When you start your VoiceMap, the first step is plotting your route. If your route goes through a city, it’s easy to do using our online tool. Landmarks and streets are easily visible, and you can flip between the map, satellite photographs and street view. But for routes on outdoor paths, it can be hard to see where to put the line. Isolating small landmarks that aren’t visible on maps is tricky too, and it’s best to use a GPS logger application.
Our favourite stories about Cape Town, so far
Conventional audio tours tell a city’s story with only one or two voices, which doesn’t allow for diversity or individual perspectives. You can’t capture the essence of a place like Cape Town’s Bo-Kaap in the same way as the colonial Company’s Gardens or the Grand Parade, where Mandela addressed 200,000 ecstatic people after his release from prison. What brings these spaces to life, and connects you to them, is the personal opinions, anecdotes and sense of ownership reflected in the words, ‘I love’, ‘I remember’, and ‘I hope’.
The best travel experiences normally begin with a local showing you their city. It cuts through all the abstraction of being an outsider, making you a participant, with a point of reference that helps you identify with a place. You get to share somebody else’s feelings for their home – and that’s exactly what VoiceMap aims to do, with the help of our storytellers.
Continue reading “Our favourite stories about Cape Town, so far” »
Revolution Route at First Thursdays
The Revolution Route is a journey through the stories of revolution birthed in Cape Town, from Mandela and Sobukwe, through Kgosana, Gool and Massavana. Part poetry, part history, all revolution.
You’ll need an iPhone and headphones. Download VoiceMap from the App Store, and use it to purchase the route (R49.99) before you arrive. (It’ll be available for download from Tuesday.)
Meet up with fellow revolutionaries at the statue of King Edward VII on the Grand Parade at 6pm. The walk finishes at Church Square, where VoiceMap is participating in the Open Cities event.
- When: 6pm
- Where: Meet at the statue of King Edwards VII on the grande Parade
- Price: R49.99
- Bring along: iPhone and headphones
The Revolution Route is one of VoiceMap’s Cape Town walking tours.
Cape Town, tell us your stories
We’re launching VoiceMap in Cape Town throughout the month of September, and we’re looking for stories that make our map of Cape Town more complete. We’ve lined up significant media coverage from some of the city’s biggest broadcasters and publications, and Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Partnership are lending a hand.
We’re always on the lookout for your stories, and anything is welcome, but we’re prioritising the following places and themes in particular:
Company’s Garden Photo Essay
The Company’s Garden lies in the heart of Cape Town’s City Bowl, between Signal Hill and Table Mountain. In the 1700’s, when the Dutch East India Company dominated the spice trade between the East and Europe, Cape Town was the halfway point. It was a refreshment station, and the garden supplied fresh produce to the scurvy-ridden, weather-beaten sailors passing through after months at sea.
Today, the garden is another kind of refreshment station. In the summer, office workers spread themselves out on the sunny lawns during their lunch hour, absent-mindedly tossing crumbs to the pigeons. Toddlers shriek with delight as the resident squirrels edge towards the peanuts in their outstretched hands, and opportunistic seagulls scout for discarded snacks from the tops of old bronze statues. The garden is not just the city’s historical centre – it’s a democratic space at Cape Town’s heart, where people from all walks of life come to rest and rejuvenate.