DISTANT WORLDS II 3305 PART 3/3 - THE LONG JOURNEY HOME (Trip #6)
10 Jul 2019XhaleR
As this epic expedition now has come to an end and my arrival at Beagle Point has both been confirmed and approved, it's time to prepare for the long journey back home. However, I'm not going to plot the course straight to the bubble, but have decided to explore some areas along the eastern edge and visit Voyager's Reach. From there I will just continue south following the Sagittarius Carina Arm all the way home.
07.05.3305 - RETURNING TO OLD GROUNDS
Before leaving Beagle Point I spent a few days revisiting "Salome's Reach" at Semotus Beacon. Semotus Beacon is the most distant reachable system from Sol (65,647.34 LY's) and Salome's Reach, located on planet 9 F is 134 000LS further north of the main star. It has a nice bluish surface with canyons and the view of the galaxy from here are awesome!! Semotus Beacon are located about 550LY's north/west of Beagle Point and requires a few boost jumps to get there. The place is definetely a must to visit while staying at BP and you will also get your name on the EDSM POI visitors list!!
15.05.3305 - BACK TO SOME GOOD OLD LAID BACK EXPLORING!
On all my previous (long distance) journey's I've been traveling alone with no deadlines or waypoints, so it was nice, but also a bit strange to be on my own "RelahX'ing" pace again. Even if Distant Worlds 2 has been nothing but a fantastic journey and the one that I've enjoyed the most, it is also a great feeling to yet again decide my own path with no time limits or scheduled arrivals anymore.
At 5700LY's east of Beagle Point, on my way to "Voyagers Reach" I had a nice revisit to my "Solitude Worlds" POI which was discovered during my previous trip to BP. The system was reported to GMP and has one Earth-like world and three waterworlds.
Landed on C 2 A for the night and left a little Guardian "souvenir" before leaving the next day (maybe I'll find it on my next visit)
18.05.3305 - VOYAGER'S REACH
From "Solitude Worlds" I have continued south along the Sagittarius Carina arm and stopped by for a revisit to "Restless Silence"; another nice discovery I did on my last trip. The system contains three waterworlds and one Ammonia world.
From here I plotted a 5000 LY's course straight east and almost every system on the route was undiscovered, finding a few Neutron stars, Ammonia worlds and a lot of waterworlds. After a long day in the cockpit I finally arrived Voyager's Reach late at night and found a landing site with a great view of the galaxy. My plan ahead is to continue following the outer edge along "Viatori Patuit" to look for some more great undiscovered places.
22.05.3305 - EXPLORING THE EDGE
Two weeks has passed since leaving Beagle Point and the epic Distant Worlds 2 expedition has become a nice "Distant" memory. After traveling almost 30 000LY's reaching the eastern edge of the galaxy, I am now at the top of the "Viatori Patuit" arm. Most of the systems in this desolated area are undiscovered territory, so almost every system is a new one. Another POI that caught my attention was "Thanduc's Retreat"; a black hole system 650LY's above the galactic plane creating some very nice visual effects of the galaxy. The system might be hard to reach for ships with lower jumprange and jumponium might be required, but the system is definetely worth a visit.
27.05.3305 - "DISTANT COLORS"
Still plotting routes along Viatori Patuit/Sagittarius Carina Arm looking for new discoveries. Almost 34 000LYs from Beagle Point now, it feels like ages since departing from Waypoint 12 concluding the end of DW2. The exploring spirit is still high among the Prometheus crew so I am in no hurry of getting straight home yet.
And once in a while you hit the sweetspot and discover a really special place, like I did a few days ago!! After leaving "Thanduc's Retreat" I came across THIS great system with a ringed terraformable waterworld which didn't seem special at the beginning. But I noticed one of its landable rocky moons (3 C) orbiting a gas giant and decided to take a closer look. What I found was a spectacular little treasure so colorful and mountainous that I decided to stay a few days to explore it. There are some seriously high mountains all over the planet, but I think the sweetspot is this breathtaking crater with a massive mountain inside.
Also reached "Muntasir" POI today, an interesting system that has a terraformable water world which is the moon of a gas giant, and the water world itself also has a small landable moon.
30.05.3305 - SOME NICE DISCOVERIES NEAR THE EDGE
Today I discovered my first Stellar Phenomena system containing three different types located in the rings of two gas giants. The nice pink and purple colored "Rubeum Silicate crystals" and "Roseum Ice crystals" was located at the same spot. At the other site I found some "Albidum Chalice Pods" looking like colorful seeds and I've never seen any of these before. Another great discovery!
Also came across this great looking Ammonia gas giant and had to take a closer look.
07.06.3305 - ULTIMA CENTAURI
Still traveling south on the Sagittarius Carina Arm discovering a lot of nice places. I've found many systems with Stellar Phenomena since my first one, mainly Peduncle trees and pods, but also a few types of crystals. Visited a few more POI's along the way and celebrated a small milestone today when I reached "Ultima Centauri", a nice POI which marks the halfway point between Sol and Beagle Point along the Sagittarius-Carina arm.
Almost outta' paint after traveling nearly 160 000LY's.
20.06.3305 - GETTING CLOSER TO CIVILIZATION
It's been one massive stretch traveling almost the full length of the Sagittarius Carina Arm all the way from Beagle Point. I've crossed six regions along the way before entering "Hawking's Gap" yesterday, and looking at the map today I felt the sense of "coming home" for the first time since the start of DW2. As an explorer I get some mixed feelings about returning back to civilization soon, but at the same time it will be great coming home after more than six months out in the black. I still have 28 000 LY's to go before I can safely dock at Jamesons Memorial, but after covering almost 180 000LY's on this expedition, it feels just "around the corner"!
Still discovering some great places, many WW's and a few ELW/AMW's, but nothing worth reporting since I found this mountainous and colorful moon a few weeks ago (still thinking of a name for it). But the hunt for Green giants and other "galactic surprises" continues.
07.07.3305 - ALMOST HOME!
Not much to report during these last two weeks after crossing "Hawkings Gap" into the "Outer Orion spur" region. I've plotted the course towards the Eta Carina nebula and landed at a bio site with some nice looking braintrees and a great view of the nebula (it's actually the first time I've seen these braintrees).
After traveling along the Sagittarius Carina arm all the way from Beagle Point, I have finally left the arm to plot my last course and direction towards the bubble. It feels almost surreal having only 5500LY's left to go after beeing away for half a year and to not have seen any sign of civilization in over 4 months.
09.07.3305 - HOME SWEET HOME!
After writing 176 days, 3 802 hyperjumps and a travel length of 207 555LY's in my DW2 captain's log, I finally did my last jump of the expedition today and have safely docked back home in Jameson Memorial. Beeing a bit rusty after all this time out in the black I really had to take it slow while approaching the letterbox. But everything went smoothly and my valuable explorerdata and priceless discoveries was safe. It took me about an hour to sell all the data and when I finally summed it up, I had earned a massive 4.86 BILLION credits during the expedition!! So anybody thinking that exploring doesn't pay; well, think again! A trip to Beagle Point and back can make you insanely rich!!
Think I'll spend the next few days just relaxing, maybe do some ship maintenance and get used to beeing back in civilization. I will soon start the job sorting and organizing some of my discoveries as I have a few 'gem's" that will be reported to the Galactic Mapping Project. But right now I'm gathering my crew and heading straight to the bar to celebrate our homecoming and great accomplishment!!
Almost outta' paint after six months crossing the galaxy!
SOME FINAL WORDS: It will take too long to fully explain what an epic, adventurous and awesome journey and experience Distant Worlds 2 has been for me, but hopefully you have sensed some of it through these logbooks. I can hereby state that these six last months has (without a shadow of doubt) been my best time so far in my Elite career.
Finally a BIG THANK YOU(!!) to all the expedition organizers and FDevs for their professional planning and dedicated hard work, making it all possible!!
See you all in Distant Worlds 3!!
Fly safe CMDRs
DW2 Part 1 - Pallaeni to Polo Harbour
DW2 Part 2 - Polo Harbour to Beagle Point
