I had already spent a lot of energy on Goha Island.
The health stairs, walking paths, and the coastal deck were not exactly a brutal course.
It would be more honest to say that my physical strength has simply declined.
My body is no longer what it was when I was younger.
But my travel style is still stuck in those younger days.
So every now and then, I end up collapsing somewhere during a trip.
By the time we reached Yudalsan Station, I was so tired that I briefly considered staying on the cable car and going straight to Bukhang Station.
I wanted to forget the rest of the schedule and just return to the hotel to rest.
But when the cable car arrived at Yudalsan Station,
without even realizing it, my legs tensed up and I hopped off.
I don’t know when I will come back to Mokpo.
I don’t know when I will ride this cable car again.
I was curious about what kind of view Yudalsan would show me this time.
Even if there were walking trails, I had no intention of walking.
I just wanted to take in the scenery from the station building.
I hadn’t searched or planned anything in advance,
but it turned out that Yudalsan Station had a rooftop observatory.
From there, I could look down over Mokpo city,
and the view stretched 360 degrees,
all the way to Yeongam and Goha Island across the sea.
I was really about to leave without seeing this?
The scenery was far better than I had expected.
And I felt a kind of relief.
In the end, I did push myself a little and got off at Yudalsan.
It felt like I had made the right choice.
Still, I had overdone it,
so I decided not to go anywhere else and planned to rest at the café on the first floor while charging my phone.
But the café was closed.
I just stopped by the restroom and sat on a bench to rest.
Then,
I suddenly felt something… off.
The view outside the window didn’t feel ordinary.
Something was there.
My instincts were telling me so.
I hurried back up to the rooftop observatory.
I encountered a beautiful sunset,
one I hadn’t seen in a long time.
The sun was sinking behind a nameless mountain in Haenam,
beyond Goha-do and the sea that lay between us.
The sky was soaked in red,
far more than any photo could capture.
Below it, a gentle darkness was spreading across the calm sea,
and even the gradations of the shadows felt quiet and composed.
It was a scene powerful enough to make me forget
the terrifying thought that I almost missed it out of exhaustion.
Around this time, the sun really does disappear behind the mountain in the blink of an eye.
The scenery changes moment by moment.
I kept shooting photos and video without stopping,
but my skills weren’t good enough,
so it’s a shame that this is all I can share.
This was the most beautiful view I encountered on this Mokpo trip.
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