Scenes and Dreams on ArtDestiny

 The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; 
but still there is much that is fair,

 and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, 

it grows perhaps the greater,

JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Book 2 Chapter 6

We visited ArtDestiny grid this week as our first stop, (HG Address as usual at the end of this post) in part to congratulate this group of friends for the 5th anniversary of their grid, but also to witness some of the remarkable creations to be found here. If you've read tis blog before you will be familiar with Stormy Scorpio and her regions on the grid that have an ingenious duality. 

Stormy Scorpio on Lothlorien

High in the sky - no, in outer space, perhaps would be a better way to put it - you'll find a dozen Star Trek spaceships, explorable and fully loaded. At ground level, and working kind of like the holodeck environments from Star Trek TNG, you have a gently glamorous landscape, full of elven architecture.

LMs for our trips are in this simple, giant prim at the HG Safari clubhouse 'waiting room'

But of course, before that, we all met up at the clubhouse on HG safari grid. Some folks arrive plenty early so they can get the LMs and have a chat before we depart for our first stop, but there's also a rush of folks in the four or five minutes before go time. If you arrive a little late, or maybe can make just the second hour, don't worry, you can still grab the landmarks and join us, the more the merrier!

Thirza Ember: hello Isabelle,  you have the LMs ok?

Isabelle Sun[de>en]: I only have this one from  OSW 

Thirza Ember: in this prim, the Lms for today...

Isabelle Sun[de>en]: bought :-)

Thirza Ember:  sometimes, there is a last minute change, for that reason I do not publish the full destinations in social media, it would be too complicated to go around and modify the publicity everywhere, so to try to avoid confusion, the only place where you can get  the guaranteed correct destinations is in this box

 Isabelle Sun[de>en]: Okay, that's well organized

Fantasy With Friends

Safine Mahoe: Hello Everyone!

Zuzu Bahro: Hi everyone

Dings Digital: Hello :-)

Alex54 salamander: Hello :-)

Thirza Ember: did my clothes survive the tp this time?

Safine Mahoe: everyone looking good

Thirza Ember: LOL 'looking good' could be different to 'fully clothed'

James Atlloud: yes, all green and pink

Safine Mahoe: Please click on  the translator  ball above

Forest Azure: i see a lot of tags with no people attached

James Atlloud: some things are taking time to arrive

Forest Azure: bodies?

Thirza Ember: Zuzu looks like she stepped out of the pages of a fairy story, and Safine's wings are magical - half invisible, so delicate

Hunting on Coralys

Our first stop this week was on Ignis Fatuus grid which has always been a favorite for Safari, since  Max's regions combine extremely beautiful fantasy with an elegant gallic style. Coralys is a recent addition to the dozens of builds, often made in combination with Max's partner Nadir Rae but this one is a solo effort. As always the address is at the end of the post.

Nadir has been very busy recently making a new region, Courant d Art, featuring world class art, which got a shout out on Hypergrid Happenings recently - that's a weekly short on Youtube that features upcoming events and news, and is part of the Inworld Review show. 

Nadir and Max

There were about ten of us Safarians on Coralys, together with the welcome company of Vlad and Vanessa VanHelsing of Bloodmoon grid, always nice that the francophones support each other's events. A special shout out to Nadir who has a long standing commitment to DJing in SL on Wednesdays but who always seems to manage to be there for us, and of course, Prodyck Theas who livestreamed our event on Twitch. All this, plus the wonderful Roff Kisses who took a bunch of lovely pictures and shared them with us on the HG Safari group on Facebook. We are surrounded by excellence!

Around the World on Creative Landform

Our second destination this week was on Altternate Metaverse grid (call it AMV for short) where we met up with Zelle Mist, Sofee Supermarine, and Ted Junior, to tour Ted's build Creative Landform.

Sofee Supermarine

Zelle Mist: Welcome. good to see you all

Sofee Supermarine: Hi Hello everyone Welcome to Japan the land of the Rising Sun, Ted will be here in one minute

Ted Junior: hi everybody What you going to see today are 5 different setups, the one we standing on is Japan

Dings Digital: looks beautiful

Ted Junior: we can walk around if you like, its not so big... a small harbor with the boats

Thirza Ember: what inspired you to make a build with 5 styles all on one region, Ted?

Ted Junior: well the thing was that i wanted something different,  so I put some major cities... here in Japan is the freebie isle

Breaking Banham

Our second stop on this week's trip was on Arkham Grid. We lost a few at the first stop, so it was quite a small group - but very enthusiastic about visiting another art region by Felix Mafia. Felix, his partner Sharon, and Grid were on hand to welcome us. HG Address as always, at the end of the post.

Not too many of us and for once, we didn't break anything - although it remains to be seen if James poisoned the fish. 

Most people think of Arkham as a place to grab freebies, and while there is that side to the grid, there are also dozens of installations by Felix that merit a visit. This one, Banham, is a s Cyberpunk Futuristic Egypt. 

Grid, Felix and Sharon were there to meet us

Felix is Italian, and while his English is good, our visit at 10pm at night, Rome time, is a little late in the day to be fielding questions in your second language. Luckily Grid Admin, a native |English speaker as well as grid guru, was on hand to help us with lots of info that contextualizes the build, and really brings it to life. He told us that the title of this very cinematic build could be Banham Region “Your heart may be much older.” A vision of the future where past and destiny collide - that's at the back of this extraordinary place.

Hooray for Monterey

 Our first stop this week was in California, on the misty, mysterious, magnificent waterfront of Monterey. This build, on Groovyverse Grid, was a group effort, and so we not only got a glimpse of some terrifically well done landscaping, but also of a warm generous welcoming team of builders. 

Our Guide was Dee Zee, on horseback so it would be easier for the gang to see where she was going - great idea! and on hand to meet us was Grid owner Hyacinth Jean, builders Herbie Haven and Doc Indy

dee zee: Welcome to the Monterey Bay Region on the Groovyverse grid. My name is Dee, I am another of the builders and will be acting as your host / guide while you are here.  Welcome to the Monterey Bay Region on the Groovyverse grid.  We thank you for visiting us today and hope that you enjoy your visit.

Thirza Ember: mmmm smell that ocean air

Forest Azure: /me sniffs

 dee zee: First off, I would like to introduce two of our "primary" builders  here with us today.

 Herbie Haven  and Doc Indy.  They are both wearing our  Cacophony Society group tags.

 Also, please say hello to  our grid administrator/owner,  Hyacinth Jean.

Lavia Lavine: Hi Hyacinth Hey everyone sorry I'm late.

Arwen Evenstar: Hi Hyacinth

Dings Digital: Hi all

Hyacinth Jean: Hi everyone :)

eva Nowicka: /me waves

Thirza Ember: have my meds kicked in or is Hyacinth on a reindeer

Hyacinth Jean: This is clearly a ferret.

Trouble in Tromsø

 Our second stop this week was a late substitution and a welcome return to one of the funnest places - the revamped Tromso region on Wolf Territories Grid. 

Jimmy Olsen the creator is always working on refining his builds and with the help of his close friends Tessa and Xenon, the trip was guaranteed to have us laughing from the get go. It's a large, mountainous VAR with an excellent road system and teleports to all the main attractions and features the real world weather conditions of Norway thanks to a scripting system (available for free) that reads the latest meteorological conditions, the time of sunrise and sunset etc, and then reproduces them inworld. Just another of the fabulous freebies of Opensim that inspire us all to give something back to the community according to our own talents and abilities.

One of the many innovations on the region is the use of the Expo Center as a temporary gallery. People from anywhere in the hyperverse may exhibit here, the shows stay up for about a month, and occupy the entire ground floor of the most prominent building on the sim, the one by the Landing Point. 

Skates on with Tina

Tina Bey's art has garnered her a huge following of admirers and collectors. Her sixteen year long inworld career as a digital creator in open sim is founded on her studies at the National School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires; her imagination and passion for science fiction, environmental causes, and a love of play - bringing humor and a lighthearted sense of youth into our often world weary realms -  inform and give flight to those very creditable foundations.

This new build, which has been an ongoing project for several months, finally got its big opening with a HG safari visit, our first destination of the fourteenth Safari trip of 2026. The location of the event - Star Ravenhurst's grid TenthDimension. The region, Imagination Island (full HG Address at the end of the post) is an annex to the main gallery, Le Beau Retrouve, which opened in the summer of 2024. 

We were all invited to wear skateboards to take the tour as they are fast and fun. Most of us got ours on before we left the clubhouse, but they were also available on the region so if you jump over to view the sim, look  for the green and black rezzing area and take the board from one of the boxes.

Star Ravenhurst: Welcome Everyone!

James Atlloud: Loving the colors here!

Forest Azure: oh, snow! cold feet!

Tina Bey[es→en]: please read the posters hehehe....  all is free, as a gift

Thirza Ember: ahahah of course Lumi is the best on the skateboard

Luminalore Resident: Hahah you know me too well now. XD

Tina Bey[es→en]: let's start!!! follow me

James Atlloud: Tina has a one-wheel board!! <jealous>

Safari Gets Sky High

Marlon Wayne: Hello everybody

Yara Eilde: Hallo Karsten :-)

James Atlloud: I feel some crashin' in my future!

Karsten Runningbear: hi james

Dings Digital: that is the kind of optimism we need

Karsten Runningbear: most people crash only one time :)

Karsten Runningbear: hello everyone welcome to our little airfield... we made some extra things... first please change visibility to 1024m if possible. Its a 6x6 var sim. We made airplanes usable for everyone, 2 fighter planes, which can use a race timer, or fly just for fun, a rescue helicopter, 3 waterplanes, and a Zeppelin, scenic flight with explanations.

James Atlloud: PLANE!!

This was our second stop of the week and what a treat!

On Centauri

 Our first stop this week was on Geo Portal's Outofthisworld grid. It's dedicated to his unique vision of the future and while Geo is not personally a mesh maker he has surrounded himself with some great talents, and on this grid you'll find the work of Luna Lunaria, Tina Bey and Symphony Vive, whose work was particularly being showcased during this visit.

We were provided with comfortable chairs, somewhere for us to sit as Symphony and Geo explained the ideas behind the region and of the grid in general.

Centauri arrival area

Geo Portal:  welcome to the last city of frontier Centauri creation of Symphony Vive we meet and she collaborate with this futuristic creation

Geo Portal

Symphony Vive: ty  Geo,  your ideas  and vision is  inspirational

Thirza Ember: you make a good team!

Geo Portal[es→en]: she create many creation at her mesh lab and I see ask her she can make city and she said ok and this is the beginning great futurist city to visit and explore  Rios  is to another helper and Zafiro,  plus Tina Bey. Also my friend Luna she is not was us anymore, only in spirit

MARICRUZ WORLD[es→en]: you have the imagination for movies

Thirza Ember: how long have you been working on this, Symphony?

Symphony Vive

Symphony Vive: We  Geo  and  I  have  been developing  this grid for several months....   bit  by  bit as  Geo  creates more areas to create the  vision.

Monica's Venice

 It sometimes happens on Safari that there's a last minute emergency. It's a tribute to the platform and its people that this is a very rare event, but it happened this week when just about twenty minutes before go time, our lovely host Monica Chanel discovered her internet wasn't working so she would not be able to join us to show us around her build, on Bloodmoon Grid, called Venice.

Monica Chanel, on her region VENICE

Thirza Ember: Here we are in VENICE on Bloodmoon grid

SoA BAD: Don't forget to give me the 10 EURO entrance fee

Star Ravenhurst: Loaded fast for me too

Dings Digital: ooo nice, that is where the good books are

Thirza Ember: Sadly just a few moments ago, our host Monica discovered she could not get inworld, she has problems with her internet, she is very sad about that

Lavia Lavine: Awww that stinks, I would be pretty upset too

Thirza Ember: but we can take a bit of a tour in company with Pierre here Pierre is co owner of the grid, so he can tell us a little bit about Bloodmoon grid as we walk around

Lavia Lavine: The internet is unpredictable

Pierre Segrov: Welcome everyone

Luscious Leshmor

 Our second stop this week was on Genesis Roleplay Grid, and our host Lavia Lavine has woven many great stories on her various builds. This time, we went to see Leshmor a luscious fantasy region with a deep and rich backstory to every part.

The official landing point where the Beacon is located is a small room, possibly a prison, in an ancient tower. We were soon teleported away but not before Taarna stepped up on the table! 
Dings Digital: beer and bread, who needs more?

Thirza Ember: Taarna if you're going to stand on the table, you better dance

Pete Taylor: cosy :)

Taarna Welles: ?? I'm on the floor in my screen?  But I can dance :)

On the Reef

Moonrise Azalee: Okay - well, Hey everyone, welcome to Ravens Reef- a small town, urban 4x4 region- It's a fictional town with a modern North American pacific coastal theme - Roleplay is encouraged here but not mandatory. Ravens Reef was inspired by a few different things - first, I really loved the little immersive regions I found in The Big Grid, but these places came and went pretty quickly it seemed - I would fall in love with a place, then one day it would be shut down, which was sad - but while in InWorldz, I met Curt Halberd who created very realistic builds, and who created a town called Backwater that felt so real - I would wander around his little town, able to imagine myself living there, and I loved how it felt.

Moonrise Azalee: I realized I wanted to make something like that, something I knew I would be able to financially afford for the long term, a place that people could go to and maybe create their own story in a small town setting, and so Birchglen, Ravens Reef was born - it existed in a smaller form in InWorldz, but I had a large land mass in OSGrid where I continued working on it, with help from Curt, and eventually I brought it into Kitely since I had already been a resident here as well.

Moonrise Azalee: It has also been in 3rd rock grid, because i liked the idea of it being always online, but when 3rd rock grid shut down Ravens reef remained here permanently

Moonrise Azalee

Moonrise Azalee: Something that was important to me was to use content from some creators I really enjoy and admire, Curt Halberd and his REALized Mesh, as well as Koshari from Four Winds, Chic Aeon and many others - it can be a challenge to find good, legitimate content in OpenSim but I wanted to show that it was possible - there are some urban buildings that are actually sold on Marketplace in the Big Grid with permissions to bring outside of that grid into OpenSim, and there are of course the  Arcadia Asylum, Urban builds - there are other things that from the process of going from one grid to another have lost the creators names , or some items that may be questionable, but the intention was to build a town that could showcase the work of OpenSim creators.

Safari Gets Gruggy

 Ozone grid was the scene of our final tour this season, and Spax Orion's two talking pigeons gave us the intro talk to his brand new project, aimed at encouraging more games in Opensim. 

It was a quick rez when we arrived directly at the game arena rather than the main landing Point on Atrius region. True, we missed seeing Dirty Helga at her receptionists' desk, but it meant we could dedicate all our visit to learning about IMAGE.

Spax Orion: make yourselves at home and I will wake up the birds

Thirza Ember: /me shakes the biker grit from my hair

Spax Orion: careful, the service androids are on strike

James Atlloud: should we go to the chairs?

Forest Azure: /me looks around for something to clean.. anything?

James Atlloud: You should travel with a towel Forest.

Guano Pigeon: shouts: Welcome to Ozone Miniverse @ xoaox.de OK... so now that your are here, settle down while we explain some VERY IMPORTANT details *** The GAME BOARD is DISABLED until we are ready to begin this exercise. *** Is Exercise a dirty word? *** Someone gave me a funny look!

James Atlloud: fertilizer

Safari on Track

The first season of Safari ended yesterday with two opportunities for playing - one classic and one brand new. Our first stop was on CCI grid with a return to an iconic build, Bikerworld, reputed to be the longest and biggest racing track in Opensim, by SoA BAD, the grid owner. 

SIWAS and SoA BAD, the owners of CCI Grid.

His name SoA comes from the TV series Sons of Anarchy, so it will be no surprise to learn this track is particularly made for motorcycles. SoA and his beautiful partner Siwas are both expert riders and can do the whole track in about an hour, going full blast from sea level, where you'll find the clubhouse and the group joiner and the various motorcycles that you can 'buy' and ride, to the highest point where there is a sort of gasoline dump with tankers and reservoirs. This aspect of motoring - filling your tank from time to time - is an essential part of the game, and you will need to get supplies a couple of times as you gradually rise up through the levels. The last time we visited we were all impressed by the way the region handled the lag made by the group, but that was over two years ago, so this was an opportunity for us to give it another whirl and remind ourselves of how much fun can be had here.

SoA BAD: Hello friends, welcome! Get yourselves a bike, but only copy or buy the bikes and then rez them yourself. Don't use the originals. Most bikes are also suitable for a passenger.  Additionally, you can find biker outfits in the display case on the left; also copy or buy them.

A Visit to Shark-ham

Felix Mafia is an Italian architect whose grid, Arkham, is almost four years old. Best known for the freebies, there's a lot more going on here, in terms of backstory and design, snd Safari wanted to know a bit more about that side of this popular destination.

There are quite a few seasonal regions on Arkham that provide explorers and freebie hunters alike the brief opportunity to visit, and we were invited to see Easter Land, in its 2026 iteration.

Felix Mafia with good friends Grid Admin and Andron Rae
were at the arrival point to welcome us all.

Felix Mafia: thanks for being here

Andron Rae: this is a fun region with a lot of hidden areas to explore

Felix Mafia [it→en]: Grid Admin is creator of the Arkham, he is English.

Grid Admin: I'll just hang out back here, out of the way

Andron Rae: hugs Cherry nice to see you! sorry if I am standing on anyone, I'm not fully rezzed and see clouds haha

Felix Mafia: welcome eva

eva Nowicka: hey Felix, nice to see you

Thirza Ember: we are not a gigantic group this week which is good for lag and for conversation... it's 'Shark city' make sure you see the shark while you are here, he is quite spectacular!

The Tao of Shenn

 Seduced by beauty in opensim, we visited some of the artwork of Shenn Tao, on Atlas grid. Shenn spends a lot of his time traveling in rl so it was an extra special opportunity to meet up with this influential and much loved French artists and to get a few insights into his work. 

Sure, we all know that good art speaks for itself, but that dialogue is always enhanced by a few hints from its maker, and also gives us a chance to thank them for their contribution to the collective cultural heritage of our virtual worlds.

Cornflakes with a Twist

We hit Cornflakes Week with all the bright colors and primmy nonsense of a decade-long tradition this Wednesday, as the HG Safari crew teleported to the newly revived Cornflakes Tribute region, now back online, this time on HG Safari grid. 

For more about the sim in general, don't miss this post that takes a deeper dive into some of the details of the historic region. 

Whirli Placebo

We were honored to have Whirli Placebo as our musical guest, he has been there for us so many times over the years, what we found extra special is the music he shared with us... more of that later.

Going Solo

 Our second stop this week was on Avirtualworld. Bob Solo and the lovely Shea Butter were on hand to welcome us when we arrived on the region he was showcasing this time, SG1. As usual, the HG Addresses are at the end of the post, simply open your viewer on your home region, open the Map, and copy paste the address into it and go! Avirtualworld is open 24/7 and Bob says he is almost always online so you can go over and say hello to him any time.

Bob Solo

George Equus: SG1  and Atlantis was rather good series

Forest Azure: i have no idea what SG! is

Lavia Lavine: Star Gate

James Atlloud: TV show/Movie named Star Gate

Bob Solo: I built this all in prim, all after the tv show

Equitopia

Our first stop this week was on pangea Grid, and grid owners Malon Wayne and Tutz Gabelin were there to meet us along with region builder Mys Tigerpaw. To try to make life easer in this baabel of various native tongues, Marlon wore the translator orb on his head so we could join it and remaain within its range even when we moved around the sim.

Mys Tigerpaw: today we can call Marlon, Atlas

Marlon Wayne: Hello everybody

Forest Azure: hello

Dorena Bree: Hello

eva Nowicka: that's right, Forest, I should have picked up a bow too :D

Mys Tigerpaw: Welcome to Equitopia everyone! Please let me know when you are all rezzed.

George Equus: Hi all. sorry I am late.

Mys Tigerpaw: As you can see, my name is Mys and  I am a born horse nut. In RL I work with horses, doing osteopathy, massage, acupressure and deep fascia treatment on them. Equitopia has been really fun for me to build. If you have any questions , don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer them.

Nara Nook: I love riding in Opensim

Forest Azure: oh, George is horse-minded too!

Mys Tigerpaw: lol yes i noticed George's last name

George Equus: Well suppose...