Let's see where this little ravine takes me

[Walter2]

An unrewarding wait; the sun rose on the far side so the rock looked no different - it was just delineated by a brighter sky.
This is the view south from the top of Mount Patience. Interesting view of the mother planet and three more planets courtesy of the Milky Way.

I don't have to climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow till I find the south pole. There's the barest hint of a valley in the gold on the horizon, so I made for that.
Turned out to be just a small fold in the terrain. In spite of the promise of interesting valleys and canyons offered by shots from space, there has been just the one challenge so far.
Looking back at Mount Patience.

I was five degrees off track so spent the rest of the session restoring the path, with more blood-specked barriers ranged across the route.

 

[Walter2]

While the mountains might not be challenging and the valleys and canyons not quite spectacular (so far), Wormwood's landscape colours are superb. There are citrus plains of orange, lemon, lime patchily overlain with pink, purple mountains with turquoise ice and green and gold lowlands.

This was the barrier from the same position, looking the other way.

Wormwood has a period of 19hr 12min, which repeats on a five-day cycle so it's not always convenient to travel in daylight. The mountains are essentially monochrome so riding through the smooth peaks and troughs in NV is not a real handicap and is more like riding a switchback. Fun.
Having crossed the mountains I've taken a diversion to investigate what looks like a wide valley. If I follow this system I should end up back on the right track.

It's looking promising.

 

[Alec Turner]

While the mountains might not be challenging and the valleys and canyons not quite spectacular (so far), Wormwood's landscape colours are superb. There are citrus plains of orange, lemon, lime patchily overlain with pink, purple mountains with turquoise ice and green and gold lowlands.

This was the barrier from the same position, looking the other way.

Wormwood has a period of 19hr 12min, which repeats on a five-day cycle so it's not always convenient to travel in daylight. The mountains are essentially monochrome so riding through the smooth peaks and troughs in NV is not a real handicap and is more like riding a switchback. Fun.
Having crossed the mountains I've taken a diversion to investigate what looks like a wide valley. If I follow this system I should end up back on the right track.

It's looking promising.

Just beautiful! Can't wait to get back down there. Any sign of any members of the stranded women's lacrosse team?

 

[Walter2]

Just beautiful! Can't wait to get back down there. Any sign of any members of the stranded women's lacrosse team?

No sign of anything - no downed satellites, no crashed ships, no commodities dumps - just two parked ships.
Peaceful.
Must be down to the local Thargoid scare.

 

[Orvidius]

Some stunning vistas! Keep the photos coming, I really enjoy this.

 

[Walter2]

Some stunning vistas! Keep the photos coming, I really enjoy this.

Glad you're enjoying it - but not half as much as me .
I couldn't wait to see what was coming up so I've run further in NV but had to stop because of a stunning view. Using the system map is a bit like trying to find a city park using a school atlas: not impossible, but uncertain - the map is not the terrain and shadows on the map really distort and hide what's on the ground.
On the map I posted above, the indicator is pointing to a small inverted guitar shape. I've stopped due south where the neck meets the body at the top of a narrow slope that overlooks the complications that lead to the wide valley that is my target.
The view is so good in NV I'm going to wait for daylight. This may take a while because it will get light early tomorrow morning. If I'm too late I'll have to wait at least 24hrs to get just the right picture.
It had better be worth it.

 

[Walter2]

I had forgotten the most important aspect of tidally locked moons: the side facing the primary gets two periods of light in each cycle, while the side facing outwards gets one. This throws off my simple calculations. So I just had to keep logging in until I found enough light.

Here it is - almost half way round and the first complex of valleys with a hint of fascination. Perhaps not so panoramic as other shots, but it's not what it shows - it's what it says.
It's an invitation; a call to adventure; a siren song for unwary travellers.
Come in, it says seductively. Come in, you'll be safely entertained. Have a mazing experience; get lost in my twists and turns.
Enfold yourself in my curvaceous forms; explore my nooks and crannies; lose yourself in my secret places and

I'm stopping now.
I need to lie down.

 

[Walter2]

That was fun.

Finally found the valley feature. Not spectacular, but you can see it from space.

My exit's on the left with the next target poking above the horizon. The exit on the right looks interesting too.

Another painted valley, but the light was going and the sky was boiling.

 

[Walter2]

The ranges ahead. I estimate that the third peak from the right will put me back on the 40° meridian and the chance to turn due south again after the diversion.

This is a 360 from that peak. The Milky Way is due south, but I might aim for the left-of-centre gap between two ranges. The small dip in the centre of the gold section is the valley that guided me to this spot.

 

[Alec Turner]

Done my last run in the Halpy Hand Buckyball Race, swapped my racing iCourier for the old Bananery Fandango DBX and am heading back to Wormwood now. Should be touching down to resume my non-circumnavigation (yeah right, who am I kidding!) some time tomorrow morning.

The race was epic ..

.. but I can't wait to get back in the SRV!

 

[Alec Turner]

I'm back! Not much to report today - approximately an hour of driving in pitch dark down canyons and ravines that I know would look spectacular if I waited for daylight but I'm keen to get moving. Towards the end of my session (bloomin' typical) I spy the beginnings of a sun rise ahead ..

.. and sure enough, just as I'm wrapping up for the day, I crest a rise and there it is - dawn!

Oh well - another 10° covered. Heading back to the ship you can see the black gap in the hills along the horizon which pretty much marks the way I came.

 

[Walter2]

Arrived at 0°,-40°.
Whoever thought that putting the equator half way up a mountain should really read my upcoming book Stellar and Planetary Design for Neonate Deities, in which I expound at length on the aesthetics of matching cartesian coordinates with appropriate physical manifestations of the omnibenevolent and the feelings of satisfaction that suitable juxtapositions can engender in transcendent beings.
Other chapters in the planning stage.

 

[Alec Turner]

Arrived at 0°,-40°.
Whoever thought that putting the equator half way up a mountain should really read my upcoming book Stellar and Planetary Design for Neonate Deities, in which I expound at length on the aesthetics of matching cartesian coordinates with appropriate physical manifestations of the omnibenevolent and the feelings of satisfaction that suitable juxtapositions can engender in transcendent beings.
Other chapters in the planning stage.

I've been heading East from 0°,-155°, currently at around 0°,-145° I think so I'll probably hit that mountain in a week's time or so. If you want to leave me exact coordinates then it might be fun if I try to recreate the exact same screenshot?

 

[Walter2]

Interesting - anticipated your plan and embedded the coordinates in the previous post.

"Rather choppy tonight, Cap'n."
"Aye. Take off more sail."

The Satin Quilt peak conquered. (Barely - fell off once and had to scrabble back up again. Snuggling up for the night.)

 

[Alec Turner]

Disaster!

The SRV? No, the SRV is fine ... but I had an absolutely stunning journey today covering nearly 20° of glorious terrain including numerous winding ravines and volcanic mountains but when I excitedly went to check my screenshots folder at the end of the session almost none of them were there. Absolutely gutted because there were some absolute beauties. No idea what happened ... oh well.

So yeah, woke up to find myself in bright glorious daylight which lasted for the whole two hours I was driving today. Quite early on I spied a really nice canyyon in the distance off to my right which turned out to be better than I'd imagined ... a whole complex of alternating rolling ravines that opened out in broad plains before leading on to the next canyon. At one point I follow a high signal on the scanner deep into some really jagged foothils and there, hidden in a pretty deep pit I recovered three more occupied escape pods! I drove back to the ship (which had landed some distance away) with the first two, being careful to leave tracks so I could find my way back again. With all three safely on board I continued on to a wonderful purple mountain range I'd seen on the Horizon, scaled its peaks, took lots of photos (sob) and then base jumped down into the flat lands beyond (I do at least have some video of that which I'll upload later). Further on I spotted another signal off to the South, followed it and just over a hill found ... yup ... another occupied escape pod!

Then it was off to another mountain on the horizon for which I do thankfully have some photos.

Encountered some fairly crazy angles during the climb ..

.. and finally scaled its highest peak.

Decided to finish the day back down on the plains beyond but just as I was about to quit for the day one last signal caught my eye.

Unbelievable!

Brought the ship down to the site and began loading up the survivors.

I'd started this rescue operation without much hope but now I find myself with only one other member of the stranded women's lacrosse team still to find!

 

[Walter2]

Alec, you're an artefact magnet. I've still only seen one ship, one satellite and two other signals, which I chose to ignore.

Re missing pics - I've caught myself hitting the 0 key instead of F10.

 

[Alec Turner]

The video of my descent down the back slope of one of those mountains is now up.

 

[schlowi123]

Unbelievable! You really may find all of them!

 

[Alec Turner]

Unbelievable! You really may find all of them!

Hell, at this rate I might even find the substitutes and the opposing team!

 

[Just Call Me Dave]

Hell, at this rate I might even find the substitutes and the opposing team!

Are those 'stolen' ones not members of the opposing team with three of your own team left to find?