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.

Day Thirty-Three

While I felt relatively safe atop my cactus-circled pillar as I knew exactly what mobs were around me, I was sharply aware of just how easy it would be for me to fall to my death. I spent the entire night crouching, watching the mobs walk back and forth over the desert.

Nearly morning

So many creepers!

Oh wait. Some of those are cacti.

Muhaha!

Once the burning was over, one lone spider that had maneuvered around my defenses was left attacking my pillar. The creepers on the southern hill seemed disinterested in me. I dismantled my furnace and workbench and dug away at my pillar until I was low enough to shoot at the spider.

.

My saviors.

A fitting monument.

Atop my pillar I had seen that the desert did not continue east, instead I trailed off beyond the southern hills. Instead, my path leveled out onto a plain of dry grass.

Looking east.

I turned around at the sound of footsteps and saw the creeper a second too late.

Enough time to take a screenshot. Not enough time to prevent the inevitable.

I fell back as the creeper exploded, managing to only take two hearts of damage. It turns out there is a cavern beneath the desert, which is where it must have snuck up from.

Floating sand.

I resisted the urge to destroy the desert with a single swipe of my shovel. That would not be the nomad way. Instead, I turned and continued east. For a time the land was flat and unremarkable. Occasionally I glimpsed a northern coast and the ocean beyond. But for the most part there was just dead grass and the occasional tree until a narrow lake forked my path.

.

I took the northern shore as it seemed to lead more directly east. Apart from the water now on both sides, the land continued uneventfully.

Mountains ahead. (And a cloud that looks like a minecrafter!)

Beyond the mountains the grass was greener and forested.

Looking east.

I stuck to to the northern face of the next hill and came across an interesting monument. Unfortunately, the density of the trees made photographing it difficult.

A crazy overhang.

Check out the floating tree.

I passed through the gap beneath the overhang and besides the pillar. On the eastern side the overhang continued. Just beyond was a beach and an ocean branching off to the horizon.

Looking back from the beach. Can't see the forest for all the damn trees.

Snowy peaks to the north.

I crafted a boat and was on my way.

.

And in my boat I spent the rest of the day. Although land passed me by several times, there was always a clear, ocean path east so I stayed in my boat. There is really nothing else to say of the day, so instead allow the pictures of my afternoon sailing do the talking for me.

Around some islands.

Through a canyon.

A rather large desert stretched off to the south.

Island pigs!

A rather intimidating mountain on a southern continent. I followed its coast to photograph it from behind.

.

Looking back south-west at the mountain.

The ocean continues.

Islands ahead, but the ocean continues east.

.

Another continent to the south.

Looking east. I sailed a bit to the north and stuck to the sea.

Sun sinking behind me.

Looking south.

I had been in this boat for a long time, at least half the day. Now that the sky was darkening, I considered my options. I could always keep going; no mobs would attack me at night. But what if I missed an amazing landmark? No. I would continue to only travel at night. But would I spent the entire night just sitting in my boat? That could be a bit boring. I was ready to try sleeping atop a pillar again, but I still have bad memories about my night at sea. And then I saw my answer, just to the north.

Hmm. That is a convenient little island...

I pulled ashore and hastily placed torches around the island's perimeter.

.

.

As the stars came out, I still felt exposed. Being on land at night without a roof over my head just felt wrong. I had just enough dirt and glass on me to make a small shelter, and that I did.

Safe.

In a shelter on an island of torches in the middle of the ocean. This is perhaps the safest I have felt on my entire trip. Nothing could possibly go wrong here...