Geumdang-do belongs to Wando County. Almost nobody gets there from Wando. The island sits at the far north-eastern edge of the county, closer to Nokdong in Goheung and the Hoejin shore in Jangheung than to Wando's own harbour — and the islanders' daily life runs that way too. We went last October, and we went the way the islanders go: from Nokdong.

The trip began the night before, at a table in Nokdong with a pot of hamo — pike conger, sliced fine and dipped in broth until it curls open like a white flower. Hamo is a summer fish in these waters and October is the tail of its season, which made it feel like the last plate of the year. We slept by the harbour and took the first boat out in the morning.

Geumdang is small — about 13 square kilometres, some twenty-eight kilometres of coastline, around a thousand people who farm abalone, seaweed and laver. What it has, in quantity, is rock: twisted strata, volcanic cliffs, tafoni pitted by wind and salt, and the eight formations the island calls its Eight Views. The Palgyeong-gil trail strings several of them together on foot. The rest — Elephant Rock, the thatched-house rock on the islets offshore — you only see from the water. So we did both: the trail in the morning, a boat around the Eight Views after.

Then we left the island the other way, toward Wando, and finished on Sinji-do at Myeongsasimni — nearly four kilometres of fine sand whose name, written 鳴沙十里, is said to mean the sound of the waves carrying ten li. We remember two things about it: the sand, which is finer than you expect, and the sunset.

This issue is that line down the coast: one night in Nokdong, one island on foot and by boat, one beach at dusk. Check the ferry the day before. Carry cash. And give the island a full day — it rewards the slow version.