Day Thirty-Four

I dug deep beneath my island in a tight spiral until I hit a vast, dark cavern network. I took several tentative steps into the cave, hoping a block of diamond might just appear before me. Of course, it didn't, and I hastily retreated back up my shaft before mobs could swarm me.

Back in my island camp, there were no mobs to be seen so I knocked down a wall and went outside to gaze at the stars.

Leaving camp before dawn.

Being outside at night is an odd sensation.

My hastily-built shelter.

Can you tell I am eager to get going?

That's close enough to dawn.

I headed for my boat and headed off, keeping an eye out for any mobs swimming out towards me, but I did not see a single spider or creeper all morning.

.

First things first, I needed to grab some wood and make a chest to dump all the dirt and stone from the night's mining in. I decided to keep a stock of stone on me so I could continue to build towers to camp on while my resources lasted, but plenty more went into the chest.

Sorted. Now to just get back in my boat.

Damn it. (Looking north)

I swam out to my boat and was on my way. The ocean looked to continue for some time yet.

.

.

Almost crashed on those.

There was a continent off to the north. At first I thought that it was a desert but as I came closer, I realised that the slopes were stone, not sand. I sailed closer to investigate.

Wowsers

Can't say I have ever seen coal underwater before.

I used my steel pick to quickly mine the iron and most of the coal (not the underwater stuff, though). The iron ore went several cubes deep. Quite a decent find. I jumped back in my boat and sailed back to the south to regain my eastern path.

The sheer, eastern face of the stone hill.

Looks like I might finally have found somewhere to land.

Yep.

So that was a long boat ride. Perhaps twenty-four hours since I first crafted it. I left the boat at the beach and continued up to the mountain. Its base was pocketed with deep shafts and  a honeycomb of caves.

Not even off the beach and I'm already almost falling into a cavern.

More ore!

And more tunnels.

It took some time to work myself across to the second vein, but I now had a dozen cubes of iron ore. Not bad for a day's travel. I climbed back out of the caverns and circled around the southern side of the mountain.

Entrance to the caves from the southern side.

Tree pigs! (There were two of them, I swear!) (Looking north)

Beyond the mountain, hills were sloping up to the north-east, and several sandy pillars were jutting from the ocean to the east and the south.

Looking north-east.

East and south.

I headed across the sand. It looked as though I would be crossing another ocean soon enough, but I was determined to stick to land for as long as I could.

Sandy islands to the south.

Looking south again, a pillar standing alone.

I think I've walked as far as I can (Looking east).

I could see the land just ahead of me. I decided it would probably be faster to swim than to craft a boat.

On my first attempt to take this photo, I managed to drop my axe to the bottom of the ocean.

Heading east onto the new continent.

Getting late.

It had been a long day, considering how early I had started. I had more than enough resources on my person so I decided I would spend the night atop a tower, so I could continue on for a bit longer for now. The new continent gradually inclined and the grass grew greener underfoot. As the sky eventually began to darken, the ground dipped into a small gully. The patch of sand beside the water looked like the perfect place to plant some cacti and build my tower.

Home for the night.

Building the tower is still an unnerving experience.

Perhaps the bottom of a gully wasn't the greatest idea after all.

I built the tower higher than I would have liked so no skeletons could shoot me from the hillside. The night was uncannily quiet, however, as I placed my furnace and set to smelting all the ore I had found today.