Safari goes to Counter Earth

        Our middle destination in Week 160 was to the Gorean grid outer Earth. Most opensim people have heard of this grid, it is famous for the Turia market regions, where many an avatar has gone in search of skins, hair and furnishings. In recent months, the Counter Earth grid has begun undergoing a period of increased growth, with about ten new regions being developed. It is an exciting time, and  this visit was just a prelude to, we hope, many more visits. HG Addresses, as always, at the end of the post. And of course, there are loads more pictures of our visits, take by glorious safarians, on G+ and in Facebook

           If you would like to read about the first and last stops on this trip, please look for the post titled Safari and the Ladies of Legend
          Havoc Rau and Kindra Turian kindly invited us, but there were many other residents on hand t meet us on the default region, Sardar Faire. The plan was to send us off in groups of five to visit
selected regions. It was a little more tricky than we had hoped, not least because our first stop had thrown up some lag, which had, in turn, sent people off early to destinations, and arriving on counter earth was also proving challenging. Even with two avatars online, and 15 + IMs all going at once, nothing I could do to stop a little chaos breaking out. Still, Kindra did a great job in welcoming us all, even though I'm sorry to say, I failed to get the photos of her, and the other G I'd have liked. Here's a shot of some of us arriving, strangely frozen, but not triangulated, so that was an improvement on our first destination!

Mal Burns arrives on Counter Earth

RN Turian: welcome to Counter Earth
Dark Crystal: greetings everyone!
kindra Turian: Welcome to Counter Earth Grid, so excited to see you here.  Gor is based on the books that were written by John Norman a professor of Philosophy- they are science fiction books that concentrate on what is the fun world of Gor... many people love to role play their Gorean experiences because of the unusual plants and animals that you see around gor and the capture the slave and wars between the cities... it does have some important principals about acting with honor and although many think of it as a mysoginous way of life- many are think of it more as "the natural order" .
kindra Turian: There are 34 books and you can learn more in our library about beginning Gor. While you are here you will here people call you Master, Lady, Mistress, kajira and the common Gorean Greetings are either Tal or Greetings. We welcome you all and are so happy to be able to show you our world. The first five of you - we would like you to go to Tabuks Ford, and then the next five I will send to Lydius...

             Well... it went more or less like that. A bento mesh was throwing up a packet data error and that seemed to be messing with our.. heads just a little bit, causing some to get frozen, or have trouble teleporting in. However, this grid is totally worth weathering HG storms, because there is a huge amount to see here, and future Safari visits are already being plotted.

         With Flidais Merlin and one or two others, I got to Tabuk's Ford, where Carne Gwithian was awaiting our arrival. It's a glorious arcadian rural scene, bathed in a golden light, all very immersive.
Carne Gwithian smiles " holds out his hand and studies his fingers " that is lucky, for it is as many as I can count at any time" he calls out again " welcome Lady"
Frank Gresham: Thanks for the tp Thirza
Thirza.Ember: welcome my friend, a treacherous trip this week
Frank Gresham: That is part of the Safari adventure
Thirza Ember: lol so I keep telling myself
Carne Gwithian chuckles " are not all trips treacherous" ? " we do seem to be missing a couple though... Welcome to Tabuk's Ford, please follow me and I will show you the village.: Do yo know the books of John Norman who wrote about this fictional lands of Gor ?

Thirza.Ember: I haven't read them but I am aware of them
Flidais Merlin: same here, I even bought the first three but haven't read them yet
Thirza Ember: oh now you'll be inspired to read them flidais
Flidais Merlin: yes I think I will
Carne Gwithian: Tabuks Ford is one of the typical Gorean villages, surrounded by farmland, a village of about 400 people led by the Headman who has the name of Thurmus. Thurmus and Tabuk's Ford is famous and known for the sleen pens - sleen are creatures that are used to hunt. It is a central meeting and trading place, the village is self sufficient - you can probably smell the lavender and other herbs.

Flidais Merlin: do you have a G&S equivalent in Opensim for crops and animals, etc?
Carne Gwithian shakes his head " not yet, I find G&S OK in some aspects but it takes over in others
Flidais Merlin: yes true
Carne Gwithian: Come - lets go to the village and you can see what would typically be found in a rural community, much as you would in earth
Flidais Merlin: yes
Carne Gwithian: This way please. Like a Gorean City such as Turia a village will have the same structure but in this case it is a headman but the same Gorean castes apply, Physicians, Scribes, Warriors and so on
Frank Gresham: Quite an elaborate re-creation
Cherry Manga: yay made it! Aloha gorean people /stays on Mal's hat to prevent walk lagging
Thirza Ember: carne how id you get involved with this region?
Carne Gwithian: I have been in Gor in SL for many years, I heard of Counter Earth and I spend time here helping, learning and basically roleplaying
Frank.Gresham: How much of the region was ported from 2L?
Carne Gwithian:It is my relaxation time, I enjoy the people the culture and structure, but most of all I enjoy the challenge of roleplay - I could not tell you Frank, but if you look around you will see that most objects are similar to SL ten years ago - mesh has not really caught on with objects yet
Frank Gresham: Mesh or not, a nice build enhances the opensim metaverse.

Carne Gwithian:Yes Frank - Tabuk's Ford in all honesty is as close to what is described in the books of Norman. The Grid should be able to manage 30 to 40 people, but like everything we are aware of scripts. Of course a Gorean society is based upon Free Men, Free Women and slaves - so we cut down on many scripts by keeping the slaves as close to naked as possible
Thirza Ember: Kindra told me there are several new perojects happening here in counter earth
Carne Gwithian: smiles " Well RN can describe them better than I Thirza, he is much older !!"
        Wth so much coming and going, it was difficult to chat at length with anyone, but that leaves us so much more to discover when we return to Counter Earth.

           The lovely Kay Day welcomed us to the region called Tor, set in the Tahari Desert of Gor. It is a caravan city, so they are used to strange travellers coming through... just as well some of us are stranger than others! Phred Resident said one of the most memorable things ever uttered on Safari, and so true:
Phred Resident: hi, i wondered where everyone went... transport should leave you here or there, not in between

Kay Day: shall we wait to see if the other make it?
RN Turian: most are in tabuks right now. the slowness issue is every time you TP to another regions it tries to load your home inventories and cane creating much logging... I have to look into that... multiply that by 10-15 people

Kay Day: there was to be five in each place
Thirza Ember:  sorry about that. we tend to flock together.         
Kay Day: follow me to the first tent please, we are  still building here: this two weeks work

Drang.Po: do all your own blender work?
Thirza Ember: wow, only 2 weeks in and you have already done a lot. nice towers
Kay Day: they is three level to  this place  the the bottom  level
Thirza Ember: what got you interested in gor, Kay?
Kay Day: people i met in sl, was a panther  Huntress

 Drang.Po: Have you read all the books?
Kay Day: I when to sl  playing  in carp and capture game: yes  I soon began read them. I have been gor 10 years now
           Kay got called back to RL, but I'm sure we will catch up with her the next time we visit.

Lydius

Havoc Rau: ok next stop is Lydius best way to get there, use map
Dark Crystal: welcome to Lydius every one ... a freeport run by merchants
Frank Gresham: I am enjoying the port scenery. Water, waves, boats, piers.
Thirza Ember: wow this is some amazing scenery
Dark Crystal: it is a city with mixed cultures and diverse
Lucy Afarensis: he he
Cherry Manga: awesome, it's huge, so many details
Dark Crystal: please come inside the gates
Havoc Rau: when we build in gor we try to make it as the books describe it
Dark Crystal: warehouses run the inside of the front walls
Lucy.Afarensis: Halloween on Gor ?
Cherry.Manga: the autumn forest is ♥♥♥

Dark Crystal: Feast of Fools on gor
Havoc Rau: we prefer to think of it as a harvest festival and feast of fools, but gorean or not, we are still just folks :)

Thirza.Ember: it's feast of fools every week on safari... you gotta be crazy to join us
Havoc Rau: i have a few times and...yes
Dark Crystal: Lydius will be hosting our Feast of Fools toward the end of the month
Lucy Afarensis: Crazy helps some
Dark Crystal: yes it does, we have caves, mountain ruins, gardens, and a forest among other things
Cherry Manga: how do you work with building, team, or someone take the whole, how you work together to make such huge sceneries?
Havoc Rau: well it varies, some sims are all built by one person, some by a few, this one was all Crystal
Cherry Manga: Congrats Dark

Dark Crystal: and constantly work on it, rather enjoy that
Carne Gwithian: How are you all doing guys, I hope we have not lost anyone yet
Dark Crystal: thank you for coming to Lydius, you are welcome any time!
Carne Gwithian: The next time you should allow more time to visit
Dark Crystal: yes I agree but we were told this was to be a whirlwind tour

 An so it was! Thanks to all the fine people of Counter Earth who came inworld to meet us and make us so welcome.

HG Addresses
Sardar Faire jand.dyndns.biz:7002 
the village of Tabuk's Ford                  jand.dyndns.biz:7002:tabuks ford
The desert city of Tor                           jand.dyndns.biz:7002:tor
The merchant's seaport of Lydius        jand.dyndns.biz:7002:lydius