A Hell of a Mountain!

This Week's Contest theme by the Gaming Photography community was going on adventures, exploring places you have never been which have mystified you for some time and I had a similar place in Vurohnga Savannah reserve in my current favourite game theHunter: Call of the Wild. But before I tell you all about my adventures or misadventures, I would like to shout out to the Gaming Photograhy community and how they come up with unique challenges every week. You can check out this week's challenge here.

Okay, back to my adventure. There was a big mountain on the western edge of Vurongha Savannah that I and @bemier once struggled to climb. Partly because she thought a steep slope was a road and partly because we were tired after a long hunting session together.

In the above photo, you can see the big mountain, it has an interesting shape. I wondered if you could climb to the very top of it. But we couldn't even manage to go halfway up because of the steep slopes.

The nearest outpost I had was still about 3 kilometers away from this place and walking there would take ages so I had to take out my ATV and embark on this adventure. But I had to take a picture of it just before starting this seemingly long journey.

I crossed vast plains, I was not following any roads or dirt tracks because none were leading to it, not at least from this side. I stopped in the middle to take a couple of pictures of the lake that was in my path.

I reached the base of the slope without any challenges. But I had to ditch my ATV and go on foot from here on. I was making some progress but the slopes were very steep. I took a picture when I was halfway up.

But unfortunately, the slopes were too steep and even though it looked like you could find your way in at the top, there was no way. The rocks become too steep for our character to go up. I tried all I could, crouching and walking, jumping, lying on all fours and whatnot but nope. They were like walls around a big fort.

I kept going around and around to find an opening or some paths to go up, perhaps a hidden cave or a less steep grassy patch but nope.

I opened the map and tried to see if I could find some climbable place and there was one dirt road that eventually takes you close to the top. But the only problem was it was on the other side of the mountain and that meant I had to travel all the way across on foot as I ditched my ATV so far back. So, I just quick-travelled back to the outpost, got a new vehicle and this time tried from the other side without leaving it.

This was way easier as there was a small road that was gradually taking me towards the top. I had to travel a lot in zig-zag pattern but it was worth it.

And I was soon at the first plateau above the mountain. This was a big mountain and when you are at the top it looks like you are on the plains. That's how big it is. It was a wise decision to go back and use the ATV because reaching here on foot would take a century...lol

The first thing that interested me was a huge watch tower in the distance.

I climbed to survey the area and you could see almost the entire plain when you are at the top. My focus was on the mountain peak and to find if there was any way I could reach the top. All the slopes looked so steep.

Now that I had surveyed the area, I could see an outpost nearby and it was time to go there and rest a bit. The sun was already on its way down and I didn't want to be stuck in the dark so I went to the outpost, claimed it and slept until the early morning just to see the sunrise from up here.

That was an amazing decision as the sun was looking good from here.

It was time to climb the steep mountain. I was going around in circles to see if I could find some place to climb to the top but I couldn't see any good options. However, there was an interesting location which is almost halfway up the top.

It leads me to a cave! Now this was interesting. There are some caves in this map but nothing fancy and they don't go deep as well. But this one was interesting. And the view from here was just amazing. The lonely tree outside the cave gave me a beautiful photo opportunity.

I thought it would be one of the other caves that I found. But I was wrong. It was a big one and almost a maze.

It had its own ecosystem with water ponds and some green patches.

In the middle of this big cave was a huge hole that was going so deep. I had to find out what was down there... I couldn't see how deep it was and there was only one way to find out, by jumping in!

On my first try, I jumped and halfway hit the walls too hard and died from the fall damage. But it was going way deeper than where I did, I just had to be in the middle. I tried a few more times but died every time. I even tried to see what was in the water or if it behaved the same inside this mysterious cave. Everything else was normal just not the big hole which seemingly goes down to hell.

A light bulb lit up in my mind as I thought about driving off the cliff at maximum speed and hopefully going into the pit with so much momentum that I just went down without ever touching the walls.

It was a long free fall and the pit got narrower and darker as I went deeper, falling uncontrollably. I was still sitting on my ATV which was a good thing and a few times kissed the walls as well but didn't fall off.

My ATV was like one of those mountain goats climbing down a steep mountain and using their feet to balance themselves and not fall uncontrollably.

And I fell out of the map, I guess!

Usually, the game tells you how you died with the Respawn button but this time it didn't say anything. It just showed "Respawn", nothing else...lol

So what did we learn from all this? Never go into a cave and jump off into a strange hole. You might get hurt.

I was out of the cave and the sun was already up on the horizon with more clouds coming in from the south to cover it. It was an interesting adventure that I couldn't go on before.

And now I bet the title of the post makes much more sense.