Leg 17: Songdo Beach to Chilpo Beach

Having reached Songdo Beach it was still early in the afternoon. The next leg was supposed to be rather long again, but I had nowhere to be and nothing else that I was there to do, so I continued on with Leg 17. It was a very nice day for walking and I wanted to get the city-scape of Pohang behind me if possible. The Blight of Posco was still visible and I just wanted to not see it anymore.

The initial parts of Leg 17 were through some of Pohang. A river exits into the sea near Songdo Beach, so the path led inland a little bit to get to a bridge over that river. The view on the river was rather impressive though with a bunch of fishing vessels and what seemed to be an old destroyer, or something, of the Korean Navy that has been converted to a tourist site. The view was quite attractive for it being in the city.

Another beach followed the brief detour into the city. The beach had a bunch of public artwork lining the sidewalks. It was a pleasant walk.

And then it was into the countryside again. Freedom from the city! Well... almost. But the cranes in the distance weren't particularly daunting. And it was better than Posco.

Along the way I met this little bird. He was flitting about from pole to bush to pole. I was lucky he sat still long enough for this photo. I missed him a couple of times before I got this.

As the afternoon wore on, I came to another beach. The waves were crashing. That's a really soothing sound.

It was also a surfing beach and there were surfers taking part just off-shore. That's a sport I would like to try, but I'm not sure I have the balance to be able to stay on my board. I think I will be content for now to just watch others.

By this time, the day was fading and I headed from here into early evening and sunset. I arrived at Chilpo Beach after dark. There was a lot of equipment on the somewhat secluded beach. There was supposed to be a bus somewhere nearby, but I was unsure where to find it. So I headed to the lone hotel to see if it was far away. I wasn't sure about staying at the hotel for a number of reasons. First, it was the only one there. That is usually a bad sign for a good price. Second it had a fancy name, the Pine Hotel. Another bad sign. And the final bad sign was the secluded nature of the beach. It all added up to probably a price I wouldn't really want to pay. But I went in to find out about the bus. While I was waiting for the desk clerk, I did see the sign with prices posted above the desk. AAAggghhh!! It was 200 and 250 dollars a night. There was no way I could afford that. When the desk clerk came, I asked about the bus. And the last one had gone for the day. Uh oh... It seemed there would be very little option. But it turned out those were special rooms. I managed to get a room there for about 50 dollars a night. Whew! I got a bite to eat and then collapsed in my room after the very rewarding and long-distance day.