Safari Goes to the End of the Line

 For our final stop in this season's regular trips, we went for a first time visit to a fairly new grid, Holoneon. Run by Fiona and Niki Sweet, they suggested  a great region for us to explore, called Haven City. It's themed around the movie Tron, a classic bit of scifi and just perfect for our group.  'End of the Line' is a movie reference and a track by Daft Punk - the Safari tours will be back in January! (and some Specials before that, too.)

On Holoneon, we  were lucky enough to have as our guides the builders of the sim, Angel and Jade Madison. HG Address is (and you knew this was coming) at the end of the post, so you remember to go visit!

Bit of an unrezzed start to our tour, but as you all know, it takes us a while to get our act together. Luckily, the girls of the grid were pretty patient with us.

~Ąиցєℓ~: Welcome everyone. Its an honor to have you all here. I have never done anything like this on these scales. I like to create. So does Jade my partner.

Niki Sweet: yay hi  Forest, hi  anyone i missed, and most  are  clothed  too... /me giggles

Jade Madison: welcome everyone it honor to have you all here

Thirza Ember: thanks Angel, Jade, Niki and Fiona!...  it just takes a while for our faces to find us across the hypergrid

Ayla Alvarez: I'm gray...does that matter

Thirza Ember: how old is Holoneon grid?

Niki Sweet: over  a year but only open to the  public  9  months or  less

Forest Azure: /me pictures Thirza with a notebook and a secretary... not necessarily on her knee

Thirza Ember: a puppy and a wineglass is more accurate

Ayla Alvarez: and a partridge and a pear tree

The Welcoming committee, from left to right:
Niki, Angel, Jade, and Fiona

Forest Azure: so nice to visit your grid, Niki and Fiona :)

Fiona Sweet: thanks Forest we are glad you came

Jasmine's ShadowSpirit

Our first stop on Safari this week was on 2nd Sanctuary Grid. We visited here a few weeks back and met the owners Pete and Naomi, this week our wanderings bring us to the home of Jasmine Blue and her gorgeous jungly, swampy, volcanic home, ShadowSpirit. Yes, you guessed it, the HG Address is also at the end of the post.

Thirza Ember: ok that's everyone this week, a small but beautiful group

Dings Digital: it is us :)

James Atlloud: hi

George Equus: Hi to three unknown residents :-)

Thirza Ember: I think I'm dressed too warmly ! tropical paradise!

Jasmine Blue: I don't think it matters

James Atlloud: Oh me too!

Pete Taylor: well ... drop it :)

Forest Azure: oh, adult! you don't see those that much :)

Jasmine Blue: Howdy and welcome to ShadowSpirit which is located on the Second Sanctuary Grid. I am the creator of ShadowSpirit and my name is Jasmine Blue. ShadowSpirit began in November 2024 and is the first sim that belongs to me.

Thirza Ember: is this a 2x2 Jasmine?

Jasmine Blue: I believe it is Thirza

Pete Taylor: yes. its 2x2

Jasmine Blue: are we ready?

Tina Bey: yes

Thirza Ember: /checks James has his lucky crocs on ... yes

In Touch, Inworld

If you're old enough to remember the early days of opensim, you will remember how hit and miss communications were. There were scores of grids, and no end of wide open spaces, but not a lot of people, and those that were on one grid, often had little or no idea of the existence of other people in other places.

Being a bit countercultural, often curmudgeonly, and also busy building, that was fine for most people most of the time. But humans are gregarious at heart. How to stay in touch?  IRC, the 80's way of communicating, was favored by many of the geeks behind the opensimulator code and you could wait literally days for someone to answer a question. 

This Map made by Pathfinder Lester back in the day gives you an idea of our horizons among the hg enabled grids.

Between hypergridders, news about events was largely a matter of word of mouth, or  habit - like the regular Friday dance on OSGrid run by Dorothea Lundquist and the late and much missed Jay Maze. Doro is Opensim royalty but very modest about her place in our heritage, this post talks a bit about the couple's contribution to early Opensim hg-socializing at their club Close Encounters.

More was needed. Facebook groups for Opensim began to be a way to stay in touch. Like Maria Korolov's Hypergrid, started in Spring 2009, the same time she launched Hypergrid Business. It wasn't the first Opensim specific group on Facebook - Adam Frisby started Opensimulator in 2007. Lots of groups with a more social skew followed, including Miguel Rotunno's Opensim News in 2011 and John Sheppard's  Hypergrid Happenings in 2015. There are many more, here are two of the biggest:  Opensim Community by Virtlantis and Opensim Virtual founded by the people who brought you Sacrarium grid. Both of these groups have about 1400 members and started four years ago. 

Many spammers put ads in all these groups so it's easy to keep up with the news about upcoming events. Many grids have their own group, where you may find more specific notifications. Much smaller than the general groups, but bigger than the grid-specific ones is the HG Safari group, founded in 2014 with only about 500 members, and zero outside spam.

HallowBreen

 Nyx Breen invited us to come for a pre-party party on his new build on Immersive 4 one of a group of VAR regions on Pangea Grid. Owned by Marlon Wayne and his partner Tutz Zabelin, Pangea is home to some of Opensim's premiere artists including Lampithaler Artist, Tina Bey, Cherry Manga,  recent arrival Mike Fleetwood plus many more.

This new build called Morpheus Oneiroi is another surreal trip through shape color and movement with a bit of a Halloween twist to it. As usual, Nyx urges everyone to have graphics set way high but obviously, you need to do what's right for your own screen and eyeballs, as the full effect of this art can be too much for very tired eyes, or the photosensitive. 

Arriving on Pangea. Even without the shared environment, it's still a unique place.

Nyx Breen: hello all welcome,  is every one in shared setting?

Lysondra June: Looks great, Nyx !!

Thirza Ember: fast rez too

Spax Orion: IS THIS what Dismayland would look like with PBR?

Nyx Breen: no PBR is used here, just EEP and effects

Spax Orion: /me picks jaw up off of floor

Safari Goes to the Lounge

First up this week with its crazy out-of-kilter start time (come the revolution, we will all go with Solar time and forget the stupid twice-annual clock change) the Safari tourists headed out to Craft Grid to a set of sims owned by Art Blue and Juliette Surrealdreaming. If you're an old old friend of the Safari, you will remember many trips to visit Art, back in the days when Safari departed weekly from Francogrid. Good times. Art really blew our minds with some spectacular pieces, on Metro and elsewhere, occasionally showing us stuff imported from SL - once, he even convinced Bryn Oh to join us. In recent years, he has made his home on Craft. This week, we began our trip on sim Oracle Lounge, full HG address as always at the end of the post.

The Nine Goddesses build on Craft

This build  consists of ten waypoints along a meandering path through landscape (and at one point under water) to the final spot where gifts and explanatory brochures await. The build and peripheral materials are a joint effort by both our hosts, although Art is always quick to remind everyone that Juliette (in RL Kisma Reidling) is the artist, not he. 

Arriving a the 9 Goddesses

Juliette Surrealdreaming: Welcome to the 9 Goddess Adventure HG Safari tour! Thank you for coming today. I will help you navigate today's 50 minute tour of my 3 regions. We will spend 10 minutes on each. I will send out a notice and tp anyone not at the next start point.

Jojo at the Cove

 Jojo Apple, also known to many as Harmony Beningborough, has a cute new grid called Harmony's Haven and this week the Safari crew came for a visit. She has been a resident of various grids across Opensim. Recently, she decided to pick up sticks from OSgrid and move into a grid of her own, bringing with her Mermaid's Cove, a region with a waterside theme. The new grid opened at the end of September, so it's a fresh new place for the group to visit, and no doubt we will be back to see even more of Jojo's sims.

Lavia LLavine: Excited much Jojo?

Jojo Apple: um. No. TERRIFIED! giggles

Lavia LLavine: I dunno why you know most of the folks. Just relax and be you

Jojo Apple: There is a LOT here :) Color, movement...I hope everything looks great to everyone!

Thirza Ember: ok here comes the group

Lavia LLavine: Incoming!!

The Tree of Forest

Our first stop this week was on Neverworld, at the Forest of Azure the home of singer, storyteller, builder, erotic photographer, and Safari regular Forest Azure. Forest was the principal guest in a really interesting episode of Inworld Review back in 2024 too, and hopefully she will soon be a guest again. As you know, each Safari is made up of two destinations, often with very different themes, and this week our second destination was in a mermaid's lagoon, that's why some of us look a little ...fishy. 

The landing point of the region is on a sky platform, where you can find both the Maze build - it looks like a one story stone castle, and also the Azure Gallery where you can see some of Forest's photos.

We quickly teleported down to ground level to meet up with Forest, under the branches of a gigantic tree growing directly out of the Opensim Ocean.

Forest Azure: Welcome safaristas!  Today we will visit this tree and the maze gallery that you saw before, but with a different content. We will start our safari with this tree: Lothlorien. There are several spots in this tree-world to explore. While you are exploring, I will tp groups of 3 to the maze. I will start teleporting for the maze in about 15 minutes. The maze is now about a story you all know: Cinderella. But mind you: this is Cinderella Azu style!

Into the Vortex

 Our second destination this week was the Electric Vortex region of Tenth Dimension grid, home to newlyweds Star Ravenhurst and Drew Blood. 

Star's been a regular Safari tourist for the past few years. However some months ago, her gaming laptop died and she found it impossible to do a lot of group grid-jumping with the 'potato' computer she had to resort to. This was sad for us, but it led to a big increase in her creativity in other ways. Always a fan of AI, Star began to explore ways of using it to make music, and has created a whole lot of tracks. New husband Drew Blood is a DJ so it's a match made in heaven as he curates song lists that often feature Star's work. This week in combination with the ongoing OSFest, Star and Drew invited us to an entertainment region, and like Drew's playlists it's an eclectic as well as electric place to visit. 

Drew Blood: Greetings. Welcome to the Electric Vortex

Aphra Hendrix: hey Drew, nice to meet you in person

Petlove Petshop: Sorry Angelica!

Angelic Kisses: no prob...didn't hurt at all :)

Lavia Lavine: My cloak vanished.  The parachute from our first destination did it.

Shelenn Ayres: Greetings carbon units!

Spax Orion: This unit is mads of plasma not carbon

Thirza Ember: some missing textures but on the whole, pretty darn impressive for the Safari

Spax Orion: I see everything just fine

Lavia Lavine: Same here I see it all beautifully

Koshari Mahana: I hope I am wearing clothes lol

Cherry Manga: candiiiies for the eyes!

Star Ravenhurst: Welcome everyone. This is a club region and we will be having an event with music this Sunday, Oct 18th and Drew will be spinning the music and I will do my best to host you all.

Drew Blood: I kinda made the track go into the next, like the album

See You on OSGrid

 Most of you will have heard that the Administrators of OSGrid have announced that the grid will close on December 31 of this year. The official news was published here on the OSGrid website .

Before saying anything else, a shout out to the Admins of OSGrid. Even if you don't agree with the decisions they have made, we all have to recognize the sheer effort they have put in, in terms of hours of work, thought, knowhow, passion, and kindnesses big and small. They have been doing their best in a thankless situation that must have been immensely stressful.

This Sunday, 18 October at 11am Grid time there will be another community meeting on Hurliman Plaza - hopefully this time there will be an overflow region connected to the Chat, and the speakers will use a Translator throughout so that the non English speakers can follow what's going on. Last time the region topped out at an eye-watering 100 within moments of the meeting beginning, so if you're coming, make your avie as low complexity as you can, and be ready to sit on a few laps before you find a seat! 

Cat's Labyrinth

Our second stop this week was on Alternate Metaverse grid where we were guests of Cataplexia Numbers who invited us to come see a maze build called Labyrinth, inspired by the 1986 movie of the same name. 

Stories-high hedges flank long passageways full of strange and improbable plants that are eerily beautiful and just a little unsettling. The final goal is to reach the palace in the sky, where Cliff Hanger, the grid's top man, was spinning some tunes.

If you're curious about how the format of a Safari visit works, then please take a minute or two to carefully look at this page on our blog where it explains the concept, the limitations and the tactics that make for a successful journey - if it looks like something you'd like to do, get in touch with Thirza on OSGrid or HG Safari grid.

Cat and half a dozen AMV residents were on hand to meet us on the big sign at the beginning of the adventure. 

Cataplexia Numbers: Hello everyone. Nice to have you join us. The labyrinth began in 2023. I made my own textures and many creations in it. I just began sculpting 3d meshes. Expect big changes in AMV. Magic will be a roleplay for Witches, wizards, goblins, Magicians, etc... Fun fantasy stuff!

Kellie's Hero

Opensim, like life, can sometimes throw a curved ball and this week our planned first destination had to be postponed at short notice. But it worked out great, because Spax Orion said we could come and preview the big changes he's been making at his funfair, Dismayland. 

Spax will be our guest on Inworld Review this Sunday - a Live show about OpenSim on YouTube, so if you watch at 11am SLT, you can also comment and ask questions! Just recently, he's worked hard to give a typically bright and busy tribute to one of Opensim's most memorable creators, the great Linda Kellie. The HG Address is at the end of the post, as always.

Dismayland is diabolically clever

Spax Orion: Dismayland is starting to look like one of the "Sierra: Roberta Williams" Point and Click Adventure games (we had tons of games like those around the turn of the millennium) - Return visitors will notice the world with more interactivity. Plenty of little distractions to wade through before passing the gate...

Tosha Tyran: giggles

It's true. When you arrive on Dismayland you find yourself in a sky box organized like the entrance to a theme park with security personnel - the terrible Wanda and poor, mistreated George are legendary. There are lots of signs and NPCs talking, and for some of us, it feels overwhelming and the first reaction is to get out of the crowd and hurry down to the rides, but if you take your time here, you'll discover that there is more going on in this one skybox than there is on many a 4x4 region!

Con-Versation

 Our second stop on Safari this week was to meet up with Frans Charming and Lyr Lobo of Avacon grid. Frans is the grid's tech guy, and Lyr is a consultant and Koshari Mahana: Hi Lyr, thank you for having us.

Thirza Ember: I think that we are all here

Spax Orion: Nice to see another operator running YETI mono

Lyr Lobo: Welcome, everyone. This is AvaCon grid. AvaCon is a nonprofit organization devoted to encouraging community in virtual worlds. Frans here is our amazing mastermind behind the Web and scripted content on the grid.  Itis a joy to share with the HG Safari 

Frans Charming: We use this grid, sometimes for new users, in education or professional settings, so having some plain default avatars, is useful for that.

Spax Orion: I love building with prims

Francisco Koolhoven: Hi Lyr!

Lyr Lobo: I do too *grins*

Thirza Ember: how old is this grid?  and how many residents?

Frans Charming: Close to those 14 years, i would say. We dont really have residents. The grid is mostly used as an introduction area, for non profits. Or used as a teaching platform.

Lyr Lobo and, with his steaming brew, Frans Charming

Lyr Lobo:  Today is the kickoff of our OpenSimulator Community conference call for proposals. AvaCon sponsors and hosts the OSCC. This is our 14th year. You can submit a proposal for a talk here. Then we will go on to Primland, the documentation for that is here  

Into the Hidden Vale

 Govega Sachertorte invited Safari to come over to Neverworld to sample a recently completed build called Hidden Vale, by Nexus Storm. On arrival, we were welcomed by Gov, Joshua and Alba who guided us around this lush landscape during the first hour of this week's trip. The HG Address is at the end of the post, as always.

Govega Sachertorte: Hi everyone, welcome to Hidden Vale

Thirza Ember: Joshua is armed, so no jokes about his outfit

Sven Ingersoll: we all have arms... legs too - no big deal

Spax Orion: am I here?

Alba Puca: Hello all

Cherry Manga: hello

Arriving on Neverworld

Sven Ingersoll: if you're not here...where would you be?

OSFest Countdown

This year, OSFest is in October, for the two weeks from Monday, October 12 through Monday, October 26 and the theme of the event this year is fantasy and science fiction. 

Principal organizer Shelenn Ayres gave an informative interview about the motivation and the philosophy of the event when she was a guest on Inworld Review, you can watch that show here. 

Shelenn Ayres on Inworld Review

It's not just Shelenn of course; and she would be the first one to thank the volunteers and helpers, new and old, who have come forward to help with the organizing and publicity.  

WolfFest26

Over on Wolf Territories Grid it's almost time for WolfFest 2026, a showcase of the creativity of the residents and a chance to party. The festival is a weekend affair, on October 4 and 5 and the event begins at 8 am Grid time. You can find the program of events here on the WTG website.

Luna Stormfeather's Ferris wheel

The fairground is organized on a grid system with parks, a lake, and various sized parcels stretching as far as the eye can see, and with lots of places to party and relax

Chelly Stewart's Rocking Sands music Venue

I really like this building, a music venue, and was swept away inside the aquarium experience. 

Herding Cats on 2nd Sanctuary

Arriving on Second Sanctuary grid is a bit like arriving at a beautiful Carribbean resort. A pirate ship, gorgeous beaches, and a relaxed atmosphere are the hallmarks of this small but beautifully landscaped grid. On hand to greet us when we arrived on the region called Vanaheim were Pete Taylor and Naomi Volturi, you may remember them from a recent blog post called... what else,  Second Sanctuary.  Pete and Naomi had invited us to go cat hunting - for some very sophisticate cats! as a way to explore this island where anyone looking for a beachy pied-a-terre in the metaverse. HG Address as always at the end of the post.

Naomi Volturi: Hello all, nice to have you here

Pete Taylor: It might be a good idea to reduce the draw distance. Otherwise, you’ll have a lot to load.

Alex Salamander: Hallo und guten Abend :-)

Koshari Mahana: I see everyone naked lol

Thirza Ember: our clothes travel second class,  it's economy rates

Angelic Kisses: hahaha

Jojo Apple: lol

Koshari Mahana: Hi Naomi, Hi Pete

Bink Draconia: hello

Naomi Volturi: hello Bink long time no see 

Pete Taylor: welcome all

Pete Taylor and Naomi Volturi, owners of Second Sanctuary

Forest Azure: ah James, sitting again? you have been sitting on a horse all the time!

James Atlloud: I know, but I have a walk AO that just won't stop, so I think this is better.

Pete Taylor: thirza, are all guests here?

Thirza Ember: Yes, I think we are all here... maybe not all our textures, but in spirit we are all here... we may smell of horse, sorry about that

Burn Story

Dee Zee, Doc Indy, and the great Herbie Haven were kind enough to meet up with us this week on our first stop when we went to visit Burning Man in Groovyverse. The trip included a mix of very RL places, and a few little virtual flourishes, but so neatly inserted into the reality of the build that they feel perfectly integrated. 

Herbie Haven

The group was pretty big this week, about 28 people at our first venue Black Rock Desert, and though almost all of us experienced a leetle touch of lag and disorientation... again, that was completely in harmony with the feelings that Burning Man can cause to real world burners... so it was very much a voyage of exploration, and inspiration.

Vastness is a key ingredient here. Take a look at the map and you'll realize just how large the canvas on which this masterpiece is drawn. Based on the topography and ecology of California and Nevada, the preferred term is Left Coast, and there are plenty of maps and teleports to help a visitor find their way around.

Dee Zee by the Left Coast map

Jade Serenity: Burning Man? I watched the livestream of the RL one... there were a few sand storms

Spax Orion: both destinations are a complete surprise to me... I could look them up but...

Forest Azure: oh, burning man time?

Thirza Ember: i think it's a little different from the last time Forest, there are more horses

Forest Azure: no train or bus? :)

Spax Orion: Who is getting burned?

Lovely Mexico Lindo

Our second stop this week was on OSGrid, to visit a Spanish speaking community that is as vibrant as it is various.

 Lina Kahlo [es→en]: Everyone is welcome to Mexico Lindo, your visit coincided with a very important date in the history of Mexico, we celebrated 216 years of independence

Lina and Niko

Niko Stone [es→en]: With a lot of effort and dedication she achieved this cultural meeting for everyone. We are just in the main square. The plaza you are visiting here in Mexico Lindo Virtual represents this historical place and allows us to experience, in a virtual environment, one of the most important national traditions of Mexico. The plaza you are visiting here in Mexico Lindo Virtual represents this historical place and allows us to experience, in a virtual environment, one of the most important national traditions of Mexico. 

Ayla Alvarez: ♥.;:+THUNDEROUS  APPLAUSE+:;.♥

Ayla Alvarez: so that would be independence from the Spanish

Niko Stone [es→en]: If you want, you can join us where independence was proclaimed. In the early morning of September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla called on the people of Mexico to rise up against Spanish rule. The call began with the ringing of the bell of the church of Dolores, Guanajuato, gathering people in the town square. Hidalgo then gave a passionate speech in favor of freedom, encouraging the people to fight for independence.

The Review and You

Another Wednesday, another Safari. Each time, the group is different. Sometimes there are loads of us, sometimes there are people trying the tour for the first time, sometimes it's a more intimate group of regulars - and what you might define as the 'regulars' has also morphed and evolved over the years, with familiar faces disappearing and new ones taking their place, a bit like the constant ebb and flow of opensim itself. It's not an exclusive group, anyone's welcome, for as often as you choose to join us.
Our plans changed at the very very last minute this week, because, you know, stuff happens, which is why it's so handy to meet ahead of time at the Clubhouse so you don't miss anything or get lost. Here's what we got up to...

Ayla Alvarez: hi gang

Thirza Ember: hello lovelies

Taarna Welles: Heya

Alex Salamander: Hello Thirza :-)

Thirza Ember: it looks like the first destination may have some big last minute problems

Taarna Welles: O dear,  Can we switch to the second?

Ayla Alvarez: the second hour is having problems too?

Thirza Ember: no, the second will be fine, but I'd like to do something different with this first hour

Jupiter Rowland: Hi everyone!

Ayla Alvarez: here comes the bunny again...

Livin' the Dream

 If you read the previous article about the 5th anniversary of Belze and Chubby, there's another notable anniversary this weekend in the German speaking community of opensim. Over on Vela Dreams grid,  Cleopata and Myrena Rajal are marking their 4 years together. 

Myrena and Cleopata

Vela Dreams grid is on a home server with 128 RAM and it hosts 42 Vars, the equivalent of 142 standard sized regions. Each Tuesday they have a regular dance meetup on a sim appropriately called Vela Disco that houses a number of prim-built venues with bright colors and vivid textures. Not to mention the fish!