Google Street View is coming to South Africa and it seems people are unsure if they should be terrified or excited. In an effort to make some sense of the issue, I’ve decided to write a few words on the following : 1. What is Street View and how does Google create it? 2. What [...]
South Africa is getting itself ready for the 2010 Soccer World Cup and all around the country we see magnificent new sport stadiums rising in preparation for what promises to be a spectacle of note.
Seeing that Virtual Africa has had the privilege to shoot quite a few of the existing (and even a few of the new) stadiums, we thought it to be a good time to write a few posts on some of our brilliant sporting facilities.
This then is our series on: South African Sport Stadiums in 360º.
First up is my personal favourite: NEWLANDS RUGBY STADIUM
We’re proud to release the first version of our new South African map.
It includes about 1000 scenic virtual tours – each with a link to a beautiful full screen version of itself.
Click on “Google Maps” in the menu bar to access the map and see if we have a pano of your town, or favourite South African spot.
In the past 20 days, more than 400 South Africans came to our site because they were searching for information on Google Maps. We know this, not because we have great contacts in government, but through the very effective (and very free) Google Analytics. Now although we spend most of our time creating virtual tours [...]
{Update: Go here for more information on Google Maps of South Africa} In the same week that the tickets for the 2010 Soccer World Cup went on sale, Google blessed us with a significant update to their coverage of South Africa. Coincidence? Well, who knows? We’ve been hearing rumors and seeing some nice updates to [...]
Summer has truly arrived in sunny South Africa!! The beaches are packed, the Nedbank Golf Challenge is underway at Sun City and our cricketers are getting ready to whip the Ausies (we hope). Click on the images below to see 360º virtual tours of Clifton Beach and the Gary Player Golf Course at Sun City in [...]
( #1 of 8 ) The Richtersveld is found in the north-western most corner of South Africa, right up against the border with Namibia.It’s a dry and arid semi-desert with some of the most rugged landscapes you’ll find on the continent of Africa. It’s a place of strange and unexpected beauty with wonderful rock formations, [...]
There are a thousand reasons why I am proud and privileged to be a South African – and recently I found 8 more to add to the list. South Africa has 8 World Heritage sites, a collection of places as fascinating and intriguing as they are beautiful – and Virtual Africa has 360º images of [...]
Shamwari Game Reserve, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, forms the perfect backdrop for the latest Animal Planet ‘reality wildlife documentary’ – Shamwari: a Wild Life. Seeing that it is one of the most exclusive safari lodges in Africa, not many people will have the privilege to visit Shamwari in their lifetime, so we [...]
The new Google Earth plug-in allows you to view 3D Google Earth imagery in your browser. It’s the most impressive and most important geo-immersive imaging development of the year and we’ve been able to make it work with the Virtual Africa interactive 360 degree images. Let me translate that for those who don’t know what [...]
One of the first posts on this blog was about the beautiful islands of Mozambique and I mentioned then that Virtual Africa was heading back there to take a few new pictures. Well it’s time to show them off! We’ve created a Google Earth file (click here to download) and an interactive map with virtual [...]
Virtual Africa has created a Google Earth file on behalf of Afrikaans newspaper Die Burger to compliment their article on the Hermanus Wine and Food Fair.
(Kliek hier vir die Afrikaanse weergawe.)
Google Earth Hermanus
We’ve created 45 interactive panoramic images of the following wine farms and cellars in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley : Sumaridge, Newton Johnson, La Vierge, Hamilton Russell, Creation, Ataraxia, Hermanuspietersfontein, Whalehaven and Spookfontein.
Google Earth layer with virtual tours of Madiba’s B-day places We’re not really good at singing or writing poems – so we thought we’d make a map and some virtual tours. Here’s a Google Earth layer that includes some of the places where our beloved Mr. Mandela has spent a few of his many, many [...]
For all those South Africans tracking Robbie Hunter and Barloworld’s progress at the Tour de France this year – Google has come to the party in an effort to make the Tour even more interactive. In what has to be described as exquisite marketing timing, Google Maps has released their first batch of European Streetview [...]
The recent publication of an article in Die Burger has had quite a few people emailing us to ask about Lekkersing. For those of you who are truly well educated and or well traveled, you’ll know that Lekkersing is a tiny town in the middle of the desolate Richtersveld in the North Western part of [...]
My father always took our family to some of the weirdest and most wonderful places in South Africa. It instilled in us a reverence for the untouched and an appreciation of the historic. It is for this reason that our shoot at Lake Fundudzi was one of the most gratifying experiences I’ve had in virtual [...]
So you want to explore South Africa – and you need a map. Well, we think we’ve got something you’d like. We have about 4000 panoramic images of some of the most beautiful and interesting spots in South Africa and we’ve geo-located the first 1000 or so onto a Google map – for your pleasure. [...]
About a year ago, Virtual Africa sent some photographers out to Robben Island to create a virtual tour on behalf of South African Tourism. This virtual tour was included in the official SA Tourism Google Earth layer and we thought we’d share it with you here. Robben Island has a unique and colourful history: Leper [...]
(the image is interactive – click and drag to move around) It was a normal Tuesday morning in our office in Cape Town. I was busy planning my day when I answered a call from an old friend. “Can you meet me in Geneva tomorrow morning?” he asked like I would ask if someone could [...]
