My second base was semi successful. While the mine bottomed out into lava, it still yielded a few diamonds and other ores; but no emeralds (not that I've seen a village, where emeralds are used for trading). I also found an abandoned mine shaft, complete with a cave spider spawner. Unfortunately, it's difficult to create a automated grinder for cave spiders.

I constructed a Nether portal, but discovered it linked to an existing portal so I didn't return to my base. I now better understand how portals are linked. Given the number of existing portals it may be difficult to use them in the way I do on the PS3.

Once my spiral mine could no longer be extended without running into lava or obsidian, I packed all of my most valuable items and prepared to leave.

The first thing I did was to build another emergency respawn point. I tweaked my layout to both reduce the amount of dirt required and avoid potentially not respawning adjacent to my bed.

I decided to journey back to one of the primary axis and follow it back towards the spawn area. I was hoping I'd see more of the legendary ruins and constructs which I'd heard about if I was on the "beaten path".

And I did see some, but not as many as I'd hoped. One unexpected item was the canal along the axis which blazed a path straight through hills and mountains. Building it obviously required a lot of time and effort, but some of its characteristics puzzled me like: why so deep, why line it with cobblestone rather than just leaving the existing blocks, and why bother storing the waste ores in chests and leave behind crafting tables? But it was there, so I used it to speed my journey.

I did find a couple of interesting bases, including a tower made entirely of obsidian surrounded by fields of catus. Being obsidian made it difficult to walk up and down the enclosed open staircase in the evening twilight. Beneath the tower was an obsidian lake, so the creator may have mined it, but that would have required a large number of diamond picks. Maybe the creator cast it using lava, or used some kind of hack or cheat.

I also passed a platform high in the sky with both a waterfall and several pillars reaching up to it. I didn't bother trying to get up to it, seldom have I found anything worth the trouble. (I did find one base with an Ender Chest, which I broke before I realized I wouldn't get the Eye of Ender necessary to recreate it.) But still I explored the occasional tower or structure along my journey. However, I avoided the various Nether Portals. Although they might have speeded my journey, they could just as easily send me far off course or kill me.

But it wasn't Nether portal or other player which killed me (I did see one other player, who was busy clearing ice from the canal). Instead it was a tower and me moving around taking screen captures. The next thing I knew I was falling far enough to kill me.

The good news is my respawn idea worked. I returned to the platform in the sky where wood and food waited for me. The bad news is lost all of the items I had collected and crafted. So I gathered the wood, broke the floor under the pond and floated down the waterfall to the ground below. I'd built the platform close to my second base, so I returned there to gather some of what I had left behind and think about my next plan.