Day Sixteen

My overnight mining was fruitless, turning up not a single cube of coal or iron. I was fully packed and ready to move on before the faintest shades of blue coloured the sky.

Light enough.

Let's go!

I was keen to get going to make up for the hours lost shooting creepers from my tower the previous morning. But perhaps I was a tad too eager.

You can *just* see the burning zombie, top right.

The creeper seemed content to stay on its hill. I didn't go out of my way to aggravate it. I was more concerned about the spider, but I hung back until the sky lightened a bit more and it grew peaceful.

Now before I go on, I need to make a correction. That tunnel I saw last night? Well it wasn't in the northern wall, it was in the eastern wall. Clearly I was disorientated last night. So this is a good thing as it means I now have a path under the cliffs.

My path.

I was not too concerned as I entered the tunnel. I could see sunlight shining through from the other side so I knew I was not entering into a cave. I did look over my shoulder a couple of times, still concerned about that creeper, but I had nothing to fear from the front. Looking up from the tunnel's entrance reinforced that this was really my only path.

Can't go over it...

Aaah!

So silly, cocky me forgot one thing: It was still early. While no more zombies would be spawning, any in the tunnel from the previous night would be out of direct sunlight. I backtracked to draw the foul creature into the sunlight.

.

Die. ...again!

The zombie dealt with, now I could walk through the tunnel. No problem. Right? Wrong. That sunlight I saw shining through from the other side?

A skylight?!

Hmmm...

So this tunnel was turning out to be a pain. First zombies, now no clear path through to the other side. Yet again, I was wasting the morning. As I approached the skylight, though, I noticed another small tunnel in the corner leading south. More sunlight shone from the other end. perhaps that would lead to another way out.

Skeleton?!

This 'tunnel' (more like death pit) was getting worse and worse. I fled back to the entrance yet again as the skeleton's arrows whizzed past. One hit me, but my armour deflected most of the damage. There was no easy way back out of the tunnel, either. I had jumped down a ditch to enter it, and somewhere back near my camp there was still a creeper wandering about. Never mind the fact that if I did go back that way, then what? I need to get past this mountain. I peeked around the corner to see if the skeleton was still after me.

Yep!

There was an overhang blocking the skeleton's vision, but I could still see his arm. Like the lowly vagabond I am, I dashed up and swiped at the vulnerable arm, hoping to avoid any arrows. I still took two more before the skeleton went down. And then:

Oh, come on!

I took the creeper out and hesitantly moved forward. No more grunts, no more hisses, no more twangs, and still no clear way out east. The sunlight at the end of the southern tunnel was just another skylight. I was about to give up and just build my way out, but then I noticed a third, lower down spot of sunlight 'deeper' down the tunnel.

Second skylight (third in background)

Making a mad dash to the third.

Freedom!

Finally! I was beyond the mountain and through the tunnel. Time to move forward. Although it was my early start that was probably to blame for all the mobs I encountered, it was still relatively early and I had plenty of hours ahead of me.

Onwards!

I climbed up the next mountain and looked ahead. It looked like it was going to be a bumpy day.

Mountains, mountains everywhere.

Looking south east.

I kept to the northern side of the lagoon Beyond it were yet more mountains and yet more waterfalls. 

My legs are going to hurt tonight...

More waterfalls.

A river trickling out of one cave...

...and into a deeper one.

Mountains, mountains, more mountains. Each one I crested I expected to be followed by a flat plane of land, but each one just sunk a bit then climbed even higher. Over and over. Some were sheer is places and required some digging, but most were manageable. Still, there were lots of mountains. Beautiful mountains, mind you. I don't think these photos do them any justice whatsoever.

.

.

Looking south. Waterfall in the distance.

With the climbing and the descending, I probably covered twice as much land as I did distance. But the scenery was truly breathtaking. After a while, I decided to up my draw distance to FAR, even though it caused my poor little MacBook to chug a bit. I'm glad I did.

...wow. Looking north.

Wait. Is that a cloud?

Looking south. More strange lands.

The duel-hole cave to the north looked amazing, but it was some way out of my path. I had already wasted enough time today. I decided to just keep pushing east. Not that that would be any easier.

.

So I don't bore you by repeating this over and over, I am going to say this one last time and then let the pictures do the talking: there were a LOT of mountains.

Looking north east.

Looking north. Same canyon.

Looking east.

Overhangs to the north. You can see the right-most two in the previous picture.

.

Would't mind some boring, flat ground some time soon.

"Ain't been no flat ground here since 1952!"

I'm pretty sure I actually swore at this point.

Beyond the mountains on the horizon of the previous picture, I stood before a deep canyon.

.

,

The sun was sinking in the sky behind me as I began my decent.

.

Waterfall to the south. (In the canyon now)

Getting into the canyon was relatively easy. Getting out of the other side, though, would be a different story.

Looking south.

Looking east...

...but not looking good.

Running out of time...

It was looking more and more likely I would be spending the night in the canyon. But first, I decided to try my luck to the south. The cliffs had seemed less impenetrable down that way from the canyon's lip. After not too long, the canyon swung east under some trees.

A way out, perhaps?

...Nope.

It was getting too dark now. I would have to make camp. For safety, though, I climbed halfway up the cliff before digging in and making camp.

Can creepers climb cliffs?

I've drifted so far south I can't even see the sunset.

Rest. Finally.

A long day. I did not even feel like mining. I was exhausted. Both physically from the mountains and mentally from trying to draw a path between them. Never before has the terrain seemed so determined to halt me. Sure, I have faced oceans and mountains before, but always there has been another route. Today, there was just challenge after challenge. Camped under another cliff, tomorrow was not looking to be any easier.