Sanctuary

We've visited Satori a lot lately, but there is still so much more there to see! On the east coast of that continent, between Route 8 and the sea, you'll come across a place called Sanctuary. Spanning three sims — Afanasyav, Blue Quill, and Rideau — Sanctuary offers a variety of landscapes to explore. Let's start in Sanctuary by the Sea. One arrives on a boardwalk which serves to connect several buildings on the hillside with a series of small piers, pictured below. On each pier sits a unique structure; one is a a seaside bar, one a small cafe, and one even boasts a tiny rooftop movie theatre.

From this area, we will venture north along the coast, and then inland...but be careful! Once leaving the seaside, visitors will notice that their health meters activate (that small heart in the location bar at the top of your viewer). This means, of course, that you can be "killed" here, so watch out for snakes and 'gators in the swamp! The 'gator pictured below seems pretty harmless, but one never knows what might happen when you hear banjo music playing in a swamp...

According to owner Roxi Firanelli, "Sanctuary started out as a small piece of oceanfront therapy. Over the last six years it has grown to encompass almost three connecting regions. As I would pick up surrounding parcels, I would theme them — the forest, the swamp, the meadow, the roadside — mainly because I just liked to have different looks. Then along came my friend Darth Kline, who is a master landscaper and visionary. He took the designing to a new level, and since I'm lazy and he's good at it, I let him! He's built whole forests, farms, towns, wharfs and even replicated Dangernon...the ancient citywide build that DRD did for the Fantasy Faire. There is usually some part of the land that is in construction and we love it that way."

There are a number of beautifully furnished homes on the property, like the one pictured above, plus there are lakes, beach areas, a delightful tea house hidden among the rocks, a large open air pavilion, a school bus abandoned in a stream, and numerous other scenic spots perfect for a photo shoot. One of my favorite parts of the parcel is a small shipwreck off the coast, pictured below. It reminds me (on a much smaller scale) of the S.S. Ayerfield in Sidney, Australia — an abandoned ship, built in 1911, which is now a floating forest of mangrove trees.

According to Roxi, "There is a small community that lives here and calls this home, whether it's up on a platform or down in one of the houses.  Sanctuary has always been open to anyone, and anyone is welcome to join the group and call it home, if for no reason but to be able to open a box and get dressed in private. Darth and I are bloggers and Jarath is a profile photographer, so we set up scenes on a regular basis and sometimes like them so much we incorporate it into the land." If you enjoy your visit to Sanctuary, let Roxi, Darth and Jarath know — the guitar-playing 'gator in Rideau is also a tip jar. Have fun exploring!