There will be a big party on May 23, it marks the 4th anniversary of HG Safari, which began on May 20th, 2014 when Wizard Gynoid joined me for our first trek around the hyperverse.
A week later, Fuschia Nightfire and Wizardoz Chrome joined us, on an epic five stop tour that involved a lot of crashing and cloudiness.
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| Th original Safari clubhouse on Nei Mar |
After that, there were seven or eight of us each week, and we began to organize our trips in advance in order to meet region and grid owners, rather than just go to empty regions unprepared for our lagaliscious arrival.
When OSGrid went offline, the Safari HQ moved to Metropolis, and thanks to our friends at Nara's Nook, who provided us with a sim attached to Metro, we didn't miss a beat...
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| The Safari clubhouse on Metropolis |
... and then to Francogrid, our best known clubhouse. Eventually, when OSgrid came back online, the clubhouse on Teravus Plaza also came back to life.
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| The OSGrid clubhouse, Teravus Plaza |
In the uncertain world of open sim, the essential tenets of the Safari have been 'constants and constance' ...
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| Arriving on Calchester, Kitely |
... always going to at least two destinations, because the name of the game is Hypergridding, not just sitting still, and always meeting on Wednesdays, apart from a few weeks' hiatus in the summer and pre-planning visits, for the maximum enjoyment and having a core group of Safari Regulars, ever ready to help newcomers.
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| An event at SIDA, Francogrid |
Over the years, that core group has changed in its components, but not in its essential nature.
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| The Dreamtforest region, part of the Santorini Biennial |
Kindness, pleasantness, friendliness to new people, a willingness to show up, to laugh, and to come back from crashes without complaining, to appreciate other people's builds, rather than wanting all the attention on themselves. These Safari regulars are a rare breed and they have taught me a lot.
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| Riding the portals on Sanctuary |
The Safari group has made a habit of staying away from the drama vultures while trying to remain a broad church in terms of the kinds of regions we have visited.
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| A Group sit-in with Lumiere Noir |
We've been to hundreds of regions, on more than eighty grids, friended dozens of people, sat on scores of unsuitable objects, and taken thousands of pictures. Thousands.
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| Pathfinder riding something weird |
We have seen the Hypergrid change, grow up, expand, get rid of HG horribles, like the 4095 bug, and get new HG horribles, like our currently hopelessly unreliable IM system.
We're seen important tools like Satyr's opensimworld.com and Ferd's Dreamworld become an essential part of hg life. We've seen grids be born, and die, and watched others evolve and endure.
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| Ferd's Cinderella castle |
And now, the Safari is coming to an end. There are nine more touring events, and on May 23 it will be the last Safari with a big party.
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| Metaverso on Craft |
There are so many things to say about that, so I won't say anything, except to thank everyone who has participated, hosted, and followed our trek, especially Wizardoz Chrome who has been such a good friend and stalwart companion from the beginning, and to thank the good people of Francogrid for hosting us for such a long time.
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| From left to right, Wizard Gynoid, Wizardoz Chrome, and Fuschia Nighfire |
The HG Safari clubhouses will remain online. There will be self guided tours, to destinations that have been hand picked by Safari Regulars who know a thing or two about the fabulous places in opensim.
After May 23, there will be no more Safari tours, but other people will no doubt organize other group events, so more fun is always around the corner, and as you know, there are always new places to discover in opensim.
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| Performance art at Futurelab |
Please join us for these final 10 Safari adventures if you can, for we have some amazing destinations lined up for your viewing pleasure.
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