FINDING THE ZURARA - FORMIDINE RIFT/LIVINGSTONE POINT 3304 (Trip #5)
23 Oct 2018XhaleR
After finishing the last pages of Drew Wagar's amazing saga; Elite Reclamation and Elite Premonition, I got so incredibly inspired by the whole story about Salome's dramatic journey to the Formidine Rift that I had to fly out there myself to find the Zurara; this mysterious long lost ship out in the black. It was going to be a long and challenging trip since my second goal of the journey would be to visit the absolute southernmost reachable system in our galaxy; Livingstone Point. Reaching systems this close to the rim of the galaxy would require some detailed routeplanning, high jumprange and a lot of jumponium stored.DAY 1 - 11.02.3303 - On my way to unknown territories
Prepared for a new exploration journey. This time I will visit the mysterious Formidine Rift. Departing from Jameson Memorial early in the morning, excited of what was lying ahead. I went into a few nice neutron systems capturing some shots.
DAY 3 - 13.02.3304 - Abandoned Settlements
After traveling 8000LYs the first three days I reached the outpost of the Rift and found "Salome's World". After reading Wagar's books this is certainly a special place as the system thought to have been first discovered by CMDR Salomé (aka Lady Khahina) sometime in 3302 while she was (presumably) out in the rift looking for clues into the Exodus conspiracy.
I had marked some waypoints to visit some of the Formidine Rift abandoned settlements and was spending the night at settlement Alpha on planet C2.
DAY 4 - 14.02.3304
On day four I decided to explore the area around tha Alpha site to collect some useful materials before proceeding to the next one.
Settlement Beta
Settlement Gamma
Settlement Delta
DAY 5 - 15.02.3304 - Arriving at the mysterius "Zurara"
Just over 12000LYs from home I finally located the Zurara today, which is my main destination for this trip.
DAY 7 - 17.02.3304
After spending the night beside the Zurara it was time to move on as I still had a long way to the southernmost edge of the galaxy. Discovering some nice AMW's and ELW's systems on the way.
DAY 8 - 18.02.3304 - Pitch Black!
Totally alone and very far away from civilization, but enjoying every single jump out here in the (pitch) black. What a total contrast to bounty hunt in hazres's back home!
DAY 14 - 25.02.3304 - Reaching the southernmost reachable system
After exactly two weeks I reached "Livingstone Point" today, 16 097LYs from home. This is the most distant system reachable southward along the meridian line. Located only 101 LY from the zero line and only reachable with modded ships and heavy use of jumponium.
DAY 15 - 26.02.3304
Spent a few days out here at the edge of the galaxy concluding the fact that since my trip to Beagle Point I have now traveled the whole distance from the northernmost reachable system at Semotus Beacon to the southernmost end of the galaxy, 80 000LY's away from each other.
DAY 20 - 04.03.3304
It's been a few days now since I left Livingstone Point and are now on my way back home. Landed on a tiny little planet in the Crab Sector discovering some fungal life. This must be the smallest planet I have ever visited with a radius of just 395km.
Returning to civilization! Docking at the "Station X" asteroid base 7000LYs from home to grab a cold one before moving on.
Passed some really nice nebulas on the way, including the "Sunny side down" POI.
Found a black hole with a planetary nebula that made some nice optical effects.
DAY 21 - 04.03.3304
Found another new ELW system today and visited the "Oceana" POI, a quadruple water world system.
This lady really deserves a new paintjob when she comes home!!
DAY 22 - 05.03.3304 - Rare find close to the bubble!
Did another awesome ELW discovery today, located just 3 kylies from home.
Getting supertanned
Civilization here I come.
DAY 23 - 06.03.3304 - Almost back home!
Just 2600LYs from home and taking it easy the last stretch. Landed on a nice planet to do some "offroading" in the SRV.
DAY 24 - 07.03.3304 - Mission completed!
After an awesome and inspiring explorer roundtrip traveling over 40 000LY's, I safely docked back home at "Jameson Memorial".
Hope to see you out there, Cmdrs!
o7