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

Dancing on Counterearth

 Counter Earth Grid puts on a Holiday Show each year, with a big Christmas dancing extravaganza. The next 90 minute event is on November 21, 2025, the time hasn't been fixed just yet, but it will be somewhere between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM Grid Time, depending on majority preference. 

Sardar Fair

Over eleven years old and probably best known for the freebie region Sardar Fair, CounterEarth is the oldest Gorean grid in Opensim, and has a wealth of beautiful sims you can visit, even if you're not a gor by nature. If you're not familiar with the Counter Earth dance event, here's a peep at what they did in 2022, just to get you in the mood to participate. 

Wyld Five

This month, Wyldwood Bayou grid turns five years old, but to know that is only to have the very edges of the story of this vibrant corner of our hyperverse. Best known for its dancing events and roleplay, WWB grew out of a group of friends who had all had experience in Second Life before coming over to Opensim; their story of grid changes probably resonates with most of us, the best bit of it being that they were able to remain together as a tribe, no matter the vagaries of grid shutdowns, lost assets, and the usual craziness of opensimulator.

Kith Whitehawk 

Kith Whitehawk: Our first OS grid was InWorldz. Kira and I build Wyldwood Bayou on Kitley, then once we had to move, due to IW grid removal, settled in Discovery as a spot for the club. Picked Discovery, mainly due to Jay and Ten-Bears. We met Harmony in IW, was a boon that she was in between hosting gigs. Was the best snag ever!

Contessa Lacombe: I met Fit in Inworldz, which was my first OS grid. I picked it because it was all I knew about, but our open OS is so much better! When I first checked out OS, I thought it was very primitive so I stayed in SL, but on a later visit it had grown and I could envision the possibilities. I could have plenty of space to build!

It's a natural part of life that times change, and with experience, confidence and abilities grow. We all yearn for a bit more independence, which is what happened to the WWD group.

Kith Whitehawk: We wanted a place of our own, an independent grid. One where we had control over the ethos and values. We also had an extraordinary opportunity, due to Durham and Fits computer abilities, to have grid stability and a place to call "Our Own Dayum Swamp". We called it Wyldwood Bayou, since even though we lost Kira in 2019, her spirit is ever with us. She started the club on a parcel called WWB in IW back in 2011, and there was never a question of what we were to call our new home.

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.

OSFest 2025

 This year's OSFest will be held from October 12 - 27, a shorter and a different format than past editions. It is late in the year, seasonably close to Halloween which we all know is a very busy time in Opensim, with endless parties, hunts, and Freebie freakouts, and the new OSFest format is set up with this in mind - the integration of your events in a HG-wide general 'Fest' atmosphere. 

Poster by Banker Ibor

Yes, the OSfest grid still exists, with the key sims still online including Zen, Events, Welcome and HG Welcome etc, and some gigs will be held here during Osfest 2025, but anyone wishing to attract an audience back to their own home grid can do so with ease, and without feeling 'guilty' about working on a 'competing grid' as sometimes happens.