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We continue to explore the coast north and it doesn't take too long to reach the flatter lands that reminds me of what we've seen south. I try to keep watch both out to sea, the back and inland, but find no threats or sign of people. No litter. No footprints. No weird structures. Since Reiley don't smell sanctuary flowers we don't step a shore, and it is just sand, grass and a bit of shrubbery. We should fill the spare pots with sand if it is fine sand. We eventually reach a grassy knoll with a bit of cliff reaching up another 10 meter or so and a few bushes on both the knoll and cliff. It seem like rolling grassland behind, and just beach going north, so we decide to risk it for a look around before turning back.
Reiley insist on sneaking ahead, especially as we basically have the weak wind in our backs, and if we need to leave it will be far quicker with just her, than for us both to have to take out the canoe and get in. I can just sit here in the surf and keep station while looking out and being ready. Reiley keeps a low profile and reach the knoll. She have to back track and flank around and she signs 'bird' and point. It sort of reminds me of the grassy knoll on our home beach, so not surprising that there are more birds here. The coast is still clear as far as I can see all around.
After a couple of minutes Reiley signals 'Looks clear' and that I can join her, so I get out and lift the canoe up on the shore making sure a big wave won't take it, and I sneak up after her on the cliff section. It's the start of another wide valley heading inland, and we see no big dangerous dinosaurs close by, but see animals grazing. There is likely a river going out to the sea a bit further north as there are a weird line of trees and bushes going down the middle and a small waterfall far in the background. The grass and trees are a bit different, and over all it's a bit different nature. There is high country inland and gently rolling hills with big trees. Weird. We're just 8km or so from our beach. Might be that the prevailing winds means most rain fall on our ridges or mountains. Reiley keeps watch as I do the planned quick 360 degree survey and sketch in my notepad with fairly accurate compass headings to features I should be able to recognize from the higher inland when we do that exploration, including this knoll with a cliff, and features on the ridge south. I also take height angle to the highest peaks. I need to make a better compass and angle tool, but this was simple and works. I take a closer look on the cliff top we're on since this too would be an okay location for an uplink, but I can't see anything, and when I throw pebbles it sounds like rock too.
I whisper to Reiley: "Well, we've been here long enough and we have wind in our back, so it's time to get the hell out of here. Just get some sand before leaving."
We take one last quick look around and climb down. Before lifting the canoe back into the sea, Reiley place the pots with sand amongst our rucksacks and secure them from tipping with cord. Then we leave.
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Fighting against the waves is difficult, but we just have to suck it up, and I don't want to show myself weak to Reiley who gives me encouraging smiles as she too keep watch all around us. Her smile freeze as she looks back, which makes me look back. I don't see anything weird as I search.
"Arne. Look at the cliffy knoll we left. All the birds on that knoll took off, but I don't see anything. You got sharper eyes."
We're probably a kilometer away so it's hard to see anything, but she is right; the birds are big and circling. So something probably spooked them, and the birds didn't take off when we were there. But we cannot see inland from here.
"The birds are circling, but I don't see anything. It was probably a really wise decision to be quick and leave."
"Agree. I apologize for making that mistake about the wind this morning. I suggest we wait exploring the coast south until we have more favourable wind direction."
"Agree. But I'm equally at fault for the wind. So both of us fucked up."
"Maybe we should use a tiny bit of sanctuary flowers just to deter Dragons if we have to move with the wind in our backs, and spread out a bit behind us as we move along when going back. We can use nose clamps as smell often isn't really that helpful here. Better slightly horny than sorry. And on the subject of horny; I am, and want to deal with that once we get home."
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We take a short break on the shallow shore in a tiny cove on the leeward side of of one of those huge cliffs going high above the sea, and there are plenty of birds higher up, but it will be very hard to reach them and their eggs. The cliffs are pretty much vertical or overhanging. Still, this is a fairly safe and protected place and we do another quick survey of all we can see by climbing up a bit on the rocks forming the tiny cove. We can locate the cliffy knoll we left but very limited inland vision due to the ridges. I still take directions to distinctive trees and ridge features as we should work on the high field in the afternoon and can try to find those markers. We decide to fill up most of our now empty water bottles with more salt before heading home, and since this is a fairly safe spot, we both enjoy the quickie on the rocks.
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We make another stop at another cliff before getting home, and from the second cliff we can just survey 'our' rocky knoll before the river and a couple of other features. As we reach the beach we left a handful of hours ago, we're again careful to make sure there is no threat, but it feels good when Reiley say she can faintly smell the sanctuary flowers. We still have the whole afternoon ahead of us and we should do some work on the high fields, but we can't wait to get back to our hut. Might as well check those creek pots on the way.
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Screeching bird welcomes us as we near the hut, and after Reiley have made sure our hut is safe, we unload our stuff and just relax on the chairs. Exploring Dinosaur planet is nerve wrecking and not fun. Well, there are some interesting or enjoyable moments. At least we know more about the area and have plenty of salt, and we now know how easy it is to get to that Salt Boon, and how much salt there is. Next time we will bring more sealable pots, and during future exploration of the ridges, we might try to find a usable land trail there. If the sand can be made into okay'ish glass, we will have to get more of that too, but we should have enough for one pot-in-pot refrigerator plus test making glass.
Being in a camp with more friendly people would have been so much nicer and safer, and I could really live without the large predator dinosaurs and seeing for kilometers around. It's likely that larger camps will be in the inland, since the small dinosaurs there is pretty much just the equivalent to more dangerous wolfs not avoiding people. But you can usually see them coming, and they don't care about agricultural fields, and any herd of animals can be guarded close by and driven in and protected over night. It's also much easier to defend against or kill those smaller dinosaurs.
Living in an area with large dinosaurs and jungle just isn't practical. The vegetable eaters will probably eat or destroy fields without serious and hard-to-do protection, and large predators will eat any cattle. At least there seems to be no snakes, spiders or a lot of horrible insects. If it hadn't been for the dinosaurs, this place could almost be like New Zealand with just rats, vermin and fairly safe bugs being a problem. Hunting the big dinosaurs to extinction is a possibility, but will require a heck of a lot of time, manpower and commitment, since trapping is basically the only option, and it will be dangerous work. But I am curious if it's possible to plant Sanctuary flowers in more places. If we drive away the big grazing dinosaurs, the large predators have to follow or die. The trip along the coast south will be interesting, but what would happen if we started to plant sanctuary flowers all around the large valley and up the river? There might already be sanctuary flowers there, but the dinosaurs have to move some place where the flowers are not. It won't physically block the dinosaurs, but if they move away they might not come back if the planted area is wide enough to not pass during rain, and the dinosaurs are sadly not stupid. We just have to make sure to plant it gradually so the dinosaurs don't become used to the flowers.
I don't want to give away my plan to the DAB's, but they will figure it out as they see what I do, and I can't tell anyone else without them learning it then. It's a hell of a thing being this surveilled. My watch buzz to inform me that it is noon, so time to take another sun height.
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We fetch plants and roots in the jungle and then head up to work on the high fields. We clear ground, loosen up the soil, plant a plant, fertilize the soil and move on to the next. When we run out of plants we call it for today, but before heading down to practise with the spear, bow and crossbow, we climb one of the rocky peaks I've selected to do more surveying. It's hard but I manage to take a heading and angle to the cliffy knoll in the distant north, and now that I know what I'm seeing, I can also make out the north river mouth and take a heading and angle to it to estimate the distance compared to the cliffy knoll. We will have a lot of work making that map and naming features. This would also be so much easier if I could use my mobile phones camera, or just build a proper surveying tool and have plenty of paper and ink, and not worry about getting eaten by dinosaurs. Just a more accurate compass would be nice. And more of them. If there is iron in the creek I should make a fixture aligned with a solid repeatable datum and make many compasses in one go. Eh, might as well collect more muddy residue from those creek pots and dry it over night, powder the last of it tomorrow, and then try to do a furnace run. We just have to fill the charcoal mound and do another burn before it gets dark. We could try to do a glass plate crucible too.
Shit! I have to remember to measure those stars again! I hope the weather will be clear enough. This planet seems to have about 508 days per year, which honestly is accurate enough, so it's just the nerd in me that want to get it more exact. It's not like I expect to survive a year here. I've also started to time the moons to know how often they show up, but that is very easy and just time between when a moon line up with a terrain feature.