South Africa from Above

Top AirVuz contributor Soaring Heights Imagery created this stunning piece from South Africa, which was selected as a DVOW finalist in July 2020.  Shot from across what many to be the world's most beautiful country, the video highlights some of its most spectacular scenery.  Opening with some epic shots of the mountains which form the Great Escarpment, the video then cuts to some great shots of the country's coastline.  Other highlights include some great waterfall shots, aerials of some gigantic mines, downtown Johannesburg and more. 

Top contributor Exclusive Aerials brings us this impressive demo reel, which was largely shot in South Africa.  The reel features a great mix of landscape and action shots, including some epic first person view (FPV) drone shots.   At the :21 mark, you'll see a whale jumping out of the water near Cape Town, followed by a desert caravan and a Land Rover on a mountainous trek.  Starting at :54, you'll see some of South Africa's legendary surfing and kitesurfing scene.  Other highlights include some epic shots of the Cape Town skyline.  

There's something for everyone in this epic travel video from South Africa by top AirVuz contributor Active Perspective.  He took a 3.6k km (2k mi) trip with some friends around the country, primarily outside of its major cities.  Using a DJI Phantom 3 drone and a ground camera, he was ablt to capture some of the most breathtaking wildlife and landscapes that the world has to offer. From gorgeous vistas in the mountains overlooking the city of Cape Town, to shots of penguins waddling about, this is a must watch drone video!

Top AirVuz contributor Active Perspective returns after a two year hiatus with this moving video from South Africa.  Created with both drone and ground camera footage, much of the piece is devoted to the country's natural wildlife.  You'll see penguins and seals lined up along the coastal areas around Cape Town, and elephants, giraffes. zebras, rhinos, and even lions in the interior.  The film notes that the rhino pair (which you'll see at the 1:40 mark), were killed by poachers, part of an ongoing tragedy.  

Award-winning aerial videographer Luke Maximo Bell created this memorable drone video of climber Matt Bush scaling a sheer rock face overlooking stunningly beautiful Cape Town, South Africa.  Matt is one of the world's top free solo climbers, a technically difficult and dangerous form of rock climbing.  The exhilarating film was a winner of the AirVuz Drone Video of the Week contest and subsequently tapped as a Finalist in the Extreme Sports category for the second annual Drone Video Awards.

Top cotributor Sandrine Hecq created this magnificent vlog from South Africa, one of the world's most beautiful countries.  The video opens with a great shot of Lionshead, one of the mountains which overlooks the city of Cape Town.  From there you'll be taken into safari country, where you'll see some great shots of zebras giraffes, and other African wildlife.  The video also includes some great footage of lesser-known but spectacular sights in this massive country, such as the Hartbeespoort Dam.

In this drone video, you will get an aerial tour of some of the most well-known and beautiful spots in South Africa.  Featured locations include Cape Town, Johannesburg, the Cape of Good Hope, Betty's Bay on the Overberg Coast of the Western Cape Province, Mossel Bay in the Southern Cape, Hermanus (near Cape Town), Graaff Renet on the Eastern Cape, Colesberg in the Northern Cape, Bloemfontein and Ladybrand in the Free State, Nelspruit in the Mpumalanga Province, the Blyde River Canyon, Kruger National Park, and Pretoria.

Airuz contributor Luke Maximo Bell is one of the top drone pilots and aerial videographers in South Africa.  In this film, which was chosen as a finalist for the Drone Video of the Week contest in April, 2018, he has put together some of his very best aerial footage of Cape Town, the great city on the cape that separates the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  The video, which features footage from the city as well as the surrounding mountains, advances the common claim for Cape Town being the world's most beautiful city.  

Road tripper extraordinaire Isabellefabre takes her show to South Africa in this epic video which combines drone and ground camera footage.  Watch her scale some of the country's might rock formations, chill with wild animals on one of the country's legendary game preserves, kitesurf off the beaches of Cape Town, and in general all that this magical country has to offer.  For a vicarious ride through South Africa, it's hard to beat this video from a world-class adventurer who hails from France.

AirVuz contributor davetke2002 brings us this excellent drone video of the city of Durban, South Africa.  Located on the country's eastern (Indian Ocean) coastline in the state of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban is South Africa's third-largest city after Johannesburg and Cape Town.  The video features footage of the city's impressive skyline as well as its waterfront.  Durban has one of the world's finest natural harbors, and largely because of that it's the busiest seaport in South Africa and one of the busiest in the entire Southern Hemisphere.  

Kruger National Park is a gigantic wild game preserve in northeastern South Africa, covering parts of the Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces.  At over 11k square km (over 7k square mi), the great park is roughly the size of the USA state of New Jersey.  Contrbutor Beemflights used a drone to create this epic aerial tour of this amazing  park, which teems with wildlife and is considered the world's largest reserve park.  Watch this drone video and you will see many many wild animal species from an entirely new (aerial) perspective.  

Check out this fascinating drone video from the South African state of Kwazulu-Natal during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, compliments of brand-new AirVuz contributor and pilot drone_air.  Most of the footage was shot in and around Durban, the largest city in KZN, and the third-largest in the country.  The video, which features an extremely well-edited mix of drone and ground camera footage, does a fantastic job of showing how the novel coronavirus profoundly affected life in what is sometimes called the Garden Province.  

Check out this drone video by louis.bolton of some of the world's most unusual mountains.  They are called the Drakensberg, and they lie in southern Africa, covering parts of South Africa and Lesotho.  The video was shot in Injusuthi, South Africa, which is part of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park in the heart of the range.  The mountains constitute the eastern portion of a massive geological formation known as the Great Escarpment, which forms the southern/eastern boundaries of the South African Plateau.    

Johannesburg is by far the largest city in South Africa, with a metro population of nearly 10 million.  It is located in the northeastern part of the country, in the province of Guateng.  While it offers many lodging accommodations, perhaps the finest hotel in the city is the Westcliffe, a Four Seasons Hotel.  Contributor Riseaboveearth used a DJI Inspire 1 drone to create a captivating aerial video of this five star property in the city considered to be the center of the worldwide gold and diamond industry.

Top contributor and vlogger Sandrine Hecq created this magnificent travel piece from South Africa.  The first part of the video was filmed around the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, which is situated in the Free State near the middle of the country.  After surveying the wildlife and rocky outcrops here (in part via a hot air balloon), you'll head east with her across the state of KwaZulu-Natal, ending up in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park near the town of St. Lucia on the Indian Ocean coastline.  

Just when you think you've seen every beautiful spot in South Africa, there's another one that pops up.  That's the lesson from this epic video by contributor ProCinema. It was shot in the Karoo region, an arid area which lies inland from Cape Town and (depending on definitions) forms an elliptical shape over the southwestern part of the country.  This incredible video of the region's spectacular rock formations was shot by ProCinemaFX using footage from a DJI Phantom 4 Pro and a DJI Mavic Pro drone.

Former Drone Video of the Week winner and pilot DiamondSky created this fantastic video from South Africa.  Shot with a combination of drone and ground camera footage, the focus of much of the first part of the video is the country's abundant safari wildlife, with some particularly epic elephant footage.  You'll also be treated to some amazing first person view (FPV) footage from the coastline near Cape Town, and the end of the video features some incredible views from inside a giant canyon.  

Hermanus, a small town near the city of Cape Town at the southern tip of South Africa, is best known for its whale watching.  During the certain months, thousands of southern right whales migrate through its waters, easily spottable from shore.  Top contributor Luke Maximo Bell used a DJI Phantom drone to film these magnificent creatures swimming off the shore of the town which was once an important center for the whaling industry and is currently considered one of the world's best whale-watching spots.

The very talented Icarus Aerial Filming follows professional kiteboarder, Dim Softas, out on the waves off the South African coast.  In this highly cinematic, action-packed aerial, Icarus uses a drone to show off Dim's crazy skills on the water, filmed from a perspective which would be impossible without a drone.   The video features some great editing which intermixes ground and aerial footage of the South African beach world, one of the up-and-coming areas in the world of aquatic extreme sports.

Ryanzooms used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create this beautiful aerial of Durban, South Africa's third city and the largest in the eastern part of the country.  It sits on the Indian Ocean coastline, and is the principal city (although not the capital) of the KwaZulu-Natal province.  In addition to some very well known surfing beaches, Durban is home to the country's largest port.  At the end of the video, you'll get a nice view of the seaport and its fine natural harbor, known officially as the Port of Natal.  

Contributor and drone pilot Floating-Pixel created this aerial video of an amazing annual train-related event in South Africa.  The Sandstone Estate Steam Festival celebrates the heritage of railroads and powered farm equipment in the development of South Africa.  It's held at the Sandstone Estates, a giant farming enterprise in the Free State.  The estate is home to a heritage narrow gauge railway as well as a large collection of farm equipment from a museum that collapsed in the 1990's.  

Contributor and drone pilot AndreO created this excellent aerial video of an important city of South Africa.  East London is in the Eastern Cape province, which covers the eastern half of the southernmost part of the country.  East London, which sits astride two rivers as they empty into the Indian Ocean, is an important port city.  East London and its surrounding suburbs form a metropolitan area with a population of about 700,000, making it one of the country's ten largest urban agglomerations.    

Here's an extremely creative view of South Africa's third-largest city, compliments of contributor and drone pilot EdDrone.  He took a selfie flying out of his room in Durban which turns into a reveal of the Indian Ocean coastline just north of the city.  The shot was taken from Umhlanga, a resort town which is considered part of Greater Durban in the state of KwaZulu-Natal.  Unhlanga is distinguished by its iconic-looking red and white lighthouse, which you'll see clearly in the reveal sequence.

Check out this fascinating drone video of an old gold mine on the outskirts of Johannesberg, South Africa.  It's called Germiston, and it's situated just to the east of the country's largest city.  Like Johannesberg itself, Germiston owes its existence to the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886, one of the transformative events in the history of South Africa.  While the Germiston mine no longer produces, it has an important nearby legacy - the Rand Refinery, built in 1920, is the world's largest gold refining operation.  

For a first upload to AirVuz, brand-new contributor theoriginalslife brings us this fantastic video from the coast of South Africa.  The video was filmed in and around the town of Port Edward, which lies near the border between the eastern states of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, on the Indian Ocean.  Created with a combination of drone and ground camera footage, the video provides a window into the very active aquatic recreation scene here, much of which takes place on the Mtamvuna River, the boundary between the two states.  

Former Drone Video of the Week Finalist Soaring Heights Imagery brings us this excellent drone video of the affluent Johannesburg, South Africa suburb of Sandton.   It's located on the northern side of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, the administrative entity which covers the country's largest city and its surrounding communities.  In the 1990's, many of the corporate citizens of the Johannesburg Central Business District relocated to Sandton, and the town has since earned the name the Richest Square Mile in Africa.  

Check out this drone video of one of South Africa's most famous dams, compliments of Dirk Grobler.  Hartbeespoort Dam is located in the North West Province, about a half hour drive northwest of Johannesburg.  The arch dam was completed in 1923 and primarily is used to manage irrigation water in this drought-prone area.  It supplies water through a long series of canals which were constructed for the purpose.  It's a popular getaway spot for residents of Johannesburg as well as nearby Pretoria.  

Check out this fantastic drone video from a little-known stretch of South Africa's coastline, compliments of contributor and pilot Along our way.  It's in the area once known as Transkei, one of the Bantustan states set up in the waning days of Apartheid.  Since the end of Apartheid in the 1990's, it was absorbed into the Eastern Cape province.   The stunning area shown in the video lies between East London in the Eastern Cape and Durban, the largest city in the neighboring state of KwaZulu-Natal.

For a first upload to AirVuz, new contributor nolan_on_air brings us this stunning drone video record of a hike to South Africa's famous Tugela Falls.  It's actually a complex of seasonal waterfalls in the Drakensberg Mountains, which form the eastern edge of Africa's Great Escarpment.  Located in Royal Natal National Park in the eastern state of KwaZulu-Natal, the falls is believed to be the second-tallest in the world.  Its total drop is about 950 meters or around 3.1k ft; only Venezuela's Angel Falls has a larger drop.  

Located on the southernmost tip of the giant continent of Africa, South Africa is generally considered to be amongst the 2-3 most beautiful countries in the world.  It's a perfect backdrop for flying a first person view (FPV) mini quad.  Especially so when the pilot has three months to explore the country and pick the most stunning spots to fly.  That's exactly what top AirVuz contributor and FPV pilot Oneeyedfpv did in this fantastic piece, winning a spot on the FPV Pilots to Watch list in August, 2019. 

Take an aerial tour of beautiful South Africa in this excellent piece by new contributor Joppe Van Eenbergen.  With aerial footage from a DJI Mavic Air drone, the video opens with a great shot of some of the mountains which form the edge of the Great Escarpment.  At the :30 mark you'll see the Paul Sauer Bridge over the Storms River in Eastern Cape.  Starting at about the :50 mark there are some great shots of the Cape Town Stadium.  The video also features some nice ground camera footage of the country's safari animal life.  

Top contributor and vlogger Sandrine Hecq headed to Cape Town, South Africa to make this video of what many consider to be the world's most beautiful city.  Using drone, ground, and underwater camera footage, she takes us on an epic trip to this incredible spot near the tip of the African continent.  From climbing Tabletop Mountain to her trademark selfie pull-out shots off of Signal Mountain, there is something for everyone here, even shark lovers (you'll have to watch to see what we mean!)

Contributor Luke Maximo Bell has won numerous awards for his drone videos of Cape Town, South Africa and the surrounding areas.  His videos such as "Where 2 Oceans Meet" and "The Most Beautiful City on Earth" have garnered many thousands of views, and his video "Matt Bush - the World of Free Solo Climbing" won the Drone Video of the Week contest in the Spring of 2018.  In this segment of Drone Dish, host Tyler Mason chats with him about his love for aerial videography and his favorite places to fly.