After about an hour, I have the ladder and 4x heart containers (I picked the heart container at the start screen), but it looks like I need bombs to advance in the dark caves. I also found what I guess is the cave dungeon, but it looks like I need the hookshot to advance there. So far, the quest has me aimlessly walking around in circles and confused like I hoped it would.
I managed to get stranded here by crossing over with the ladder from the screen above:
Edited by Marv Albert, 02 June 2019 - 02:04 PM.