More of South Africa’s national parks, tourist hotspots available on Google Street View

You can now explore even more of South Africa’s famous landmarks, national parks and tourist attractions courtesy of Google’s Street View and Drive South Africa.

The two companies have captured “over 232 points of interest” across all 19 national parks and 17 nature reserves. Some reserves Google labelled as previously “untrekked”.

According to the company, over 200 volunteers trekked more than 900km across the country’s wilderness areas with Street View cameras, officially named “Trekkers”, fastened to their backs.

“The Trekker camera is a 22kg custom-made backpack fitted with 15 cameras pointing in all directions,” explained Andre Van Kets, one of Google South Africa’s partners on the particular programme.

“The on-board technology plots the camera’s exact location on the trail. While recording, the camera takes a 360-degree photo every two-seconds. It’s basically the off-road equivalent of Google’s Street View cars.”

A microsite for some of the more notable footage can be accessed here, while all footage recorded by the Street View team is available on Google Maps.