Day Eleven

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Realisation dawned on me with the sun: I had made a horrible mistake. 

Having crafted the last of my wood into sticks, I had none left to craft my sign. The sun was probably not high enough yet to be burning zombies and skeletons, but the morning was silent save the distant mooing of a cow. I broke down the glass and crept outside.

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There we go!

I went back into my cavern to fetch my workbench and was on my way. Beyond the valley, the ground leveled out for a time.

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Om nom nom!

Yet again, I found myself on the southern shore of the continent. If I didn't know better, I would suspect that I horizontal line could be drawn along the bottom of each continent and that they all line up perfectly. Or perhaps I just always drift to the south as I always tend to round mountains on the southern side. Perhaps it is just a left-handed thing.

The ocean.

Inland a bit, I found a spring under a small overhang. The water was trickling into a small cavern and continued through a tiny, single-cube split into another room. I decided to explore a little way in, but it dead-ended not much later.

Might as well check it out.

Looking back towards the exit.

No point carrying anymore coal.

Moving on, I continued along the coast.

Not much of a beach..

It seemed as though the land would soon enough give away to another ocean. The hills flattened out and the grass spread sparsely between banks of sand.

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Over the next small ledge, I came across a broad lake ringed in sand. It reminded me of the lagoons you see by the beach at low tide. The ones of stagnant water the children too young for the waves swim in.

East across the lake.

Beyond the lake, there was no more land directly west. Several islands of sand pocketed the ocean, but the only substantial land was to the north. Though, it looked as though it may hook back into my path eventually. I didn't feel like making yet another boat, so I waded towards the northern island.

Looking east. No land.

North it is, then.

Got my feet wet a bit. Beats another boat, though.

The island's hills fell back northwards, but a flat slither of land did indeed creep back east and south. That would be my path. As I walked, I noticed quite the abundance of animals.

Some kind of pig and sheep convention.

There were animals everywhere. Somehow this is the only photo I managed to take of them, but there were also quite a few cows, and a small hill with no less than seven chickens waddling around together. I'm fairly angry at myself for not getting pictures of them, though. Still, it was fairly cool. As the sun began to sink, I left them behind and followed the land back south to my eastern path.

The land swinging to the south.

Looking south east.

The sun sinking back behind me.

I had made decent ground today but overall, it had been pretty uneventful. Perhaps it just felt uneventful after the adventures of the past two days. Still, beside some sand, I had not seen too much that fascinated me. I would have to make camp before too much longer, but I decided to press on just a bit longer--if for no other reason than sheer apathy at my current surroundings.

Back to heading east proper.

Was sure to grab wood for the morning's sign this time.

I decided i would head over one more hill and then find somewhere to make camp. It didn't matter that nothing exciting had happened today. I needed normal, boring days so that I could compare the awesome days to something, right?

Anyway, I crested the next mountain and instantly forgot my musings.

...wow.

A picture-perfect canyon. Alas, I had no time to explore it today; it would have to wait until morning. I worked my way down to the water, crossed, and dug into the stone. Clearly I chose the right spot:

Oh. Hello there.

Safe for the night.

I was eager for the morning. I wanted to explore this canyon and the waterfall. On edge from my uneventful day and exhilarating dusk find, I decided to spend the night mining. I went to the back of my little cave and started going down. I went fine for a while, finding more ore and coal. Then I hit a cavern.

A hole...

Looks pretty big...

So, so tempting...

I looked into the darkness for some time. Eventually, the sounds of clanking bones convinced me to go no deeper. I wasn't going to get myself killed beneath the unexplored canyon and waterfall I knew were right above me. I blocked off the cavern from my mine with some stone, and returned to my camp. By the time I returned, the moon was low, and I had plenty of iron that needed smelting before I could go on. I started the furnace, made some new picks and my next sign, and watched as the moon sunk below the trees.

Almost time...

Day Ten

This had to be the longest night in history. There was nothing I could do but sit there, my eyes drifting skywards to the crawling moon then darting back to the creepers. I considered shooting arrows at them, but I didn't want to aggravate them if they were happy to leave me alone. As the moon eventually sunk below the horizon, I started to edge forward slowly, leaving the creepers to their splashing.

In the pre-dawn, i could see more land to the south, as well as more movement.

I see you, zombie.

Then, at long last:

Yay!

I picked up speed and headed for the sun. Land appeared to the south almost instantly, but it was still some time before my next eastward destination finally rolled over the horizon.

Land ahoy!

And on we go.

 And so my longest ocean adventure thus far at last came to an end. In fact, I was probably beginning the day earlier than any previous. As I had done no mining and used no tools, I had no crafting or smelting to do and could get on with the day straight away. Which, unfortunately, looked like it was going to involve more water.

Looking east from where I docked.

I did not particularly feel like getting back in a boat straight away, so I walked around to the north and followed the land. I collected some sand as I went so I could glass up the entrance to my next camp. Beyond the far side of the lake, it looked like the water was going to leave me alone. The grassy area broadened, and mountains began to climb up from the south. Some rather bizarre mountains, at that.

That's a new one (looking south).

But, alas, it was not to be. Soon enough, the ocean was again in front of me. 

Easier than climbing mountains, I guess.

It was still early and I could see islands peppering the water, so it was not too bad. Still, the previous night was on my mind as I crafted my boat and stepped off the shore.

Some cute little islands.

This tree practically screamed, "Sit under me and read a book!"

It sounds silly, but that above photo is one of my most memorable moments of the day. The minuscule island just looked so relaxing and, well, chilled out. I slowed down the boat just to stare at it for a while longer.  Not long afterward, the islands grew fewer.

Uh oh. Not again...

My anxieties were unfounded. Not far past the horizon, the land rose up again from the south and wrapped around in front of me. This huge ocean looked at last to be over.

South and east as the ocean ends.

Land ahoy! ...again!

I hastened up the hill, eager to see that there was no ocean awaiting me on the other side. I could have cheered aloud when I saw the meadow.

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Walking! Proper, actual walking! As I went, I chopped down a few trees to replace the wood spent in the past few boats I had crafted. I also found several deep caverns, but I only stopped long enough to take the visible coal.

More caverns left uncharted.

The land began to dip down after a while. One hill took me down into a forest, beneath a thick canopy of leaves.

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Does Minecraft have ents?

The forest continues north-east between the hills. There was quite literally an endless ceiling of leaves between the trees, with the occasional hole letting in sunlight. I would have liked to trek beneath it for a time, but it looked like it would be too dense to walk through. Instead, I chopped away at some foliage and climbed up the opposite hill.

Several hills later, I paused and looked down. Something was not quite right...

There's something weird about this hill...

Wait. Where's all the grass?

This one mountain jutted bare and barren out of the landscape. Aside from a couple of trees on the southern side, the mountain was sheer stone. I had never seen this before. Things got even stranger on the eastern face.

So strange...

Weeeeeee!

Looking back west at the dead mountain.

So that was strange. Minutes later, I came across a second waterfall on the side of a cliff that I needed to get past.

Double waterfall! Not all the way across, but still. What does it mean?!

The incline seemed less sheer north of the fall so wadded through it and up the other side. The afternoon was getting on by this stage and it had been a long day. Well, a long two days, actually, since I last made camp. Over the cliff, I was funneled into an eastward valley between two mountain ranges.

Looking south.

Looking north.

Looking back west. The day is nearly over.

I found a small cave carved into the east-facing side of a mountain and headed inside.

Been a looong time since I was underground...

It did not go back very far. I placed some torches, my workbench, and my furnace and smelted the sand I had picked up that morning on the beach. By the time I glassed up the entrance, the stars were out. After two very long days, I was finally able to relax.