Google Street View to Capture the Big Outdoors in South Africa

Google and South African Tourism announced the winners of the online and mobile poll, in which South Africans voted for the first tourist attractions to be photographed by the Google Street View Trike.

The top three most popular tourist attractions will get a visit from the Street View trike and car in the coming weeks. The images it collects will be carefully stitched together with the aim for them to be available in Street View on Google Maps, in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The Trikes, which weigh nearly 115kg, is comprised by three bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image-collecting gadgetry.
The three winners reveal South Africa's passion for the big outdoors: Chapman's Peak and the Cape coastal routes; Kruger National Park; and the Blyde River Canyon. These tourist attractions will be put right on the virtual map, tempting people at home and overseas to explore South Africa's scenery and landmarks in an exciting new way, over the internet.
In addition to the Cape coastal routes, Kruger and the Blyde River Canyon, the voting shortlist of 20 included Tsitsikamma National Park, Simon's Town and Boulders Beach, the Moses Mabhida Stadium, the Franschhoek Winelands, Durban Waterfront, Newlands Cricket Stadium, Maropeng and Sterkfontein Caves, Addo Elephant Park, Madiba's House, Hector Pieterson Memorial and other Soweto Highlights; Constitution Hill; St Lucia/iSimangaliso Wetlands; the Big Hole, Kimberley; Cathedral Peak; the Apartheid Museum; Isandlwana, Rorke's Drift and Valley of the Zulu Kings; Golf Course Highlights and the Bloemfontein Houses of Parliament.