Day 26 - Success!

This morning the theme seemed to be swimming zombies.

First this guy came at me, jumping through the water to keep cool. Once he was dealt with, a friend of his thought he'd have a go too, but luckily the cows were on my side today and one of them held the zombie at bay while I got my weapons in order.

My walk today took me down another river, to a point very near to a previous day's trek. There were only a few blocks of dirt between then and now.

By this point I had travelled along so many rivers that I couldn't recall if the marker on the other side was from yesterday or a week ago. I turned around and returned in the opposite direction. Soon the land was becoming much flatter and the trees taller.

I passed a tree growing in a pit.

Then I saw more mountains ahead. Would I actually get to walk amongst them this time? Or would I, as seems to be the case more often, curve away before I arrive? As I continued on towards them, I passed a very narrow ravine sliced into the ground.

At the far end of the ravine, the water was pouring from the sea/lake beside me down into the depths, yet it never seemed to fill up. Physics is not what you're used to around here. Not far past this point, I snapped a picture of a pig on a ledge.

And then the sun was getting lower in the sky and I was entering swampland again. I could see a mountain through the trees ahead.

And then I saw it. On a small raised area of dirt in the middle of my view there was a workbench. This all suddenly seemed very familiar. It was where I had begun my journey - I was back! Indeed, I put down my last couple of markers and around the very next corner were the two markers I had placed way back in the beginning.

It seemed fitting that the sun should be setting at the completion of my voyage. I remembered that I had dug my first night's home into the side of the mountain, so I hurried over there before it got too dark and was greeted by the welcoming sight of a ready-prepared place to spend the night.

I went in, offloaded most of my prized treasures into the chest there and wondered what to do now.

Well I still hadn't actually answered my original question - was I on an island or had I been traversing the shores of a large enclosed body of water? As I had been keeping the water on my left-hand side, if I had made more left turns than right then this was a big lake. If however I had turned right more then I was on an island. But for some strange reason I hadn't been keeping track of which way I turned so I was none the wiser.

I decided I needed to make a map. A Minecraft map. Which required paper and a compass. And to make a compass I needed redstone - which was only found in the depths of the world. I decided to dig down.

I got pretty deep but found nothing, and daylight was arriving outside, so I returned to the surface and considered my options.

Day 25 - A Very Short Day

I hurried outside, quickly looking around to be sure I was safe, and set about putting down a marker to note this location in case I should ever return - the cave was not fully explored and there might be more to find down there.

Then I realised I could find out roughly what time of day it was by looking at the sun. I peered up and around the sky, and then saw it - it was descending already!

I hurried on my way - hardly even stopping to look around. I raced along the shore, throwing down marker stones as I went, trying to cover as much ground as possible on what was looking like a very short day's travel.

At one point I came within a few blocks of the opposite shore where I had been before.

But then I curved away from the markers and moved once again into new territory. As sunset arrived I was just on the border of an area of swampland.

I tunnelled into a nearby hill and bedded down for the night.

Day 24 - The Big Cave

I stepped out of my tower refuge and had a quick look around, reminding myself of the surrounding landscape. As if by magic, a creeper appeared.

I swung at him, but he was already starting to explode so I dodged back out of the way. Result: a big hole in the ground.

Today's journey was mostly uneventful. It was still nice to be amongst the rolling grassy hills, and I seemed to be retracing my steps a lot as the opposite bank was often dotted with my markers. I spotted a picturesque waterfall spilling down into a pond.

I passed a meadow where the sheep and cows were frolicking merrily together.

I also came close to entering a land of vast mountains, but my route curved away as I reached the first one.

Eventually it was getting dark and I was nowhere near any large cliffs, so I dug down and made a little homely hole in the ground.

I decided I'd stock up on cobblestone here, so dug the base of my home down and almost immediately broke through into a dark passageway. I threw in a torch and set about widening the entrance.

The cave disappeared into the darkness. I set out to explore it, dropping torches as I went to light the place up.

It turned out to be a fairly extensive cave system, with lots of twisty caves plunging down into the depths of the world, the occasional cavern with optional exits going off in different directions, but so far no sound of enemies.

After mapping out several dead-ends, I found myself on the edge of a large, dark, vertical shaft that I immediately named "The Big Pit". I had to go down and explore it.

I carved a set of steps into the side of the pit, working my way down and around the edge. Then I looked up and saw, standing in an alcove opposite me, waiting patiently, a menacing creeper.

I continued down, but the creeper decided to leap off his ledge to get me, landing just a few blocks below my current position.

This was a good position for me to be in, as I had a definite advantage and could swing my sword at his head without fear of him climbing back up. He had a zombie friend down there too, who I also killed off before jumping down to the bottom of the pit and examining my options.

Several caves headed off in different directions and I took some time to explore them, but ultimately none of them went anywhere. I had hoped that one might continue down and take me into the realm of diamonds, but it was not to be on this occasion.

I now realised I had been down here some time and it might well be morning already, so I attempted to retrace my steps back up to the surface. Oddly, I got completely lost a couple of times, but found new connecting caves with glowing lights in the distance which marked out caves I had travelled before.

I eventually made it back to the top and indeed daylight was streaming through the windows of my door. I wondered how much of the day I had lost already?

Day 23 - Monsters And A Lookout Tower

As I left my hideout this morning all seemed quiet and there were no immediate signs of monsters. I was just about to set off when I noticed the shore went right past a small pond with two skeletons wading about in it. As I approached, one leaped out, burst into flames but then cleverly each time he was about to die either jumped back into some water or hid under the leaves of a tree.

His arrows kept flying at me, one or two hitting home, so rather than waiting for the sun to do its magic - which didn't seem to be happening with this particular creature - I dived in and sliced him up myself. Then skeleton number two decided it was his turn and also came at me. While dodging an arrow from him, I spotted a sneaky creeper tiptoeing towards me through the trees.

I dealt with him right away and while I was doing that, the sun took care of the skeleton for me. But then of course another creeper emerged and started hissing in my face.

I put a stop to the hissing before it could turn into exploding, then headed off on my merry way. Rounding the next corner, I was confronted by a spider.

Luckily this was one creature that didn't seem to want a piece of me today, so I ignored it and carried on. The journey today was mostly along shorelines that stuck close to places I had been before - my stone/torch markers were visible on the opposite bank most of the time. I was so disoriented by now that I did not know if I was heading back towards my starting point now or if I was about to head off into more vast unexplored lands. I guess there's no guarantee I'll ever return to my original spawn point - the landscape could continue to generate in such a way that I always get further and further away. But I reckon that's unlikely.

Just as night was falling I discovered a natural rock/dirt formation that vaguely resembled a giant mushroom and figured it would make a good base for the night.

I hollowed out the inside, making some steps up to a "viewing gallery" with windows near the top.

I then put down a bed and - slightly more nervously than usual after last night - went to sleep.

Day 22 - A Pleasant Walk And A Disturbed Night

I could hear spiders sounds outside this morning, so I was very wary as I left my home, but they stopped when I left and there was no sign of a spider anywhere outside. Odd.

Today's walk through this Minecraft world was a pleasant one. No monsters to speak of, just a sunny stroll down the side of a winding river, passing grassy hills, flowers, trees and the odd pit full of animals.

I did pass an unsual lava pit only partly exposed to the outside world.

But mostly today's travels looked like this:

Shortly before bedtime I spotted my first mysterious Ender Pearl floating by itself in amongst the trees.

This went into my collection of interesting objects which was starting to take up most of my inventory. I'm not sure what I should leave behind, but for now I don't need to make space so everything is coming with me.

The night was a little more disturbed than normal. I dug out my usual camp, put down a bed and lay down to sleep. But no! I awoke to find it was still dark and a skeleton was jabbing me with his pointy arrows.

This was the first time it had happened on this voyage and usually means the walls of my camp are too thin or too close together or something. Anyway, I killed him quickly and before I had even thought to make the place a bit bigger I had slipped back into sleep. Zombie attack!

Ok, this was getting a bit silly. I enlarged the camp, went back to sleep and luckily made it through to morning without any further incidents.

Day 21 - A Dungeon In The Hillside

I set off bright and early, as usual, and it wasn't long before I was greeted by a rare sight - an exposed dungeon in the side of a hill. I wasn't going to pass this by, especially as my route along the shoreline passed within a few blocks of it.

I knocked a hole in the wall to get a look inside. Immediately a swarm of creepers and zombies gathered on the other side of the hole, trying to squeeze themselves through.

This was handy, as I could merrily swing my sword back and forth, chopping them up into little pieces of rotten flesh while standing safely outside. Tum te tum.

Eventually silence fell and all signs of movement had gone. I knew that to "de-activate" the zombie spawner in the middle of the dungeon I had to put some torches around it, so I headed in to do that. There was a hissing noise. Two creepers had been hiding behind a chest in one corner and had now emerged!

I ran backwards as quickly as possible, blinding waving my sword in their general direction as I went. Somehow I managed to take care of them both without losing any health or causing either to detonate.

I ransacked the chests and got a few goodies for my troubles - some cocoa beans, some wheat, a couple of saddles, a free bucket, some iron and more gunpowder amongst other things.

I continued on my way, arriving at a refreshing change of scenery. Finally there was a change to the desert/swamp pattern I've been seeing recently - some rolling grassy hills.

It may not be the most exciting landscape ever, but it was a relief to see something different and I did have the feeling I was entering a new phase of my exploration.

The sun set, I dug myself a shelter, found a 40-block seam of coal and then closed my eyes for the night.

Day 20 - Leaving The Mountains Again

Today's trek was fairly unremarkable. The mountains lasted perhaps less than a minute and then I was back into swampland again. About the only excitement of the day came from a creeper in a hole who was bouncing up and down. I stayed and watched him a little before slicing his head off.

Just around the corner from here was an entrance to a hilly region, marked with two towers of stone.

It would have been interesting to go that way, but my task was set - I have to stick to the shoreline and I wanted to make progress.

One of the trees had an agile cow clambering around on top of it.

I curved back past the border of the mountains, and then most of the day was spent back in the desert. There were a lot of cacti around.

When night fell I was luckily just into a slightly more hilly area so carving out a small home was not difficult and I fell quickly asleep.