Cherishville, June 2019 – click any image for full size
When reader Miro Collas asked if we’d ever visited Cherishville, I was a little surprised to look back through my SL travelogue and see that the last time I wrote about Lam Erin’s region design had been back in November 2017, when things had been deep in the grip of winter. Snow lay deep on the ground and roof-tops while trees lay frosted in white, and visitors needed to he wrapped up against the cold.
A lot has changed since then. Our return to Cherishville in June 2019 not only took us to a new region design, but a new simulator location as well, that of Villa Baldeney. Sitting beneath a somewhat glowering sky when seen in the default windlight, the setting is as far removed from the winter of my last Cherishville write-up as it is possible to get, the design we visited positively tropical in its presentation.
There is no defined / enforced landing point, so I’m arbitrarily using one to deliver those following it to a stretch of old road lying on the region’s east side. This offers a route from nowhere to nowhere, bordered on one side by a row of commercial properties almost shanty in their shabby looks, and on the other by a bay that cuts deeply into the region via a narrow neck of water. The road ends at this neck, dipping gracefully down to the blue waters to offer a convenient ramp boats might be drawn up to keep them out of the tide that must pass back and forth.
The commercial properties along the road vary between bars and places to buy spirits – that latter a popular draw for vacationers, it would seem – and the odd place to eat. All of them have the look and feel of having once seen better days, albeit perhaps a long time ago; now they look out over the old road, itself little more than a pedestrian thoroughfare, despite the motor vehicles at its southern end, and out over the bay.
This southern end of the road offers access to a broad swath of sand that curves gently west and north to hold the bay within its arm, facing the wash of tide from the south whilst home to undisciplined ranks of palm trees that offer moments of shade cast across the fine sands. A path is staked out along part of this beach, running at right-angles to the old road, but such a formal marking of route is hardly necessary; perhaps some local resident here was trying to offer a little sense of order.
Dropped onto the beach, and facing the open seas to the south are a couple of building which are again perhaps a little way past their prime. One presents a swimming pool beneath its raised wooden roof, the other appears to be a holiday home complete with a pool of its own. Balancing these on the inward curve of the bay is a fishing shack which, together with the small trawler sitting in the shallow waters, suggests some see this island as a place of work and not a vacation destination.
Walking the route from street along the sands tends to offer the suggestion that this is a place that, while clearly within the tropics, is perhaps located somewhere in the Caribbean. The western elements just seem to push it in that direction. But then, follow the sand as it turns northwards and passing a strange little A-frame structure sitting out on a small sandy headland along the way, and perceptions are challenged.
To the north, the sand abruptly ends, and rocky slopes rise upwards, cliffs forming around three sides. This is topped by a single-roomed building with an infinity pool alongside looking to the west. With an aged statue of Buddha out on the grass, this aspect of the island presents a strongly Asian feel to it, with thoughts turning away from the Caribbean and perhaps more towards Thailand.
There are some rough elements within the build – the odd floating palm tree or boat floating over the water than on it and the lighthouse for the region is oddly canted – but overall, there is plenty here that the visitor can enjoy and photograph within the setting, making time spent their worthwhile. For those so-minded, there are also some poses to be found for photography – a couple leaning against the sea wall above the bay, a walking hand-in-hand pose for those leasing the local bar, while bicycles can be obtained from a couple of rezzer racks for those who fancy taking a ride around the island. As always, photographs are welcome at the Cherishville Flickr group.
SLurl Details
- Cherishville (Villa Bladeney, rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 