Finally back in my home system of old Sol. Wish I could say it was completely uneventful for the last run of jumps, as it was certainly shaping up that way - just about every system was already scanned. One shouldn't be surprised, given that my final route took me past Seagull Nebula and Bernard's Loop, which tends to be touristy magnets for every explorer fresh out of the station.

Disaster nearly struck me down, though.

Somehow, less than 500 light-years out, my controls suddenly stopped responding after the ship completed a jump. A star dead ahead (darkly the only unscanned system I've seen in several dozen jumps, too) and no way to cut speed or even just steer. I quickly slammed the hard reboot; systems did eventually come back online, but not without taking heat; and I did escape out back into deeper, colder space. Took light damage across the board, and having spent a heat sink, I was so close to having a perfectly healthy ship for my return. I did do some AFMU-love on all the modules I could, as otherwise the repair bill in the dock would be steeper.

The bubble feels so tiny. It's definitely partly due to the long legs of Toward Eternity so going from the anarchy of deep space to "civilization" was a mere couple of jumps, but even a few jumps out it was still small on the galmap.

Tomorrow I start selling my cartographic data.

Over a dozen jumps ago, I made the last major turn in my course, and plotted for Sol.

Only 86 jumps then, and I'm writing this with just 68 jumps left on the clock. This route will take me over the locked Col 70 sector, never been this close to Barnard's Loop before. It's already been glaring at me like a bloodshot eye from a few thousand light-years back.

It'll be weird to arrive in the Bubble again, with all its lights and noise and ship. At least I'm not alone for this - my friends are all looking forward to seeing my home and meeting its people.

Not a long journal entry, just have been racing along the arms, with the occasional "spoke" outwards to the next farther galactic arm. Have managed to circle this 'long way' far enough that the bubble is roughly 10,000 LY away as the "crow flies", but I've still got a bit farther along the Perseus Arm before I turn Sol-wards.

I hate Peduncle Trees. Dryman's Point sector turned out to be utterly infested with the Notable Stellar Phenomena, and yes, I checked every NSP hit in the system, as just once in a maddening while, there'd be something else along with those horrid trees covered in loathsome, staring eyes... Even the friends I picked up at Semotus Beacon were hiding below-decks while I plunged onwards through that sector. I lost count of more than 40 systems with them, some as many as 5 jumps in a row would have an NSP lurking on my sensors.

The moment I cleared Dryman's Point into the next sector, Hawking's Gap, they ceased. To prove the ghastly nightmare realm of the Black Forest, I headed along the border for roughly 3000 LY, before turning back across the border. Immediately hit multiple systems with Peduncle Trees.

Needless to say, I turned around and fled that benighted sector, and carried on my way. Crossed Achilles's Altar sector without a single sighting, and am halfway through Sanguineous Rim at the time of this writing.

May be seeing the light of Sol within a week; I last saw it over six months ago.

As far as routes that take the Long Way Back from Beagle Point, the path I'm plotting isn't as extreme as the ones that hug the very edge of the galaxy.
Initially I had intended to follow the Voyager Trail back, so after reaching the absolute farthest I could reach in Semotus Beacon, I made my way along through the Solitude Void (so many previously-scanned systems, it made me think of Mount Everest in the Twenty-First century - mountainside choked with lineups of rich tourists and littered with corpses and trash). For personal records, I plumbed as far spoke-wise from the core in the line of the Voyager Trail's head, before touching back.
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Then I detoured back into the Bleak Lands to do a deeper survey, in the half-hope of finding something noteworthy. There were some rich systems, and some rarities (or so they were before they began to crop up everywhere. Looking at you, Water Giants), but honestly nothing truly stand-out. Just that double-trinary system I found over a month ago... Once that was done, it was time to carry on.
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But I was sick of treading previously travelled systems, so I passed on past that next waypoint without a second glance. For the time being I'm hugging the far edge of the Scutum-Centaurus arm, all the way until I hit the 'join' in Hawking's Gap, and then I'll go further south so I hit the bubble more directly from the East-South-East direction.
So far, there's been no sign that anyone's gone along this way - presently as of this journal I'm well into The Ascendance region of the arm, and some 700-odd light-years below the plane.
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The map:
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And a rare crew shot; these have been excellent folks - they were quite friendly and I just had to invite them aboard when I met them out in the Dark past Semotus Beacon. We pass the time without talking much, but while I am steadfast in finishing my surveys, I can't wait to bring them in for a visit at my home station in Sol.
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Today, after departing the historic Beagle Point system, I headed out to the farthest reachable system, known as Semotus Beacon, and landed at Salome's Reach, which is a further 135,562 light-seconds at the time of my visit.
The black sky really calls out to me - it's an inverse kind of darkness from what I saw when staring into the shadow of Sagittarius A* - knowing that the entire universe continues beyond our reach or even the sensitivity of our meat-eyes to even see, it's palpable, real. I've done the touristy thing on a few cities on Terra, and those ancient cathedrals... What I felt in those spaces is a pale ghost of the feeling weighing in me as I looked into the Vault of Existence.

Truly the call of the Void.

I drove out and perched on a rise. I was nearly vibrating in my seat as I pressed my face to the canopy glass, the only thing between me and the Infinite.

Then when I took off, instead of heading back towards the light, I... maxed the throttle and plunged into that expanse of black.

...Sometime later, well after I crossed the 1,500,000 light-second mark from the nearest rock of the Milky Way Galaxy, an increasingly weaker voice reminded me that I should come back home. All those discoveries and science data collected needed to be shared.
I relented, and turned back. A softer voice chided me for leaving them so soon. I know the Dark will now come with me, wherever I go. Always.

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Alone at Basecamp Legacy Crater, on the second planet of Beagle Point.
It's been a long trip, and I'm not done yet. I'll be heading out for Salome's Reach in the farthest system that can be visited tomorrow, and from there I'll drink deep in that deepest of deeps, the Intergalactic Void.

But for now, I shall rest for a little bit. Re-check the systems, which are at full health and green across the board. Being a careful flyer has its perks.

Attached below is my entire journey from start to finish.

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As the second community goal of Distant Worlds 2 was completed (10.5 tiers out of 11), I actually turned in my mining gear and installed my final exploration gear (a backup AMFU, a Repair limpet controller, and a extremely lightweight-engineered single Collector limpet controller), I headed right back out into the dark.
The CG was a lot less exhilarating than the first, due to so many of my comrades falling off the trail; the attrition was expected, but it still pained me somewhat. So my heart wasn't into grinding rocks as feverishly as we did way back in Omega.
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The void calls. Above is my brief visit to the Black Giants along the way to Waypoint 8. Keeping the route-planning to be as 'obtuse' as possible, avoiding the higher traffic direct-line routes.

Well, near as in only a few hundred light-years from it and Sagittarius A*, somewhere above. In a few days the seventh waypoint will be announced, rumored to be very near the station the Distant Worlds expedition crew built. I can't wait to see it with my own eyes, orbiting the nearest Earth-Like to the void-heart of the galaxy.
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Travelled so far already, and yet I can't wait to go even farther.
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So many stars to choose from.

For that mining event, we hit the target a day early, all three million tons of it, so that station should be quite something when it gets launched in a month or so.
As for Waypoint 3, I've already gone and hit it, and struck out for the unknown reaches beyond - no point in staying on the beaten path!
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As for Waypoint 3, which was the odd Conflux Delta Site of the Conflux Abandoned Settlements. Deep in the dark shadow of a craggy peak, it made me think of the wrecks found out in the Formidine Rift, but there was less of a sense of 'mystery' and just... Here was the end for a few souls, and little else.

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After that, I took off and headed out, first North-East, and then towards a rather striking (yet known) system, The Collection of Wonders and pulled up for a bit of a 'campfire' on a world orbiting a world orbiting a White Dwarf:

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It's getting bright in the skies here; going towards the core again, and I miss my dark depths already. But I'll have plenty of time on this trip to dive down again and seek the night.

Personally mined 2,261 tonnes of Indite, Gallite, and Cobalt for the station-building initiative of Distant Worlds 2.
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Needless to say, the response from the DW2 fleet has been nothing short of amazing, with more than 4,800 contributors scouring the rings. As of tonight, with less than 3 days left to the deadline, it feels like hitting the highest tier 11 target of 3,000,000 tonnes will be achieved. Currently the tally is already over 2.37 million tonnes - the rings must have a sizeable bite taken out of them! (Of course, reality is, 3 million tons is but a miniscule fraction of the total mass of the rings, so illusions of grandeur, much?)
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Still, it has been an amazing venture thus far - winged up with new friends several times, and had the most fun I've ever had in ages, doing mining no less.
This will be an amazing expedition, and it's barely two weeks in.