10 Great Aerial Locations | South Africa from Above

Our aerial journey starts by the Drakensberg mountains and across some of the bloodiest battlefields of the 19th century before heading north to the Kruger National Park and on through Blyde Canyon to Polokwane. From there it's south to Pretoria, Johannesburg and Bloemfontein before heading west to Kimberley and on to the Agrabes Falls. From there it's down the west coast before finishing the journey in the dramatic Cederberg Mountains. South Africa is a country of contrasting landscapes and here to the east of the dramatic Drakensberg Mountains a vast fertile plain stretches out where small farms and private game reserves can be found. But this seemingly peaceful countryside was the site of violent battles during the 19th century. The Second Boer War began in 1899 and was between the British and South African Boers over who ruled their proclaimed republics. Some of the battles were fiercely fought and the casualties on both sides were high. The Battle of Spion Kop was one of them and it gets its name from this hill where the action took place. It was a major disaster for the British. Visitors today can walk amongst the memorials and graves of soldiers from both sides. The Boers held the hill and the British, who thought only a handful of Boers were up there, attacked at night, took a sentry post and thought they had taken the main part of the hill only to find in the clearing morning mist that they had not and that the main Boer army was waiting. The British were outnumbered and suffered terrible casualties before reinforcements arrived which enabled the army to retreat off the hill. From a British defeat to an outstanding victory against all odds 20 years earlier. It took place here at Rourke's Drift where in 1879 139 British soldiers held out against 4,000 Zulu warriors for 12 hours. 11 Victoria Crosses were awarded for gallantry, the highest number in any single engagement. The hospital where much of the action took place still exists along with the stores and a memorial and museum. Close by is a replica of a Zulu kral in a style which would have been around at the time of Rourke's Drift. The Zulu warriors had arrived at Rourke's Drift from a battle where they had inflicted the biggest defeat a British colonial army has ever had, Isandlwana. Here in the shadow of the mountain roughly 1,300 British and colonial troops lost their lives out of an army of near 2,000. The Zulu force poured around the mountain and using mainly spears and shields outmanoeuvred the British with skill and iron discipline. Today memorials and small white stone cairns marking mass graves scatter the slope in remembrance of this battle. 20 miles north and 41 years earlier the situation was reversed at the Battle of Blood River where in 1838 the Dutch Voortrekkers inflicted a crushing defeat on the Zulus. The river quite literally flowed red. The Voortrekkers who numbered 470 men women and children drew their wagons into a protective enclosure known as a lager. They faced well over 10,000 Zulu warriors who attacked at dawn. For two hours they held out against four waves of Zulu attacks. Women and children reloaded the muskets. 3,000 Zulus were killed but incredibly only three trekkers were slightly wounded. These wagons are cast in bronze and were erected as a memorial in 1971. The first monument on the battle site was this granite ox wagon in 1947. And in 1998 on the other side of Blood River a museum and memorial were built to commemorate the fallen Zulu. The shape of the building represents the horns and chest of the battle formation. 150 miles to the north is Nelspreet in the Mpulunga region. This is the largest town on the southern end of the best-known game reserve in South Africa, the Kruger National Park. Restrictions for flying over the Kruger are strict and aircraft must be above 2,000 feet to create the least disturbance to wildlife. The park is vast at nearly 8,000 square miles which is almost the exact size of Israel. Spread around the park are various campsites. This one is the Burgundal and the only one set in a rugged mountain environment. From here it's possible to have conducted walks as well as game drives to see the wildlife. Even from 2,000 feet it's still possible to spot a small herd of elephants as they go about their daily routine. Throughout South Africa there are many private game reserves as well as private farms that keep and breed a number of game animals including wildebeest. Wildebeest meat is widely eaten as is the meat from water buffalo. To the west of the Kruger Park is Blyde River Canyon, the world's third largest after the Grand Canyon in the United States and Fish River Canyon in Namibia. It's a dramatic and impressive sight. The canyon is 16 miles long and on average about two and a half thousand feet deep. One of the best views is of the three Rondevilles which overlook the canyon. Rondeville being the name of the roundhouses of the local people. The furthest point north in our travels is Polokwane, a mere hundred miles from the border with Zimbabwe. The name Polokwane means place of safety and is the capital of the Limpopo region. In former times it was called Petersburg. The town also has a new football stadium which was built for the 2010 World Cup and has a seating capacity for 46,000 spectators. Our journey now heads west across the north of the country and the landscape starts to become dry and almost desert-like. This vast open flat space is known as Veldt which is the South African equivalent to Outback in Australia, Prairie in North America and Pampas in South America. There are only a few villages or towns scattered in this sparse landscape. But nothing prepares you for the surprise you get when suddenly a fantasy city seems to rise up out of the arid landscape. This is Sun City, a luxury resort and casino. It opened in 1979 and has been popular ever since. There are four hotels, timeshare apartments, two 18-hole golf courses, exotic looking swimming pools and lots of entertainment including this wave machine. And guests don't have to go far to see elephants as they are close by and ready to ride. On the outskirts of Pretoria is Hartbisport Dam with its new estates and golf courses. The fluorescent coloured lake suffers from phosphate pollution which encourages a very bright green algae to flourish. Pretoria which is the executive capital of South Africa is an elegant city centred around Church Square which is lined with handsome 19th century buildings. The city has many fine museums and galleries as well as parks and gardens and on one side of Burgers Park is Melrose House built in the 1880s for an industrialist. During the Boer War it became the residence of the British commander Lord Kitchener. Overlooking the city from the east are the Union Buildings, the seat of the South African government. They were designed in a grand manner in 1910 to celebrate the new Union of South Africa following the end of the Boer War. And it was on these steps that Nelson Mandela was declared president in 1994 and where all previous presidents had been inaugurated. And from the steps it's possible to see the Loftus Versveldt Stadium. There's been a stadium here since 1906 making it one of the oldest in the country. It was upgraded for use as a World Cup venue. The local historical name for Johannesburg is Gauteng meaning place of gold and surrounding the city it's easy to see why with all the spoil from well over a hundred years of gold mining. Johannesburg 30 miles south of Pretoria is the financial heartland of the country sleek modern buildings continue to elevate the skyline. The Carlton Centre was once the tallest building on the African continent at 730 feet. From the top it's easy to see the city's two World Cup venues. The first is Ellis Park Stadium and it was here in 1995 that the South African Springboks won the Rugby World Cup in a thrilling match against New Zealand in extra time. To the south of the city is Soccer City Stadium built in 1989 and the site of the FIFA 2010 World Cup final. The stadium is on the edge of South Africa's largest township Soweto. The township's history goes back to the gold mining era of the late 19th century when Africans seeking work were drawn to the mines and were accommodated in separate areas around the city. This segregation continued and was further enforced during the apartheid regime. The word Soweto has been abbreviated from south western townships and it encompasses all the suburbs in the area. It's estimated that around 65 percent of Johannesburg's population live here. One of the landmarks of the area are the two cooling towers from an old power station one of which has been decorated with the largest mural painting in the country. Soweto came to the world's attention in 1976 when there were mass protests about apartheid restrictions in education. 23 people lost their lives when the police opened fire and the horror reverberated around the world leading to economic sanctions against South Africa. Today Soweto is a very different place and even has guided tours for visitors. There are still the matchbox houses built in the apartheid era but new larger more prosperous looking dwellings are being built. But there are still the old shanty towns for the poorest where there are few services and little sanitation. The judicial capital of South Africa is Bloemfontein 300 miles to the south. To get there means crossing 300 miles of flat open landscape where electric storms can build up very quickly. Day almost turns to night as nature shows its awesome power. It's certainly not a place for our small aircraft to get too close to. Bloemfontein was once the capital of the new republic the Afrikaners declared in their conflict with Britain. The city is full of fine 19th century buildings and as the judicial capital of South Africa many of them are associated with the law. To the south of the city is the national women's memorial commemorating Boer and black African women and children who died in British concentration camps during the South African war. 80 miles to the west across Openveld is a city more than any other in the Kimberley. In 1869 diamonds were found in the mud wall of a small house on the eastern edge of the western cape. This discovery led to a diamond rush and the birth of Kimberley. Prospectors came in their thousands and the holes they dug got deeper and deeper until vast chasms opened up around the town. The best known is simply called Big Hole. Here the first 780 feet was dug by hand and today the depth stands at two and a half thousand feet with another thousand feet hidden from view. By 1914 some 23 million tons of rock had been excavated which yielded over 14 million carats worth of diamonds and a flawless carat today will set you back around £15,000 so a lot of money was dug out of this Big Hole in just 50 years. Flying west from Kimberley and the landscape begins to become drier and more desert like. Vast estates with miles of fencing carve up the landscape. Long straight dirt roads are the only means of getting around to check on fences as well as any game. In this type of landscape ostriches thrive and run free as do these magnificent sable antelope. Further west and the landscape begins to turn red, the soil rich in and in this hot and arid landscape a group of Hemsbok search for food. Quite suddenly out of this parched and unpopulated landscape a wide strip of green appears on either side of a big river. This is the Orange River, the longest in South Africa at just over 1300 miles. Surprisingly the river does not flow through any major city but it plays an important part in the economy of the country by providing irrigation and here in the Northern Cape the banks are lined with vineyards. Downstream and to the west of Uppington is one of the most dramatic sights in the country and it can be heard before it can be seen. These are the Ograbia's Falls flowing into largest granite gorge in the world. The original Kokoya people called it place of big noise. Over thousands of years the Orange River has eroded this smooth sided gorge creating a spectacular waterfall of nearly 200 foot. When the river floods four times more water falls here per second than at the Niagara Falls. The surrounding granite landscape seems to come from another planet with great folds of rock shaped millions of years ago. The area was made into the Ograbia's National Park in 1966. In this arid landscape an extraordinary tree grows which is a species of aloe and indigenous to the Northern Cape. The Quiver Tree. In fact it's becoming quite a rare sight due to climactic changes. The Quiver Tree gets its name from the ancient practice of the sand people hollowing out the tubular branches to form quivers for their arrows. The landscape may look completely deserted for mile upon mile but one important aspect of modern life has been built on it. A national highway. The N14 highway runs for hundreds of miles across the Northern Cape and for much of its length is like a very long ruler laid over the landscape. The highway runs west towards the Atlantic coast and just inland is an extraordinary area of landscape and no one is quite sure how it was formed. These circular smooth top mounds are known locally as fairy circles and there are literally thousands of them stretching up into Namibia. Apparently nothing will grow on them and they have remained a mystery for years. The most plausible explanation seems to be that some sort of termite created them but it has not been proved. The west coast is a wild desolate and windy place. The Atlantic rolls in and is much colder than the Indian Ocean on the east coast. The main industry along the coast is mining and diamonds in particular. Vast mines operate where tons of sand is sifted for diamonds under tight security. Old workings scar the landscape though today new rules mean that mining companies will have to leave the Even the sea heals diamonds as gravel is sucked up from gullies using a long vacuum cleaner from a specially rigged boat. To the south houses and small towns start to appear. Lamberts Bay is a popular place to visit particularly with seafood lovers as along the coast open-air fish restaurants offer a fresh catch every day. Inland from Lamberts Bay is Clan William where a variety of tea can be found and it's the only place in the world where it will grow. This is the rooibos shrub which is better known around the world as the plant that produces red bush tea. It has been used by the sand people for centuries as a herbal medicine. The plant is narrow and needle-like and picked by hand. It's then cut and dried in the sun on large concrete slabs before being graded and packed. The tea is naturally caffeine free and very low in tannin. The rooibos shrub is grown in the foothills of the Cederberg mountains. This mountain range is famous for its rock formations. Over millions of years wind and water have carved the Cederbergs into a magical landscape. The pinnacles and fissures seem to create fantasy castles and reddish rocks start to resemble strange frozen creatures. The Maltese cross stands out alone as softer stone has eroded away leaving this cross-like shape. Up in the high peaks is the Wolfberg Arch where the softer centre has eroded away leaving this spectacular formation. And right at the top is Tafelberg mountain which in English is of course Table Mountain. And it's only a hundred miles to the other Table Mountain and a perfect place to end this journey.