It is said that as his government faced the Sterling Crisis of 1964, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson quipped, “A week is a long time in politics”. Whether he did in fact say anything of the sort is a subject for debate by those so inclined. However, it does give me the opportunity to offer something of a corollary of sorts: a month is a long time in Second Life.
I say this because within a month of my writing about Monica Mercury’s Burrow Wood County, originally located within a quarter-region parcel of a Full private region, had closed and elements from within it relocated to an expanded set of parcels occupying fully half of another Full private region. Here they sit within a setting of two halves: Burrow Wood – Road to Nowhere and Burrow Wood by the Sea, and Monica recently and kindly invited me over to pay a visit and update my records.
Once again designed for Monica by Teagan Lefevre of Le’eaf & Co fame, there is much about the this location that is mindful of Burrow Wood County: the same dusty roads, the presence of a run-down motel, the auto shop / garage, the trailer par, and so on. But so too is there much that is new within the expanded landscape, making a further visit worthwhile, even if you did drop into Burrow Wood County just before it closed. That said, a little care might be required with explorations this time around, as the setting now includes a number of rental properties available as private residences, so trespass is to be avoided.
Each part of the location has its own landing point; however, for the sake of convenience, I’m starting my description from the Road to Nowhere landing point, given it sits towards the back of the setting, below the curtain of cliffs which separate Burrow Wood from the neighbouring parcel occupying the region. I also opted to use my personal “travelling” EEP settings when taking the pictures seen in this piece.
As with the former incarnation of Burrow Wood, this landing point sits at a bus stop, giving visitors the impression they’ve just been dropped off by said transport. Across the road is a lumber yard, and next door to that the familiar motel, facing a slightly upbeat diner as the track runs arrow-straight to the auto shop / garage and splits, one arm sweeping into the little trailer park, the other pointing due south. As it does so, it passes over a familiar old railway bridge, giving the suggestion the track from the landing point may have once been the bed of the railway line. Beyond the bridge, the track runs parallel to a water channel cutting through this part of the setting, passing one of the rental homes before diving trough another tunnel to arrive at the gated access to Burrow Wood by the Sea (passing the latter’s bus stop landing point in the process).
Here the channel the track has been accompanying is given the look of a canal, the banks built over with retaining walls supporting pedestrian-only sidewalks serving. These serve the shop on either side of the channel before dipping down to become / serve small wharves where larger boats moor moor. Two bridges span the channel, each elevated enough to allow smaller boats to pass under them and possibly moor at the floating pier with its gas pump. Sitting between the channel and a small shingle beach is another familiar location: the local oyster house from Burrow Wood County, now offering more outdoor space for diners – and possibly the local seagulls if people aren’t careful!
A single track runs outwards from the town to the west, forming a broad alley between the local bookshop and café. Unpaved and with dirt compacted down from years of use, it runs uphill to where a third tunnel sits, as the track leads up to another tunnel, this one apparently closed to traffic for whatever reason. Either side of the track is tree-shaded grasslands offer a sense of open wilderness. To one side, this land is cut through by a fast-flowing stream as it tumbles away from the falls which give it life, before it dives into what is presumably a natural bore hole which drops the water down under Burrow Wood by the Sea’s café and into that main waterway.
The falls feeding the stream drop from an arm of rock reaching out from the western curtain of cliffs to neatly split the landscape in two as it steps its way down to meet the main water channel. Tucked under this arm of rock and reached by a makeshift bridge spanning the tumbling stream, is a small cobble-floored terrace and wooden pergola offering visitors a place to sit. Across the stream from it and a little more down slope can be found a shaded picnic spot caught in the loop of a public footpath and, beyond that, another rental property.
Across the dividing wall of rock the landscape is equally rich and varied as it reaches back towards the building of Road to Nowhere. A wild garden, open to the public can be found on the slopes as they drop down from cliffs to water channel. A round gazebo, well shaded by trees sits within this garden, and both garden and gazebo might at first glance easily be taken to be extensions of the rental home sitting at the top of the slope as it climbs towards the backdrop of cliffs. However, this is not the case, as the fence marking the boundary of the rental property makes clear.
A large and deep pool of water makes up a good part of the landscape here, crossed towards one end by an old wood-framed, covered bridge; what appears to be a relic of a bygone era. A rutted track curves up from one side of the bridge and under the lee of the cliffs, suggesting that perhaps this was once a main right-of-way for carts and wagons – perhaps back in the day when the main track was still home to a railway track. However, across its span, the rest of this rutted route has in part been lost, leaving only a sign alongside at the back of the auto shop to note it is now “road closed”.
With its richly diverse landings, good use of ambient locals sounds, and the careful, natural dividing of the overall setting into a number of distinct areas, Burrow Wood offers photographer, explorers and casual visitors a lot to see and appreciate, and perfectly expands upon Burrow Wood County. My thanks to Monica for the invite to visit!
SLurl Details
All of Burrow Wood is rated Adult.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 