Arriving at Colonia well ahead of any deadlines set for this waypoint. At the beginning of this expedition I decided to travel alone. Partly because I didn't want to have to worry about letting down other commanders if I wasn't able to make meetups etc and partly because I actually enjoy the freedom of solo travel. I can change my mind, change my route, take time out.... I can do whatever I want without having to think about other commanders. So getting to Colonia, it was actually nice to see and chat some of the other commanders who happened to be there at the same time I arrived.

I docked, offloaded my data (just over 100 million) that I'd collected just on the journey from Lave. I'm now just a shade over 100 million credits from my next Elite ranking so I would imagine that I will achieve this by the time I arrive back at Lave after the expedition has finished in a couple of months. After refuelling and restocking my heatsinks, I set course for the centre of the Universe and the next waypoint. Looking at the exploration map I can see there are plenty of sights to be seen along the way and so I plan on making some stops as I go.

Another day of navigating between nebulae. First I passed through The Hole In The Sky Nebula (Dryuae Aoscs IR-W e1-3926) with it's striking pink gas clouds set against the saturated starry background of the galactic core. It's a hypnotic sight and I am so glad I have taken the time on this trip to visit these beautiful remnants of once massive stars. Every one is different and beautiful in their own right. Looking at my Travel Map it's clear to see I am not taking a straight route to Colonia and jumping around a lot as I find these Nebulae. It's all good. I am still collecting exploration data as I close on on my Elite II ranking for exploration and by the end of this expedition I should have achieved that goal.

Second to last Nebula before arriving at Colonia was The Blue Louse (Dryio Flyuae HC-U e3-8680). Visible from several hundred light years away, this appears to be a huge nebula made up of two large blue gas clouds that combine in the middle.

Finally for today I passed through The Sugar Stick Nebula (Dryooe Flyou XE-Q e5-2992) before heading to Colonia

Today it was all about the nebulae. Starting out at the Cat's Perch Nebula (Eulail IG-M c8-9) high above the galactic plane I headed straight for the The Dragonfly Nebula (Eoch Flyuae UU-O e6-2971) while making a steady progress toward Colonia. The view from up there was pretty spectacular with the billions of systems laid out before me while I skipped over the vacuum of space between my waypoint systems.

I have found that as I approach a nebula, it's nice to head toward the nearest system that actually sits outside of it. This way I get to enjoy the emerging beauty of the nebula before passing through it. As I came out of my jump into The Dragonfly Nebula (Eoch Flyuae UU-O e6-2971) I found myself hurtling toward a fast spinning neutron star and narrowly avoided hitting the exclusion zone. I did find a water world here too which was worth scanning before moving on.

Approaching The Arcadian Lights (Blue Eaewsy DB-W e2-565) is truly beautiful. The intensity of the blue ionised hydrogen gas cuts through the darkness of space and even here, approaching the galactic core, this nebula really stands out against the background glow of the saturated star field. Passing through the nebula I found myself lingering on the Free Camera, hypnotised by those blue and pink clouds. Utterly breath-taking.

From there I turned my ship onto a course to Kes-75 Magnetar (PSR J1846-0258). An interesting system with a huge pulsar at it's core. This pulsar is almost 15 times as big as our own Sol and more than enough to cause me serious problems should I wander into it's flaying cones. Interestingly this system also appears to contain a lesser neutron star and several other benign bodies.

Next a single jump into The Godefroy Nebula (Boeph MI-B e737). Another striking nebula consisting of pink and blue gas clouds. Believed to have been created by a supernova.

Quiet day behind the controls today with not much to report. I did visit Blue Ink in Pink (Blue Eaewsy CB-W e2-631), a rather beautiful nebula that has a huge black hole in the middle of it. I am now making a few more jumps and heading toward Arcadian Lights (Blue Eaewsy DB-W e2-565).

A fairly quiet day in The Black today. Not too many jumps made as I found myself in several large systems with many valuable planets to be scanned. I did however make my way into the rather stunning Pomegranate Nebula (Blaa Hypa UX-N b50-13). Through the vast red dust clouds of the nebula I could clearly see Sigmar's Hideout (Clookau KX-S d4-137) across the expanse of space.

I continue to make my way toward Colonia however I am really not rushing. This is an expedition after all and I want to discover and explore more of this beautiful universe I find myself flying through.

Continuing north on my way to Colonia. I decided to take in the Persimmon Nebula (Blau Aescs OO-H d10-842) along the way and was greeted by a large beautiful red nebula and once inside it, it was truly stunning.

Next it's on to The Pomegranate Nebula (Blaa Hypa UX-N b50-13) which is only just over a thousand LY away from where I am now.

Headlong toward Colonia now. Using the EDSM Evolved Galactic Map I identified some interesting places to visit on my long haul over there. Within about 20 jumps of the last waypoint I found The Cobweb Nebula (PLIO AIM ZS-W B4-0) which was a rather enchanting nebula and a little further along The Hurricane Nebula (Blaa Hypa MO-V b30-7) with it's beautiful purples and dark indigo blue. It's truly a beautiful universe out here.

I am continuing to discover new systems and mapping any planets of value. At this point I have discovered almost 2300 new systems over all in EDSM and a considerable amount of brand new systems being logged in the CODEX. Exploration has always been my favourite way to spend time here and so getting to explore while completing the expedition is twice as much fun.

Made it to Waypoint #2 (Prai Hypoo GF-E c10) and decided to land at Relic Site #1 to do a little exploration of the Guardian Ruins. Up to now I hadn't taken a Scarab with me on my expeditions, a huge oversight I realised when I was light years away from anywhere that I could get a Scarab loaded. So before starting Passage to Andromeda I made sure that I had my ship refitted and bought along a single Scarab so I could at least land and explore some of the planets I came across.

After spending some time on the surface, I loaded the Scarab back into the hanger on my Anaconda and have now left the system. Colonia is the next Waypoint for the expedition and a change to dock, restock and refit if necessary. Overall I am happy with my Anaconda loadout and won't change anything. I don't want to reduce the 70LY jump range I currently have. I will however need to restock on a heatsink or two after a near miss with a rather large Class A star upon entering a system.

I’m making steady progress across the large expanses of empty space between Lave and the second waypoint at Prai Hypoo GF-E c10. I have taken a detour to take in some sights along the way and recently left The Green Pentagon - (Lysoovsky BH-L d8-26) with it’s beautiful large purple ringed gas giant sporting it’s stunning green aurora at the poles. I’m now making my way directly to the second way point and will perform a full landing at one of the historical Guardian sites of interest before setting off for the third way point at Colonia.