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27 November 2014

A decade of memories: The 10th birthday of the SANParks website and online forums

To commemorate this special occasion, we ask you to join us for a virtual party on the online forums at 10:00 am. View the invitation to our virtual party.

A decade has passed since a Saturday afternoon when the new website and online forums were launched and www.sanparks.org became the platform where visitors could virtually connect to the South African National Parks by means of the forums, webcams, travel information, news articles, gallery and more.

The Online Forums

Our online forums present the opportunity to converse with over 27,000 like-minded individuals around a multitude of topics (14,771) such as park-related subjects, special interest topics, quizzes and polls and general chit-chat. These active forums have resulted in 937,629 posts to date by enthusiastic and dedicated members.

The online forums is also home to the Virtual Honorary Rangers (VHRs). Established in February 2010, the VHRs operate on the SANParks online forums, implementing and driving projects that contribute to SANParks through fundraising and support of Environmental Education programmes.

The Webcams

Another way in which the website offers a direct link to the National Parks is via our very popular webcams. We currently have four webcams, two which are in the Kruger National Park at Satara and Orpen, one in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at Nossob and another in the Addo Elephant National Park. Visitors are able to save the images they view as highlights. Furthermore, the webcams activity can be discussed at length in our online forum. Visitors are also able to view the action at the webcams in real-time. Please note that viewing the live video stream requires a lot of bandwidth and a high-speed Internet line.

The Gallery

The gallery which has received 25,111,054 views, currently displays 15, 254 photos in 221 albums under various categories such as parks, events, activities, birds and our ever popular public sightings gallery. Visitors to our parks have the opportunity to submit their captured memorable moments for display on the online gallery.

Online Bookings:

Our online bookings portal enables registered members to view availability of all our accommodation and same-day activities (currently for Kruger National Park activities only), book and pay in a couple of clicks. You are also able to amend your bookings, view existing reservations and update your online profile. When booking accommodation and camping online, users receive 5% discount.

Some of the other features:

We would like to sincerely thank our moderators, assistants, forumites, administrators, developers and staff for your assistance and continued support in making www.sanparks.org and the online forums the success it is today. We look forward to many more wonderful and productive years as the virtual home of SANParks.