Category: Exploring Second Life

BarDeco and Kekeland – Coffee Island – click any image for full size

Coffee Island is a beautifully atmospheric homestead region designed by Dandy Warhlol (terry Fotherington) and Belle des Champs (Bridget Genna). It forms the latest iteration of BarDeco, the music venue and club (see here for more), carrying the name BarDeco & Kekeland – and it is truly an atmospheric place.

Split into three – a primary, sheer-sided island flanked by two smaller isles, one of which has been left to nature – the region sits shrouded in a gathering twilight through which wisps and ripples of mist are creeping. Visitors arrive on a dusty track on the main island, the slender form of an old chapel rising from the end of the track. In the other direction, the path curls south to follow the line of the cliffs, before turning west to cut across the island and again turning at the westward cliffs to turn again to follow them northwards.

BarDeco and Kekeland – Coffee Island

South of this track a narrow neck leads to the south side of the island, a bulbous headland where a broken carcass of an old lighthouse sits. This seems to point accusingly towards the shadowy bulk of a ruined farmhouse sitting hunched against a rocky shoulder, gathering the mist about itself forebodingly. A sandy bay sits below the ruined house, but even this has its own warning – the wreck of a trawler lays against the foot of the cliffs.

To replace the fallen lighthouse, a new one stands above the cliffs in the north-west corner of the island, looking westward out over the low hump of one of the accompanying islands while also casting an eye over the beach, which starts against the northern cliffs and runs round much of the east side of the island. An old bridge, in need of some repair reaches out over sand and sea from the beach, almost reaching the sands of the second of the smaller islands, which is home to a little coffee shop sitting on its rugged shoulders.

BarDeco and Kekeland – Coffee Island

The main islands’ curving beach is reached via a switch back path which descends from the northern  end of the track circling the island.  And old warehouse, filled with an artist’s bric-a-brac sits overlooking the path down to the beach, a barbed wire fence discouraging the local sheep from wandering too close. This warehouse / studio brings visitors almost full circle, standing as it does a short distance from the chapel and the landing point. But this is far from all there is to be discovered here.

Walk along the path to the chapel, and you’ll find that it is not all it appears to be. Just inside the doorway, and surrounded on three sides by undergrowth which almost looks like it is trying to take over the place, is a set of steps leading down. Follow these, and you’ll find the club mentioned in the region’s description.

BarDeco and Kekeland – Coffee Island

This is, quite frankly, beautifully done, with tall pillars of brick supporting a high ceiling, a frontage of old, weathered buildings offering a view out over a terrace and secluded bay. The bar offers a homely if roughshod welcome while a dance area sit at the foot of the steps leading down from the chapel. Two side rooms off of this offer a taste of shoddy-chic where patrons can relax. Almost entirely invisible from the ground above, with atmosphere added by the passing trawler off-shore passing ghost-like in the haze, the club area is an exquisite outpouring of imaginative design.

In fact, the entire region is an exquisite design. While the default environment settings add considerable atmosphere – as used in fur of the images here – the land really does lend itself to a wide range of windlight settings and different times of day, making it perfect for photographers. There are also several spots for sitting and passing the time – not just in the bar, but up along the path running around the islands and over at the coffee-house, making it the kind of place people may want to sit and enjoy, even if they don’t fancy mingling with those down in the club.

BarDeco and Kekeland – Coffee Island

Once again, a rewarding visit, and our thanks to Dandy and Belle for continuing to share their vision with us.

SLurl Details

• BarDeco and Kekeland (Coffee Island, rated; Moderate)

The Mill – click any image for full size

Friends Shakespeare and (SkinnyNilla) and Max (Maxie Daviau) are not only highly adept at finding regions to photograph (and poke me about visiting!), they also maintain their own exceptionally photogenic region, The Mill. This undergoes seasonal changes which not only match the passing of the year, presenting visitors with the opportunity of re-visiting throughout the year and see something new in the region’s layout, whilst retaining some familiar elements with each new design.

With autumn now on our doorstep in the northern hemisphere, Shakespeare and Max dropped me word that the latest iteration of their region is now open and available to visit, so as soon as the opportunity arose, I had to hop over to see what new delights await. And once again, doing so is more than worth the effort.

The Mill

A visit begins in the south-eat of the region, beneath the slowly turning sails of the titular (and familiar to regular visitors!) mill as it sits just above the surrounding sea, quietly watching over the land under its care. A cart track winds westwards, passing under the great boughs of an ancient oak to lead visitors on to where two more windmills, tops thatched and walls whitewashed, standing like smaller siblings to the region’s primary mill. Horses graze both in the field occupied by these smaller windmills and on the far side of the track, a passing soul having left the gate open to leave them free to wander.

Beyond the field, the tracks meanders onward, splitting to pass either side of a copse before coming to where a greenhouse, converted into a cosy little café, sits by the western sea, close to a river which cuts its way through the landscape from west to east, slicing it neatly in two. The river, rich in grasses and reeds, is crossed in three places – one of them being an ageing wooden bridge a short distance away, although those feeling adventurous can use the logs which span the water alongside of the café.

The Mill

The north side of the land rises gently to form a grassy backbone, studded with rocky outcrops. Another track winds its way around and up the hills to where and old industrial unit has been converted into a writer’s hideaway, typewriter awaiting its owner’s return. How you reach this little getaway depends on which path you take on crossing the river. Climb the slopes of the hill to the north-west, and you’ll come to an old shed which has clearly seen better days – although someone is clearly using it as a little snug -, an equally aged pick-up truck sitting close by. From here, another track winds up the hillside through trees and around shoulder to arrive at the aforementioned study.

Take the track pointing eastwards from the little market overlooking the river, however, and this will take you down back eastwards, following the dip of the river to where a deck has been built out over the water, kayaks drawn up on the grass beside it. It is here that the third river crossing can be found, another rough-and ready bridge of logs nailed together, and which takes advantage of rocks in the middle of the water to hold itself in place – not that any current here is particularly swift, thanks to the reeds and grass choking the water.

The Mill

Just beyond the deck and bridge, and with a view back along the path of the river as well as to where the mill sits, is a cosy little Tuscan-style farmhouse, chickens and geese outside and washing on the line. The track turns sharply left as it reaches the farm, switching back on itself to climb the hill up to where the writer’s retreat lies, offering visitors the chance to walk full circle around the northern side of the island.

And this is a design intended for walking. The tracks offer routes through the landscape to all the major points of interest, and the trees with their reds and golds add a touch of autumnal romance to the setting. Perfectly set beneath the evening sky, The Mill offers places to tarry as you explore, not only with the riverside deck, encouraging visitors to loiter and take in the quiet beauty of the region.

The Mill

The Mill is always a beautiful region to visit, and the current design is the perfect way to welcome a traditional autumn where the sun softly shines, the trees turn from green to rich hues of red, yellow, gold and brown, inviting us to amble through fallen leaves and relish that first wintery tang in the air.

SLurl Details

• The Mill (Pale Moonlight, rated: Moderate)

Gentle Breezes – click any image for full size

Having opened in August 2017, Rosy Highwater’s Gentle Breezes is the perfect antidote to inclement weather and the approach of winter – or if you’re in the southern hemisphere, the perfect promise of summer – and a chance to wander carefree, simply enjoying the freedom to be.

A Homestead region, it has been laid out with an eye for detail, and love of nature. From the sandy beaches up through the wooded hills, everything is pretty much perfect for setting the mind at ease and encouraging feet (and camera lens!) to roam. It’s a place for the photographer, the romantically inclined and those seeking escape for life’s weight.

Gentle Breezes

Surrounded by rolling hills and peaks which rise from sandy shores, the region presents itself as a small isle sitting in a channel between two larger islands. It is close enough to one of the latter to suggest that once upon a time, they may have been joined but overtime, the sea has had its way, cutting a path between them. Taken as a whole, the isle and hills around it – as high as some are – give the impression they may have all at some point in distant pre-history been the ring wall for the caldera of an ocean volcano which once pushed its head above the surrounding seas only to fall extinct and, over the aeons, have those seas erode away the weaker point of the crater walls, flooding the space within.

Visitors arrive towards the centre of the region, on the beach forming the lower part of the island, and which faces out to the west and south. Behind this, the hills of the island form a gentle curve from the east around to the north, casting rocky shoulders down to the sands below. The beach is split into three by channels running outwards from where water tumbles from the rocks of the hills, and it is on the central tongue of sand between the two channels that visitors initial land.

Gentle Breezes

With waves lapping against it, the beach here offers an arc of places to sit and cuddle or chat looking out over the waters of the bay. Two wooden walkways reaching out over the waters separating it from the sands to the north and south. The latter is as big as the middle tongue of sand, and is home to a pier-top beach hut built over the waters, offering the active a little exercise in scrambling up to it it’s flat deck. Those preferring a more relaxed time can sit as watch from the rowing boat moored by the pier, or from the other cuddle and seating points scattered across the beach.

A path marked by wooden boards offers a way up the slope of the hills, leading to the first of the cottages and cabins which share the upper reaches of the island with trees and flowers. As it does so, the path passes between great slabs of rock reaching out from the hills like a protective wall, the sand within their arms gently giving way to grass, while a wind-bent tree offers a modest amount of shade to an old rowing boat converted into a lover’s lounger beneath its bent back.

Gentle Breezes

The cabin at the top of the hill is cosily furnished and offers a taste of a simple life – bees for fresh honey, and an outdoor bath. A footpath runs southwards from the cabin, under an arch and to a lookout point overlooking the larger of the island’s two waterfalls and the hidden delight of a hot tub nestled at the foot of the cliffs. On the hill beyond the falls sit two more cabins, each simply furnished. More sitting and cuddle spots can be found spread between and around them, both in the open and under the shade of trees, while a second hot tub overlooks the southern end of the island.

The easiest way to reach the northern end of the island is over the board walk from the middle tongue of beach. This gives access to a set of wooden stairs which climb the cliffs to a brightly-painted beach house offering a grand view out over the island. A pair of wind turbines stand sentinel-like behind the beach house, and further away through the long grass, stone steps offer a way down to the foot of the smaller of the two waterfalls, and a raft floating gently on the water there.

Gentle Breezes

Gentle Breezes is truly a beautiful location – even now I’ve only just scratched the surface of all the details awaiting discovery – keep an eye out, for example for Rosy’s use of a sculpture by Silas Merlin to represent children playing on the beach. The setting is completely by a perfectly balanced ambient sound scape and for those so minded, a nicely considered chill-out music stream.

But there is also something more here as well. With its rugged hills, gentle beaches and offshore lighthouse, Gentle Breeze offers a remind of Rosy’s equally stunning Black Basalt Beach, which was open from 2013 through 2016, and about which I wrote in August 2013. For those of us who recall the latter, Gentle Breeze further offers a wonderful sense of memory whilst very much remaining its own landscape.

With thanks, once again, to Shakespeare and Max for the tip-off.

SLurl Details

• Gentle Breezes (Seaside Shores, rated: Moderate)

~Neive~ – click any image for full size

Update, September 14th: Claudia has made some further changes to ~Neive~ since this article was published. The parade of shops and houses at the landing point (and seen in the image above) has been revised, and the bath house referred to in the text below has been replaced by the automotive garage which used to sit just outside of the shops and their street. To the south-west, one of the Tuscan-style farm houses has been replaced by a pavilion.

~Neive~ is a Homestead regions designed by Claudia (claudia74a Orsini) which Caitlyn and I first visited in late June 2017, when it still appeared to be under construction. We dropped back there at the start of September to see how things had developed, and found the region has grown into a quite pastoral – if slightly eclectic – setting.

A visit start towards the east side of the region, where a small parade of shops, houses and ruined buildings sit against a waterside road raised above a quay. A set of steps descend from the south side of square in front of the stores, offering the way – over a grass bank  – to a dirt track running between the waters surrounding the region and the large body of water occupying the middle of the region. A Tuscan style farmhouse sits above the track, which ends in an arch formed by two old tree trunks.

~Neive~ – click any image for full size

Beyond this, on the south side of the region, the land changes from temperate grasses and trees to a more tropical beach, complete with palm trees and a beach club built out over the waters. Further across the sand sits a terrace bar, also built out over the water.

The beach curves around to the west side of the island, and a set of stairs leading up to where a terrace sits under the shadow of a windmill atop the highest peak on the land, and overlooking the central pool. A finger of water run by the foot of the terrace hill, connecting inland water with those surrounding the region. A log bridge offer the way to the far bank, where a rocky plateau rises, topped by an old Tuscan villa. Horses graze in the field below the villa, where a deck provides another vantage point looking out over the water towards the south side of the region.

~Neive~ – click any image for full size

From here, the path circles back towards the landing point, passing an artist’s studio in a cabin surrounded by its own little garden. Another narrow neck on water is spanned by a wooden bridge, offering the way to where an ancient bath house sits, clearly still in use despite its age. With an old wooden garage sitting at the top of the slope from the bridge, the path leads the way back to the shops and the landing point.

With sheep, chickens and deer grazing across the land, foxes on the prowl and cats sunning themselves, together with decks and vantage points scattered throughout, Neive offers a relaxing visit. Cuddle spots can be found as well, on land and on the water, and the sound scape and surrounding hills complete the scene. There are one or two visual issues which can bump into view when exploring: walls and rocks which don’t quite meet the terrain below them, together with one or two items floating above ground or deck, but these don’t detract from the region being a pleasant visit and photogenic in nature.

~Neive~ – click any image for full size

SLurl Details

• Region no longer held by Claudia

Mother Road – click any image for full size

“Mother Road is a lovingly crafted Nevada-esque back country, inspired by the original Mother Road sim,” Paul Cutter (Xtreme Paule) says when introducing Mother Road – Mirage Motel 66. “Mine is 1/2 sim size but the work is an experimental showcase which could lead to being full sim size in the future. So far feedback has been positive.”

A half region in size it may be but this build, sitting 450 metres above sea level, offers a genuine feeling of being on a desert road – Route 66 or otherwise – and plenty of opportunities for photography. Visitors initially arrive at the west end of the parcel, the road stretching away to the eastern horizon. An advantage in building in the sky means there is no water on that horizon to break the illusion of a road stretching into the distance, nor does the use of a mountainous or hilly region surround  to disrupt the feeling of being on a broad flat desert plain.

Mother Road

The titular motel sits half-way along the road on the left relative to the landing point. It offers air-conditioned rooms, free wi-fi and cable TV. It faces a gas station and garage on the far side of the road, with an iconic Harvey Davidson-type  motorbike parked at the pumps. The keen-eyed visitors might notice there are bike rezzers at either end of the parcel, allowing them to experience a trip along Route 66 – but those taking a ride should keep in mind the signs also mark the region edges, even though the road appears to continue eastwards and westwards beyond them

Beyond the motel and garage, on either side of the road are cabins and smallholdings, some of which are available for rent, while rugged, sandy hills rise to the north and south. As is often the case, a railroad line runs parallel to the road, but some distance from it, telegraph poles marching alongside it from east to west.

Mother Road

It’s a simple, yet elegant setting, with nuanced detailing and little scenes awaiting discovery. The sun-dried wood of a billboard stands alongside the motel, throwing a shadow for part of the day over an outdoor fire pit, surrounded by makeshift seating of old sofas, a mattress on top of creates, a beanbag and two car seats. A TV and VCR sit on a little bench, the former offering an old little taste of Britain as it displays the old BBC test card. More signs of Anglophilia can be found in the garage across the highway, where the Union Flag faces the Stars and Stripes and Ziggy Stardust floats on the side of a space invaders arcade game.

The garage sits on land which may be part of a farm or ranch, a 4×4 parked alongside an aluminium sided trailer close by, while over the fence someone has chosen to camp out near to some of the rental cabins. One of these is being careful investigated by a small group of young children – or is perhaps being used as their play camp in lieu of adult occupation. They, in turn, are being observed by a scrap metal robot, perhaps built to entertain them among the roadside rocks.

Mother Road

This is perhaps not the most affluent of locations; rusting hulks of cars are scattered around, together with the detritus of civilisation. It does, however offer an ideal setting for photographers, and rezzing rights for props can be obtained by paying L$100 to join the parcel’s group.

Whether or not this current iteration of Mother Road leads to Paul realising a new full region version remains to be seen. In the meantime, this build stands an easy-to-explore design, and going on the numbers present during my visit, a popular hang-out.

With thanks to Shakespeare and Max (once again!) for pointing me to this parcel.

Mother Road

SLurl Details

• Mother Road – Mirage Motel 66 (Mishiland, rated: Moderate)

Brand New Colony – click any image for full size

Update, January 1st 2018: Brand New Colony has relocated. The SLurls given here have been updated to reflect the new location, and a tour of the new build is available here.

Brand New Colony is an Adult-rated homestead region designed by Bunny Blessed (Svelte Blessed) and Mimara Blessed (Mimara) which is open to visitors to explore and enjoy – and it is a wonderfully picturesque setting in which to spend time.

Divided into three islands linked by bridges and surrounded by surf, the region sits in a broad channel of water sitting between two rugged mountain ranges rich with fir trees on their flanks. A visit begins on the plateau of the northernmost island, which extends a slender finger westwards, stone steps offering the way down from the gazebo in which visitors arrive. This sits above a large pool of water feed by an arc of waterfalls. Bridges span the water to the gazebo, which is also carried away by falls which drop down the side of the plateau to feed a large pool and a stream below.

Brand New Colony

Footpaths run either side of the stream, bridges connecting them one to the other, both offering ways to explore the island, and  to reach the summer-house sitting on wooden legs above the stream. Rich with flowers and the shade of trees, with benches and swings to be found along the paths overlooking the water feature, the island on its own offers a picturesque setting in which to spend time. However, there is more to be found in the region.

Just down from the arrival gazebo is a wooden bridge spanning the channel between this island and the larger of the two to the south.

Brand New Colony

A villa with whitewashed walls and a red-tiled roof sits on the plateau forming the central peak of this second island, steps near the bridge offering a way up to it. Sitting beneath the villa and visible from the arrival point is a sandy beach, complete with a tiled pool set back against the rocks of the plateau,  reached by a grassy path sloping down from the villa’s hilltop location.

Two further sets of stone stairs curl their way down the west face of the plateau, allowing explorers reach a stone bridge offering a way to the smallest of the three islands. This is home to the adult aspect of the region: an old (but functioning) lighthouse has been converted into an adult club – so, for those not fond of such things, proceed with care.

Brand New Colony

There are many points of beauty within this region. The three island have been designed with care, and their rocky nature is entirely natural in look and feel, as are the many water features. Trees and plants are used with equal care and finesse to present a setting which is not just picturesque, but also serene. This is a place to be explored and enjoyed at leisure, with plenty of places to sit and relax – or cuddle. It’s also a place which demands photography.

As noted, Brand New Colony is adult rated, and a part of it does have an adult theme; but this doesn’t in any way detract from the sheer allure of the region.  All-in-all, a delightful visit.

Brand New Colony

SLurl Details

• Brand New Colony (Sol, rated: Adult)