If you were already an outdoors person, you might have noticed that your favourite trails have been a lot busier than usual lately. Happily, we can report that it’s not just a figment of your imagination.
After spending weeks cooped up in their homes under Lockdown Level 5 and then being restricted to the road under Level 4, South Africans have embraced hiking and the great outdoors under Levels 3 and 2. They’re not just taking to their local trails or relying on word of mouth and guidebooks either. The country’s citizens have taken to Google en masse as they look to find out more about their new favourite activity.
You only need to look at how much higher interest hiking has been over the last month than on average to see how hiking mania has swept the nation.
When it comes to using Google to find hiking trails, Gauteng leads the pack, followed by The Western Cape, and then North West Province:
When looking at hiking related searches, it’s apparent how new the activity is to many South Africans, with ‘hiking clothes’ being the number one search. When it comes to the trails they’re most interested in, ‘Groenkloof Hiking Trail’, and ‘Hennops Hiking Trail’ take the top spots. It’s probably best, therefore, to avoid those particular trails if you’re looking for quiet and solitude.
If you’re keen to join the cool kids, a quick ‘hiking trails near me’ search on Google Maps will help you find your nearest scenic spot and get directions in an instant. You’ll also be able to see opening hours, images, reviews and suggestions of similar places thanks to Google Maps’ Discover feature.
Search interest is plotted on an index of 0 – 100 and anything over 40 indicates high levels of search interest relative to other terms being searched at the time. Live search data is available on the Google South Africa Trends site.
Search trend information is gleaned from data collated by Google based on what South Africans have been searching for and asking Google. Google processes more than 40 000 search queries every second. This translates to more than a billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year, worldwide.
Image: Unsplash
