Snapshot Sunday: Magic at Igidae

The view from the Igidae Trail to Busan and Haeundae

Life’s complicated just now.  I don’t need any more challenges.  But here I am, taking on one which is entirely self-imposed. It’ll help me reflect on the good moments in life, or at least on interesting times.

The challenge is one provoked weekly by WordPress, my blogging platform.  Once a week, they provide a word.  Just one. To respond, I and fellow bloggers choose one of our own photos to interpret the theme.  Just one.

This week’s challenge is ‘Magic’.  Other bloggers have published photos of sunsets; a cube magically suspended from a building; a fairy-tale castle in Schwerin; scacciaguai, or benign demons; a butterfly; pebbles; flowers; scenes from distant lands – all magic in their own way.

My own magic moment is from South Korea.

Imagine Busan, the city where Emily’s living just now.  Imagine busy streets, crowded markets, streaming traffic, a high-rise metropolis of three and a half million people.

But it’s a coastal city too, and one day we took the path at Igidae. Here were views across the bay to those high-rise towers at Haeundae, to Gwangan Suspension Bridge, and to a jagged, rocky coastline.

As we walked away from Haeundae, we replaced city bustle with solitude, with crashing foaming waves, salty spray crusting our hair and faces, rugged paths leading us first up craggy cliffs then down again. The busy city was never more than minutes away, but we were at the edge of a primitive, savage untamed world, unchanging since time began.  That was a kind of magic.

The sea crashes to the cliffs of the Igidae Trail
The sea crashes to the cliffs of the Igidae Trail

My challenge posts will appear on Sundays.  Hence ‘Snapshot Sunday.’

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

36 thoughts on “Snapshot Sunday: Magic at Igidae”

  3. This paragraph spoke to me. “Life’s complicated just now. I don’t need any more challenges. But here I am, taking on one which is entirely self-imposed. It’ll help me reflect on the good moments in life, or at least on interesting times.” Often I ask people why they blog. It seems that you, like so many of us, hear the challenge and can’t resist its call. Your picture is magical. Water is magical, and watching waves splash against the rocks and sparkle in the sunlight mesmerizes onlookers – even in a photo. 🙂

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    1. Thank you. It was a special day. But blogging’s in many ways pretty magical too, isn’t it? Establishing connections with people we think we’ll never meet. But then – Abracadabra! Sometimes we do.

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  6. Pingback: Magic – Photo Challenge – ladyleemanila

  7. Snapshot Sundays sound a great idea – lucky us. And you’ve got off to a fine start. Is that the walkway right above the waves? Looks a bit scary to me, but magic definitely.

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    1. I promise, Ros, it wasn’t scary. Thoroughly well-made and sturdy, typically good Korean workmanship. Hoping for magical intervention unnecessary!

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  9. I feel the same if forced to use the tube. Irrelevant to this blog (couldn’t find your email address), do you fancy a walk and pub lunch on Saturday?

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  12. Your first paragraph resonated with me. The reason I began blogging nearly three years ago was to remind myself about the good things in my life; to make me realise how lucky I am. To be able to say thank-you or remember a good time or recall the sight of something magical keeps us sane, I think. Your photographs show exactly how wonderful that place is. The second photo especially!

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  13. I’m deeply envious. When I was in South Korea it was a working trip and we didn’t get to explore much outside Seoul (with the notable exception of a day trip to North Korea). I would love to go back but in the meantime I’m living vicariously through you!

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    1. Thanks, I on the other hand am quite envious of that day trip, stage-managed though I suppose it was. I’d love to go back to South Korea. We barely scratched the surface.

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