The New Moving Plan

Having decided to set out, in addition to preparing supplies, they still had to choose the most suitable route.

In the evening, after taking a bath and having dinner, they packed most of the supplies and sat together to discuss the move.

Shen Bing first raised the issue of the route to Lu Zhe.

Lu Zhe nodded, "I want to hear everyone's opinions."

As he spoke, he took out his notebook and turned to the page with the hand-drawn map.

"As far as we know, there are two routes we can take to get there."

"One is the route we took last time - climbing up the cliff crack, climbing to the top of the cliff, then going straight down the north slope, crossing the large area of mudflats in the middle to reach our destination."

"But this route is relatively dangerous. Not only is the climb difficult, there are also likely to be snakes along the way. Tang Xiaoguo was bitten badly this time."

Tang Xiaoguo nodded, "It was awful. I was bitten in the chest. Lu Zhe had to suck the venom out for me..."

Jiang Yao looked at Tang Xiaoguo with a frown, "It wasn't on purpose, was it?"

"Of course not. I almost died."

Ning Shu also nodded, "It's quite dangerous. Too many snakes on the cliffs, and the leopards that stare at you without sleeping at night."

Lin Qianqian asked, "Will there be fewer venomous snakes on the other route?"

Lu Zhe nodded and pointed at the map, "The other route is the one we took back! Go east from here, then circle around the eastern mountain ridge, then head north along the beach. It also leads to our destination."

"There are relatively fewer venomous creatures on this route, but the road is longer, and we need to go through large tracts of forest. With the amount of stuff we're carrying, it would be quite inconvenient."

Shen Bing nodded, "Yes, with all this rain these days, even if we weren't carrying anything, moving through the forest would be very difficult!"

She paused, then asked again, "Why don't we wait until after rainy season to go?"

"That would probably mean waiting for a long time!"

Just then, Lu Zhe's system sent him a prompt: "New Quest: Complete the achievement of the six people circling the island in a week: +6 potential points!"

Circle the island in a week?

How could such a quest be issued at this time?

But on second thought, it made sense.

Stranded on a deserted island, with food, water, and physical strength ensured, in addition to observing the island's highest point, circling the island on foot in a week was also very necessary.

On one hand, they could search a large area for materials washed up on the beach. On the other hand, it would allow the survivors to gain a more systematic understanding of the island's situation.

Lu Zhe had planned this before, but at that time he was unclear how big the island was exactly, and didn't dare take on circling the island rashly.

And now, they could basically confirm that the area of the island was around 25-30 square kilometers, slightly larger than Nauru, and taking into account the winding coastline, the circumference of the small island should also be around 30 kilometers, no more than 40 kilometers at most.

It seemed that completing the challenge of circling the island in a week was not impossible after all.

Just then, Lu Zhe thought of a third route!

He carefully observed the hand-drawn map.

The map had towering mountain ridges on three sides - north, west and south, forming a huge letter "C". Their current location was at the lower left corner of the "C". In that case...

They could complete the achievement of circling the island, and also comfortably reach their destination.

Killing two birds with one stone!

Having made up his mind, Lu Zhe shared his idea:

"Friends, we have a third route to choose from!"

Shen Bing tilted her head to look at the map, "Which way?"

Lu Zhe pointed to the lower left corner of the C-shaped mountain range, "This is where we are now! We're far from the eastern coast, but very close to the western coast. We can cross the forest from here and reach the southwest coast first."

Ning Shu was a little confused, "What's the point of going there? Isn't that going the wrong way and getting further from our destination?"

Jiang Yao shrugged, "Magellan proved that persistently walking in the opposite direction still leads you to your destination."

Lu Zhe nodded, "Well said!"

Jiang Yao was surprised, "Don't take it seriously, I was joking."

"Actually the principle is the same, it's just that we're not circling the earth, but three quarters of the small island."

Shen Bing understood, "I see, we walk up this coastline from south to north. Although the distance is a bit longer, most of the journey is along the edge of the forest and beach, so it should be much easier to walk."

Tang Xiaoguo said, "That's right, and we can pick up a lot of supplies on the beach along the way."

Lin Qianqian said, "I love beachcombing the most."

Ning Shu cautioned, "Don't get your hopes up too high. We have to walk a long way and won't be able to carry that much."

Lu Zhe shook his head, "Not necessarily. This time we can really carry more!"

Lu Zhe pointed to the west coast, "While the sea is relatively calm now, we can build a bamboo raft here. We can put all the supplies on the raft. One person controls the direction on the raft using a bamboo pole as an oar, while I pull it along from shore. Anything we find can be tied to the raft, and anyone who gets tired can also rest on the raft."

Jiang Yao said, "Xiao Zhe, they were barge haulers on the Volga River. You want to be a barge hauler on the Pacific Ocean?"

Ning Shu objected, "No no, too tiring!"

"You're wrong! The barge haulers on the Volga pulled big ships. We're just pulling a small broken bamboo raft. How much effort could that take? You can all take turns pulling. "

Shen Bing nodded, "Lu Zhe is right. Actually the person controlling the direction and balance of the raft is more tiring than the hauler. But we can take turns hauling and steering."

The girls looked at each other. Ning Shu said, "Then it's settled. Let's rest early today and set off tomorrow."

July 19th, the 40th day stranded on the deserted island!

Lu Zhe was going to take the five girls across the forest to reach the southwest coast, then rest there for a day.

Build a bamboo raft, bundle up the materials collected over the past days, circle around the west side of the small island, the narrow northern mountain ridge, and reach the bay in the northeast of the island to establish a home where they could live long-term.

At 7 am, Lu Zhe used rocks and bamboo to seal up the entrance of the small cave, to prevent other animals from moving in.

Some items were still stored inside, including the bamboo table, porcelain basin, porcelain jars, a small amount of soap, and some other items that were inconvenient to carry.

With everything settled, the six entered the forest again.

With the experience of entering the forest last time, they did not encounter any trouble this time, and reached the beach around noon.

Seeing the clear blue sea again put the girls in an extremely delighted mood.

Dropping everything in their hands, they rushed to the seaside to pick up seashells before even peeing.

Only Shen Bing and Lu Zhe were left behind.

"Ah, to be young again!"

"Go pick things with them!"

"Forget it, sis is past the age of being able to go wild." She laughed softly, "We have to spend the night here today. Let's build a simple shelter first, then make the bamboo raft together."

Lu Zhe nodded, "OK!"