WHILE some people live life on the edge, here’s a daredevil couple who take the concept to a whole new level.

    Leonardo Edson Pereira, 23, and his girlfriend Victoria Medeiros Nader, 18, are fearless as they hang off Brazil’s 2,769-foot-high (844-meter-high) Pedra de Gavea in a series of breathtaking images.

    Only their strength and bravery keeps this dynamic duo in place on the cusp of the rock in this spectacular setting in Tijuca Forest near Rio de Janeiro.

    They dangle, cling and generally risk their lives, with Leonardo in just shorts and Victoria in a pink bikini top and hot pants, in the pursuit of a rush with the deep blue sea and iconic city of Rio as their picture perfect backdrop.

    “I love living on the edge! I know people think it’s dangerous and crazy but it makes me feel alive,” Leonardo said.

    “It is really high and I do just hang on using my arm strength. I have to trust myself not to fall.”

    This isn’t the first time Leonardo has climbed up Pedra de Gavea, which looks over the expansive Atlantic Ocean.

    “The first time I did it I was really scared. I didn’t hang off, I just sat on the rock,” he recalled.

    “The second time I was more relaxed and hung over the edge. Once I did cut my arm having to pull myself up. That was the only time I’ve been worried.”

    Pedra da Gavea was the first mountain in Brazil to be named in Portuguese, with its literal translation being “Rock of the Topsail.”

    Sailors during an expedition led by Captain Gaspar de Lemos in 1501 believed the rock, which from some angles looks like a human face, resembled the top sail of a carrack — a three or four-masted ship used widely in the 16th century — when they first saw it in 1502.

    That same expedition saw the naming of Rio de Janeiro Bay, which later became what the city was known as with the bay itself changed to Guanabara. The rock gives its name to the Gavea area in Rio.(SD-Agencies)