from taking to it in the first place.

Ironically, these first steps of learning how to become a full time travel writer brought a distinct reminder for why it was suddenly so difficult.

The Atlantic ocean was crashing along the shore on a particularly stormy night and once more, I was fretting about not being able to get online again to earn any income and forget about the many obstacles that seemed to be unfolding each day.

With nothing else to do, I picked up a book and beneath the glow of my little head torch, I read a passage which told me everything I needed to hear.

“The red road is the tough road because it’s narrow, it’s winding, it’s full of storms and obstacles. The black road is easy, it’s straight and it’s wide, it doesn’t offer any challenges. The storyteller never says you have to travel this road or you have to travel the other road, they end up telling you the story of the red and black road by saying: the choice is yours, the choice is always yours.”

Thanks to the fact that all my clothes and the contents of the backpack were soaked, I ended up with an emergency blanket wrapped around me that night. But the next morning, I was still alive and able to continue until I found somewhere to dry off and reevaluate what I was doing.

In the end I decided to ditch the tent and go travel somewhere where the cost of living would be almost as small as living in a tent in Ireland. This is the story of a digital nomad; something tells me I have no right to be doing any of this but really, that’s got to be what life is all about, making a decision, and I choose the red road.