Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
On tour with the voice in your head
VoiceMap app provides expert commentary and guided walking tours of places across the globe
SMARTPHONE technology is quite amazing, almost to the point of being scary. Last week I did a VoiceMap walk along the Mouille Point promenade. Shortly after beginning near Fort Wynyard just outside the V&A Waterfront, the voice in my earphones told me to stop and look back over my left shoulder. It described what I was seeing with startling pinpoint accuracy; the GPS is that good.
VoiceMap is an app with which you can download – some free, some for purchase – guided tours of many places in the city, and around the world.
It was locally developed so that’s something of which to be proud. The guide for this one is Justin Fox. Within the app, you will find his details, which tell you he has “an abiding passion for the Mouille Point beachfront, where he has lived since 2000”.
VoiceMap tours are made by people who know their areas and their subject matter well, making sure you get an enriching experience.
The walk, entitled A Maritime Meander, takes in the “evocative history of shipwrecks, gun batteries, early lighthouses, and tragic suicide” and covers just more than 3km. The app will also tell you how long this should take – 50 minutes.
This is a suggestion, not a rule, because you can spend as much time as you like strolling or power walking. Heck, you could probably even cycle or run this one.
The GPS keeps up with you and where you are, with some silences in the commentary being normal. More than once I forgot about poor Justin and was startled when he popped up in my ears again.
This was mainly because I was spending so much time taking photographs of the spectacular waves which were crashing on to the promenade, and generally enjoying the magnificent sunset.
As were many other people – jogging, cycling, skateboarding (some clever parents had their small children attached to leashes and were pulling them along), walking their dogs, or just sitting on benches watching the view.
It was only later, when I got to the turning point of Mouille Point into Sea Point that I realised I had dawdled so long the app had gone to “sleep” and I’d missed an entire chunk which loops through Green Point urban park and back again.
That’s all right though, because I have another walk on file which specifically covers the park.
The commentary ends at the five white horses at Three Anchor Bay, which is where you can see our version of LA’s Venice muscle beach – a jungle gym for grownups doing free workouts.
From there, I continued through the wispy mist and sea spray back to the hotel where I was spending the night.
VoiceMap routes are not circular so you should take this into consideration. For this one, the MyCiTi buses are a convenient way to get back to your starting point (or the other way around), unless you plan to walk it.
I reached my destination at the exact moment the sun gave its last orange wink and sank below the horizon.
The timing could not have been more perfect.