South African author Peter Delmar and digital tour guide Tourism Radio have launched a storytelling app dabbed ‘The Platinum Road’ – features images, maps, historical stories about vanished Tswana cities, the Anglo-Boer War and the Freedom Struggle – covers the Platinum Road linking South Africa and Botswana.

The Platinum Road runs from the N4 highway between Gauteng and Lobatse in Botswana and the N1 between Pretoria and Bela Bela.

The app is free for Android and iOS users and doesn’t incur data charges once downloaded. It also has information on geology, wildlife, curious place names and stories from South Africa’s famous short-storyteller, Herman Charles Bosman.

A  Windows mobile version of the app will be launched later in April 2014.

“Users can either listen to the stories in their homes – anywhere in the world – or use it on the road,” IT News Africa quoted Delmar saying. He added that the hands-free app is simply triggered automatically on the basis of the GPS location of the user’s smartphone or tablet when using the road.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the supposed information offered to travelers in South Africa is lightweight, not terribly useful and not very interesting; frankly a waste of time and bandwidth. Hopefully this app is going to challenge this tendency by offering no-fluff good storytelling,” HumanIPO quoted Delmar saying.

“The Platinum Road contains a wealth of information that is simply unrivalled in South Africa,” said Jonathan Meyer, the content manager of Tourism Radio, adding that the app perfectly showcases the Cape Town based startup’s app technology.

Delmar told reporters that the app will be updated regularly. “Bakwena and I are already planning the next version – more stories, music, useful tourist information and a treasure-hunt game for the whole family.”