How Google's technology can heighten your holidays

22 November 2015 - 02:04 By Gillian Anstey

Gillian Anstey goes on a Kenyan odyssey to discover some fabulous ways that you can use Google's technology to make the most of your holiday The year 2010 is best remembered by South Africans as the year we hosted the soccer world cup. But it's also the year Google Street View started to spread its tentacles in the country - and what fun we had spying on colleagues and celebrities' homes, checking out the vastness of their mansions - well, those we could see behind suburban SA's obligatory high walls.So when the bangbroek I am survived - only just - a walk along a swing bridge to the Ololo Safari Lodge in the Nairobi National Park (effectively on the outskirts of the city), to attend a presentation on Street View, it was pretty much a case of "been there, done that" for me.I hadn't realised, however, that they create these views primarily by taking overlapping photos, which are then "stitched" together. In less accessible areas, people walk with a backpack fitted with a camera on top to document the routes.story_article_left1Nor had I ever considered using Street View when booking trips - but Mich Atagana of Google SA does and swears it's the ideal way to ensure a hotel lives up to its punted perspective.I checked out the Street View of our next destination: the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a view which had been mapped out only weeks before my visit last month, but after a few seconds of a virtual walk around grasslands, I was bored.How wrong I was. The app had failed to drum up enthusiasm but the reality was totally different.We arrived at the trust to find a carpark full of people in a hurry. The trust is an elephant orphanage and is open to the public for one hour a day, excluding Christmas, from 11am, at a cost of 500 Kenyan shillings and nobody wanted to miss out.Warned to be quiet, we streamed into an area with a loosely demarcated enclosure into which the baby elephants were led by their keepers.Fed on a baby formula imported from the UK (every three hours around the clock), the 33 elephants were enchanting to watch and, for those who dared, even to touch, although it was a little terrifying when one or two followed their curiosity and stepped out from under the enclosure's loose rope.But the highlight was Julius Shivegha's presentation. With a resonant voice oozing compassion, he introduced each elephant by name, explaining their history."Found on a farm, they were attacked and Bheku's mother was killed";"Her mother was killed by poachers when she was approximately five months old . now she is 20 months and doing so well";"His mother was killed by poachers, the calf left all alone, he was attacked by hyenas, they chopped off his tail"; and"The third one from me, looking more skinny compared to anyone else . we found him almost dying, we managed to revive him and we believe he will be fine and will return to the wild."By the end of the hour, I was ready to sign on the dotted line to foster an elephant for a year for what seemed like a paltry sum of $50.If I had any doubt, the trust's website clinched the deal with a video of an elephant, Godoma, being rescued and transported by plane, followed by the emotional: "While Godoma, despite her injuries, did well physically, she has missed her lost family terribly and has taken a long time to settle and comfortably integrate into the nursery herd. She has been shy and reserved, remaining on the fringes of the group, but with the resident orphans giving her constant attention we have watched her change and grow more comfortable."full_story_image_hleft1Afterwards, I used Google Maps to plot our route to the Carnivore, 17 minutes away, ever grateful that our drivers were familiar with Nairobi's terrifying traffic.At the original Carnivore restaurant, sister to the one in Muldersdrift, Johannesburg, we used Google Translate to decipher our menus, which were in either Swahili or French.The translation wasn't entirely necessary, however, as the waiters introduced the food as they served it. Surprisingly, braaied rabbit and crocodile were the most exotic items on the menu; Kenya banned game meat just over 10 years ago.The Google Translate app works with more than 90 languages. You can speak or type what you want translated, merely hold your phone up to the words, or use your finger to highlight the words you want deciphered. The great news is that it also works offline.story_article_right2Far more fun, though, is asking Google questions directly with Voice Search.Throughout the trip, I could hear people talking into their phones. Tapping on the microphone icon on the Google homepage, "Ok, Google," they would say, followed by a question for which there was a factual answer, such as, "Will I need a raincoat in Nairobi today?"And do try the instruction one Google staffer did: "Ok, Google, make me a sandwich."Back home, it is fabulous to see how Google Photos - which automatically backs up pictures and which you can store to your Google account, so you never have to delete a photo to open up more space - has created, by default, a story of my Nairobi trip.It opens with a picture of me, scowling into the sun at the Great Rift Valley viewing spot, followed by a map showing my flight from Joburg to Nairobi, a pic of the Sarova Stanley hotel in Nairobi and a pic of the tree tomato I ate at breakfast, and .Now can someone please help me delete that blurry, headless picture of a fellow traveller without destroying my entire Nairobi story?- Anstey was a guest of Google South Africa..

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