Thanks for the Magic

 2025 has flown by, as years tend to do, and another three seasons of Safari trips are in our rear view mirror. Mostly, a Safari season lasts ten weeks, but this year the second season was just seven weeks, making a total of 27 weeks, with 53 destinations including a two hour visit to the Mal Burns region on Craft grid. 

The memorial party for Mal Burns in October featured eulogies by a dozen of his friends.
Missed it? You can watch the event here on Youtube

Last Wednesday, talented pianist, and grid owner Marlon Wayne invited the Safari group over to Pangea to enjoy a live music event with lots of seasonal pieces. It was such a treat to hear the music and stop and think for a moment about the great year we've had in Opensim.

On sim Lappland, enjoying the party...
in RL Marlon plays a Steinway and the music he treated us to was divine.

Where did we go this year? HG Safari tours visited folk on Spacegrid, CCI grid, Kinky Haven, ArtDestiny Grid, Dismayland, SV3D grid, Bloodmoonpack, VVM, Candorsworld, Shipyards grid, Creanovale, Maze grid, Genesis RP Grid, Virtual Learning Village, Wyldwood Bayou,  Mobius, Friends Grid, Dorenasworld, Bubblesz, Newlifeitaly, Tenth Dimension grid, Counterearth, DWGrid, Kitely,  and a bunch of visits to OSGrid, Pangea, Wolf Territories Grid, Neverworld, Winxtropia, Craft, and Alternate Metaverse Grid. 

Safari Gets Steamy

Lampi, Marlon, Tutz and Karsten

Mys Tigerpaw: thank you for all the clothes Lampi... it is all thanks to Lampi :0)

Marlon Wayne -> en: only karsten looks looooool as always 

Karsten Runningbear: oh i can change :)

Lampithaler Artist -> en: A warm welcome everyone, it’s great to see you. 

Karsten Runningbear: Hello all are welcome

Francisco Koolhoven: Hi everyone

Dings Digital: steampunk insects

Tutz Zabelin: Welcome everyone to  Steampunk sim at Pangea grid. I am always very happy when Safari comes to Pangea . The last time we met was on my The Waterfall Swamp sim. I am happy about the comments I received then, and I am grateful for them.

Dings Digital: it was a great sim

Dolma's Garden

 Our second stop this week, after the traditional Halloween hunt with Ange and Nani, we headed off to a small grid by Dolma Dollinger. Dressed in red and looking a little like a superheroine, Dolma  were on hand to meet us, with friend Kiriko Kiama.

Dolma and Kiriko

Dolma Dollinger: Welcome everyone!
Nara Nook: Thirza is rounding everyone up

Kiriko Kiama: herding cats
Thirza Ember: i have bad internet tonight, apologies when I'm slow, about 4 more were still coming when I left osgrid

Lavia LLavine: I love these swans!!! They're beautiful
Forest Azure : /me wonders if these swans are as protective as rl swans
Dolma Dollinger: You get very wet if you try the swans. They are from Zweet Zurroundingz
Kiriko Kiama: that's probably the dutchiest name ever

Yamato

 Ange Menges: Welcome to Yamato and Happy Halloween everyone! Take your time to visit the region. Note that it has two levels: a ground level where you are currently located and an underwater level. The two deserve that you go for a ride. As usual, We have prepared a quest for you. If you want to do it, get a hud by clicking on the character next to me and wear it. Then follow the instructions.

This statue in the main plaza is where you get the HUD which you may want to edit depending on the screen you're using, so that the photo it shows are big enough to see, but don't blot out too much of your screen. Find the place in the photo, go real close (10m close) and that will set off the script which will give you your next clue and a new place to search for. 

The transition from underwater to the land made the game even more challenging and rich, and it's quite hard to not get distracted by all the lovely mesh to be found here. 

Serenity Now

Euthymia is a medical term, and a philosophical one. It refers to the normal state of mind, neither too up or too down, a perfectly balanced humor. Epicureans to refer to a state of cheerfulness, when you don't let things get to you but just keep calm and carry on.These days, when acquaintances bombard you with 'how I'm feeling right now' memes on social media, (remember when people used to keep that stuff in their super secret teenage diary?)  and where politics has everyone's blood pressure at max, not to mention the stresses and strains of health, finances, and family, what could be better than some nice reasonable calmness?

Dings Digital: is everyone there 

Thirza Ember: yes

Dings Digital: Welcome to „Ataraxia - Tranquility as happiness“. It started as a hobby project garden, and then grew beyond that. A smaller version was presented on OpenSim World Fair. We will have a kind of philosophical art walk. It is about the idea of tranquility and its connections to art, science  and the question of what it means to live well. You'll encounter a variety of things, but all are linked by this shared theme.

Dings Digital

Dings Digital: One link is the poem "On the Nature of Things" by the Roman poet Lucretius written around 50 BCE. It is a hymn on the natural world, life and ataraxia - the tranquility of mind. There are countless examples in art and science that were inspired by this poem. We’ve selected a few of them to share on this region. The region was designed by Uta Warbaum and me, and is not intended as instruction, but rather for exploration and enjoyment.

Dings Digital: this mosaic is an ancient source for the idea, somewhere there is the word Euthymia, which is to say: be well, be tranquil

Thirza Ember: history, philosophy, beauty and tranquility all in one place...

Dings Digital: yes, a kind of philosophical art walk...

One For the Road

SIWAS S: Hallo zusammen

Wyldewen Veil: You’ve crossed the unseen threshold — through cloud and current, past memory and time — and now the Veil parts for you. Before you lies Wyldewen Veil: a hidden realm adrift at the edge of wild nature and ancient magic. Beyond the open door of your plane, a new world awakens. Here, the air hums with mystery. Roads wind through forgotten forests. Waters whisper stories to those who listen.  Choose your path — by motorcycle or vintage auto, sailboat or hoverboard. Explore beaches kissed by twin suns, caverns where echoes remember your name, and towns that never show up on maps.  Stay as long as the Veil allows. Breathe deep. Let go. And let the Wyld remember you.

Star Ravenhurst: Welcome to Wyldewen Veil!  It will take a bit to rez. 

James Atlloud: How do we pronounce Wyldewen?

Tosha Tyran: Now that is a change :)

Petlove Petshop: also stunning!

Dings Digital: oh another moon, this is the real thing

Kimm Starr: It looks amazing!

Star Ravenhurst: The region is still under construction, so pardon anything you see unfinished. Enough is done to have a tour, so I hope you will enjoy.  Eventually I will have Lore and stories in place, but for now, we will tour it as it is.

Dings Digital: when is a piece of art finished?

Tina Bey: nunca jajajaj

Star Ravenhurst: This is a 6x6 region with two airports and many modes of transportation. Today we will be taking a plane tour, F-222. As we move along, if you drop your camera below, and behind the plane, you will get a good view as we go along. We can thank Kimm for the moon

Nara Nook: see the airplane taking off, so cool

Star Ravenhurst: We are going to board the plane grounded F-222. This box has a map HUD

Tina Bey: y nuestros billetes ?

Tosha Tyran: te olvidaste el tuyo, Tina? que desastre!!!

Dings Digital: will they serve food?

eva Nowicka: This is going to be worse than the bus incident :D

Role Models

 Our second destination this week was to Wyldwood Bayou Grid, which is celebrating its 5th anniversary this month. Wyldwood is best known for two activities, the music events at venues like Hot Daddy's, and for its Roleplay, and it was the latter that we went to see. 

The RP hub region is a very beautiful place to visit, and full of information about how the groups here work, the backstories and rules, times and types of activities they do here. We arrived in our usual raggedy piecemeal manner.

Petlove Petshop: ty whoever tp'd me!

Forest Azure: pet, you have clothes!

Nara Nook: skin would be nice but I am happy just to have clothes

Dorena Bree: me too Nara

Forest Azure: well, nara, you were nothing but skin in the caves

The welcoming committee. Our guides were Fitheach, left, and Tessa, center.

Thirza Ember: That green tea diet seems to be working, Xenon

Xenon Darrow: It is! Of course...all those tannins are making me a bit rusty...

Contessa Lacombe: Hi everyone!  The WWB Roleplay Hub was formed to give the Wyldwood Bayou Grid roleplayers a venue to exchange information and set up roleplaying between their groups and other roleplayers on Open Sim grids. Crossgrid roleplay offers the opportunity for roleplayers to connect their stories to those of other groups and gives all of us the whole Hypergrid as a playground.

Tunnel Vision

In 2005, a group of firm friends along with a couple of newcomers, all intrepid explorers armed with basic spelunking equipment and an intermittent instinct for survival, entered a vast system of caves, only to encounter an alarming... oh wait, that's the plot of The Descent, sorry it's the flu talking. 

This week a group of firm friends and a couple of newcomers went on Safari to an OSGrid region, owned and created by Victorious Oppewall, called Caves.

Now before you say, been there done that, don't get 'Caves' confused with 'The Caves' the build by Pasha Theas on Neverworld. This is a whole other cavern system, on Vic's home server which usually hosts about 50 sims. 

Last week, we were on a home server connected to OSGrid, at the Stregasea forest. These events put a lot of strain on a server, so serious preparations are needed.  There is, as you know, on this blog a whole page for Hosts with practical suggestions on how to have a successful Safari visit. Most people agree it's worth the effort when you can show off your work to a crowd to its best advantage. And we appreciate their hard work! Victorious arranged for our Safari tour many weeks in advance, and he turned off all other regions for the occasion of our visit to try to give the best boost possible. 

Petlove Petshop: I lost myself lol

victorious oppewall: everybody here??

Forest Azure: oh, now i'm just my thong

Tosha Tyran: but I do want my hair!

Thirza Ember: your hair just arrived Tosha, special delivery

Tosha Tyran: lol, but now the rest is gone - except for the heart - heart and hair, but no brain

Forest Azure: the heart is the most important... a hairy heart especially

Sven Ingersoll: for the tin man

Taarna Welles: Tosha the bodyless :)

Victorious Oppewall

victorious oppewall: Welcome everybody , I am happy that i may be your host , I will guide you around. On the plan you can see where we are.. the route starts here...we will walk , run or fly because then tunnels re not easy to move in. We will go into tunnel 1 and take the outer tunnels that connect the various caves. Follow me, I will not hurry and if we come in shortage of time you can plan a second visit and finish the excursion.

James Atlloud: Glad to be here

Inworld Review Returns

 As many of you know, this summer we lost Mal Burns, the creator and host of Inworld Review, the talk show on his Metaworld Youtube channel. His death was a blow to his friends and to the many people who knew and admired him through his projects, all aimed at helping Opensim to be better known and appreciated.

Mal explaining something technical on Inworld Review

For the past months, Inworld Review has been offline, and this was a decision by the team who helped Mal keep the show on the road over many years. This was out of respect for Mal and his family, and also to give some time for reflection to those who had helped Mal make the show over the years. 

Interviewing Lampi, Marlon and Tutz from Pangea Grid

In the end, the team felt that the real way to respect Mal's legacy is by continuing to let people know about all creators and innovators who call Opensim home, and the great places and projects they have brought to life here.

Arte and Montmartre

Minord Loup: bienvenue aux arrivants

Francisco Koolhoven: hi everyone!

Lavia Lavine: Hi everybody!!! :D :D :D

Alex Salamander: <bonsoir

SoA BAD: hello all

Tristan Dehaie [fr→en]: Good evening everyone :)

Draghan Marksman: Glenn is here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The gradual rez of the crowd, outside the SV3D Louvre

It was a typical day in the neighborhood of Opensim, yet another HG Safari tour, this time a return visit to SV3D, a mostly Francophone grid, run by the terrific Minord Loup. Not a huge place, and the region we were due to land on LeVieuxParis (HG address as always at the end of the post) is abundant with textures, so it was reasonable to think that it might be a while before anybody really saw anything. There were upwards of twenty people on the sim, quite a few had to relog, but the overall effect was excellent. A golden hour in the gilded age of old Paris, in company with several SV3D friends, in particular our host the builder Glenn Dayafter.

Glenn Dayafter

Glenn Dayafter:  Welcome to Le Vieux Paris !  Paris at the turn of the century — where art, imagination, and nostalgia meet. Le Vieux Paris recreates the city between the late 1800s and early 1900s, a time when creativity and curiosity filled every street and café.

Tosha Tyran: sounds great

Alexey Kazarovic: /me claps

Glenn Dayafter: The idea was born two years ago, and since then, the sim has slowly taken shape — a labour of love, inspired by research, art, and the spirit of old Paris. Today, it is almost complete, waiting for us to explore.

Dings Digital: wonderful... it must have been hard but fulfilling work

Cherry Manga: textures are insane! ♥

Pierre Segrov: Bonsoir toutes et tous !

Thirza Ember: how many regions have you built, Glenn?

A Witching Hour

Our second stop this week was to a forest on Stregasea, in OSGrid. This build was a gift to Clairwil Oh from the late Pasha Theas, who made it as a place of serenity,  a splitscreen forest between sumer lush and winter snowscape, where you can immerse yourself in nature and leave behind the oppressive worries and fears of RL for a while, and recharge your batteries. 

It's far from the first Pasha Theas build that the Safari has visited. Pasha's close friend, builder, DJ, artist and tech-friendly  Andron Rae was our erudite and amusing guide on two previous builds, Brigadoon and The Caves, and he joined us for this trip too.

Clairwil Oh

Clairwil Oh: oh, here's comes "everyone" yay!

Star Ravenhurst: Hello!
Tosha Tyran: oh shucks! Naked again
Clairwil Oh: Naked is always the best outfit for the day
Ary Ravenshires: woot! nakies party!
andron rae: its a moderate rated sim so nakies is permissible, I have shorts on under my kilt, because you know, distractions

A Life in Review

 Earlier this summer, the virtual world community was saddened to learn that Mal Burns had died. News aggregator, creator and presenter of Inworld Review, co-founder of the Hypergrid International Expo and extraordinary contributor to the Opensim Community Conference, Mal was a well known face and voice around Opensim and in Second Life too. 

He was also a much loved member of the HG Safari tour group so we wanted to celebrate his virtual life with a gathering of the kind he would have approved of - an opportunity to dance, hear some Jazz, and also hear the comments of a few of those who knew him well, whether they had been guests on his show, fellow tourists on Safari, or colleagues from other projects.
About 40 of us gathered - some were friends who rarely get into Opensim these days , like Fuschia Nightfire and Wizardoz Chrome, names anyone who knows the Safari from way back will recognize immediately, just to mention two out of a really exceptional list of attendees. Good thing James filmed it!

The region where this party was held was built by Mal to be his new home for Inworld Review, but also a park and place for him to experiment with the various treasures that he found when out and about on the hypergrid. 

Wonders of Washago

Our first stop this week was on Pangea grid, predominantly but not totally German language, we were there to see a build by Lilly Topas, who has been resident on a number of grids before finding her home among friends. Due to a last minute situation, the tour was led by grid owner Marlon Wayne,  together with the gorgeous Tutz Zabelin, a talented builder herself.

Tutz Zabelin and Marlon Wayne. Nice gloves.

Sven Ingersoll: hello avatars... ah...now everyone is materialising

Marlon Wayne -> en: Good evening everyone, I would like to welcome you all to Washago. The owner Lilly Topas is unfortunately in bed with a fever. In order not to cancel the event I will show you something from Washago today. Lilly says that she will be happy to answer questions at the medieval festival in November that I can't answer today,  I'll send you the date again tomorrow. I have known Lilly since 2009

Thirza Ember: wow Marlon, a long time!

Marlon Wayne -> en: In 2009, washago was still an Indian sim. Hence the sim name. Washago means clear water in Native American. In 2010, Lilly discovered her love of the Middle Ages, she redesigned her sim... unfortunately 1 hour is not enough to discover everything but you are always welcome, so let's Start!

Thirza Ember: yay we are ready to go!

Marlon Wayne -> en: we now enter the castle of washago

Tosha Tyran: hail to the king

Forest Azure: /me curtsies

Gorgeous Norge

 Built by Jimmy Olsen,  Norge is a residential region where lots of his friends have houses, some even farms. Our driver was Xenon Darrow (you may remember our last outing with her at the wheel, on Iceland). Tessa aka Contessa Lacombe provided all the info and was a charming, elegant guide.

Our perfect guide, Tessa Lacombe. 

The pictures may seem a little grey and gloomy, but that's the desired effect here. Jimmy, although located in RL in Brazil, is a huge fan of Norway, and he tries to mirror the RL Norwegian weather and time of day on this region... more about that later! In this picture you see Tessa, easily distinguished with her elfin features and to her left, Forest Azure, dressed in a warm sweater. It's always hard to dress 'right' for a Safari, unless the two destinations have the same theme, which they rarely do. In this case, the first hour was medieval and the second contemporary/Viking Norway, so between us all, we were perfectly appropriate for the whole thing.

Arriving was a tiny bit rocky so, quick note - if you've been having trouble teleporting to Wolf Territories Grid, as a few of us did during this Safari tour, please don't dismay. Many of us have been getting 'Unable to verify' type messages when hypergrid jumping here - it is just a passing glitch. No offense meant.

Kinky Kruise

Representing all the ladies of Kinky Haven grid, Wynter Blackthorn and Freya Blackthorn were on the waterfront to greet the HG Safari group as they arrived for the second hour of this week's tour, an epic cruise. The magnificent Dalaran Icebreaker with its iconic beaked figurehead stood waiting for us - it had seating for 40 so there was plenty of room for our dozen or so visitors who arrived slowly, since a lot of us relogged after stop two, hoping to leave behind us the accumulated lag we had built up on OSGrid. This ship cruises the grid all day every day, if you show up at the right time you'll see it magnificently going by - but for us, Wynter held the ship up until we could all arrive. 

Nara Nook: are we supposed to get on the boat?

See, right there. People who know proper naval terms know to call a ship a boat. Points for Nara.

Wynter Blackthorn: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome aboard the Dalaran Icebreaker. I am your host, Wynter Blackthorn, and this is an exclusive and custom built tour spanning 20+ regions of Kinky Haven and showcasing many others. Please remain seated while the ship is in motion. I'll encourage you to look to either side during the tour to highlight some of the unique sights, please find your seats and, the ship will depart shortly, we hope you enjoy the ride. And now without further ado, lets be on our way.

Wynter Blackthorn: we recommend a longer draw distance while on the open waters, but a reduced one in some of the heavier resident made regions. if we're lucky we might see the roaming sea monsters that randomly swim in our oceans, but they are kind of shy.

Sven Ingersoll: lol

Wynter Blackthorn: Each bench has seats for 3 and the slave cages on the mast and at the bow of the ship are also sittable

 eva.Nowicka: nice ship

Thirza Ember: I actually managed to sit! I'm usually a terrible sitter.

Sven Ingersoll: turning on transparency makes things easier

Wynter Blackthorn: we've never had this many people on this ship before

Nara Nook: it's running really well

Thirza Ember: Am I right in saying this is probably one of the longest cruises in opensim? how many regions does it cross?

Vicky's Eros

 Eroticism has always been a big part of virtual worlds; maybe it's the excellent weather and unlimited beaches, or the chance to have a killer body and even better lingerie, or the option to connect with.. well, all sorts. From the comfort of your own Viewer.

Victoria Logan, from Argentina, is a long time resident of OSGrid,
 known for her art and her work in cultivating the artistic community of Opensim

Art is also erotic, or should that be inherently erotic... on Arts-&-Friends2  Victoria Logan, known in Opensim for her beautiful lagoon galleries, has another collective of artists who have dedicated their talent to this theme - the previous two themes you may remember were 'Women' and 'We are OSGrid' and both were stunning and are still visitable in the Arts-&-Friends archipelago. 

Curating art can be hard work. Finding artists, choosing a unifying and broadly appealing theme, encouraging people to participate and supporting and promoting their work, and presenting it in a pleasing environment requires hours of dedication. The participants this time include Azi Az, Youca Golden, Gabriel Solstician, Tina Bey, Malcolyis Fadian, Morning Glory, Caro Fayray, Victoria Logan, Bonnie and Victorious Oppenwall, Deanna Janus and Elmo Figaro, and Lando Maremagnum. Tina, Caro and Vic joined us for the tour. There wasn't time to visit the whole place, so we have every excuse to return!

A Red Safari

 Our first stop on this week's trip was to Red Square, in Moscow, on the russian language grid Spacegrid -  our first ever trip there, and since opensim is all about bumpy rides to exotic places, surprises were in store. The HG Address is of course, at the end of the post.

Safari Gets Desolate

Tosha Tyran: I just woke up, am still somewhat uncoordinated

Cherry Manga: coffee?

Tosha Tyran: I got myself a beer - more appropriate I thought, haha

Thirza Ember: can I have a red bull instead of coffee?

Cherry Manga: omg, lol! you both are savages!

Yes,  we are savages, which is a good thing because the second destination of this week's HG Safari tour - the Fall season premiere for 2025 - was on a sim that savages thrive on. Well, to be fair, anyone who loves post apocalyptic landscapes, zombies, aliens, elephants, or witty posters, or an adventure playground, or lovely grungy freebies including some great PBR materials would like this new sim Desolate Expanse by Cherry Manga ... yeah I guess that is pretty much everyone. Just about two months old, it's a concept sim constructed with the help of visits by Cherry to some of the best loved Freebie purveyors in Opensim. And while it's desolate, it's definitely not despairing. You'll need to be wide awake to tour this sim without missing all the lovely details, and gifties too.

It all started with a small disappointment for many of us.

Forest in the Fall

Star Ravenhurst: Why am I sunk in the floor?

Thirza Ember: titanic shoes?

Forest Azure: do you see the dancefloor? I don't :)

George Equus: Instant rez for me, glad to  say

Francisco Koolhoven: I see it

Star Ravenhurst: It's fixed, I see everything fine

Yes, Safari is back for our 2025 Fall season and of course, when a bunch of people suddenly arrive on a new sim all together it can take a little minute before all the elements are visible to everyone... not to mention the occasional missing texture here and there, but that's all part of the fun of going as a group. The HG Address is of course at the end of the post.

Our first stop this week, and our second stop too, were both on OSGrid. In fact, this very first destination on sim Forest of Azure, with our hostess Forest Azure, was supposed to be part of last season's lineup. Only, as you may remember, OSGrid was offline for a little while there, back in the Spring. Nice to have it back up and running, perhaps better than ever. We certainly were all glad to be there.

Forest Azure

Forest Azure: welcome ye all!

Cherry Manga: ty Forest

George Equus: Thank you

Forest Azure: Hello all ye safari people! So glad to see you again and welcome you here!  And so great the safari season started again! We are here in the first place for my Maze gallery, but you have time to explore other parts of my region as well, or to dance here if you like, or maybe even both! Let me first show you the tp boards.. here is one and they all look like this.

Ipsofacto, in Fact

In Opensim, the name Ipsofacto is always closely associated with Prodyck Theas. For many years, Prodyck's been an explorer, experimenter, and videographer, best known for his Twitch channel where he has filmed and archived events, particularly in the Francophone community - weddings, inaugurations, even Safari trips! As a sim, Ipsofacto like so many places in the hyperverse has undergone lots of adventures - going offline, and finding a new home, and a new iteration, all the time expressing the solidarity of the francophone community. 

Prodyck in a surreal moonlight on his sim Ipsofacto, when it was on Osgrid.

The meaning of names is always so important... 'Iposofacto' comes from the Latin for 'by the fact itself' in other words, something that needs no explanation, is obvious. But there's more at play here; the Latin word we translate as 'fact' also means a deed - something done, a creation or action. And what is Opensim all about if not actions, creations, and deeds?

If you ever get a chance to talk to Prodyck, ask him about the French-speakers of the early days of Opensim - he has many memories of those early times, when assets were scarce, but on the other hand, experimenters and explorers were everywhere. This is a good moment to mention Francogrid, a lost treasure of Opensim, which, after a long decline, went offline  in 2022 due to a tech failure at the place where the grid was hosted. If you're curious about FG, or about opensim history in general, why not take a look at this post where 8 years ago (my how time flies!)  the Safari gang met up with a bunch of Francogridiens.