Cradle of Humankind ...

Hello all.

This is the 2nd installment of our Northern provinces trip at the beginning of 2014. The first was my previous Mpumalanga post.

As South Africans of the Southern Provinces, we tend to dismiss the allure of attractions of the inland provinces. I've been to the Augrabies Waterfall and wanted to see the Sterkfontein Caves. My good wife wanted to see the Cradle of Humankind. These two attractions are within spitting distance of one another and we combined the visit into a single trip. We left Kriel early morning and passed Johannesburg around 10:00. I had another argument with Garmin but the gadget beat me hands down in the Gauteng urban jungle, which made my daughter very happy and brought harmony to family relations once more.

This trip was undertaken after the Mpumalanga East adventure and, to my mind, it was a way to sooth James Manyi's conscience. We do step outside of the Western Cape to visit, work and play in other provinces. I was really interested to learn more about the Sterkfontein Caves and my good wife was just as enthusiastic about Maropeng. We first stopped off at the Caves and I went down alone after some serious warnings about claustrophobia in narrow passages. Warnings to people with weak backs kept my good wife above ground. And my daughter stayed with her.

I enjoyed the informative lecture by the archeology student that led the expedition especially the part about "Mrs Pless'" sex. There seems to be disagreement between earlier and later archeological theorists about the sex and age of the skull originally called "Mrs Ples". For my money, I am happy "M. or Madame Ples" was a human being and found in our neck of the woods = Mzansi.I was surprised by the other information about how long snakes can survive in the constant 18° Celsius. Snakes, like other small wild animals fall into the Sterkfontein caves through openings in the roof of the caves and because they cannot survive the temperature for long tend to die within 24 hours of falling in ... or so we were told! Me ... I am not enamoured with the slithery ones and remained alert for the ones that have not yet kicked the proverbial bucket! In the Cape Winelands, these spawn of Satan make themselves heard before spitting or striking at one. I had little knowledge of the behaviour of those in the Northern provinces, so I was extra careful where I put my size 9 wine-presses.

Here are some pics,some from the above-ground picture gallery at the Sterkfontein Caves.

The Good Wife begging me to return safely ... I had the money see

Cave Entrance

Clearly not San paintings

Getting cramped down there

Guide's tales ...

  The guide stood next to Dr Broome's bust and told us that< according to legend, if one touches his nose you will become lucky and if one touches his finger you will become rich. If was interesting to note who in our group of 11 people touched which part. I abstained because I'm not superstitious in that way.

My Good wife's entreaties (see first image above) were not in vain and I made it back safe and sound. 

We then went to Maropeng and bought tickets to enter the museum over there!

Some pics at Maropeng:

2WomeninMyLifeOutsideMaropeng

IceAgeDepictioninsideMaropeng

FireandSmokeDepictioninMaropeng

HumanDevelopmentDepictioninMaropeng

ImportanceofMaropeng

Arch'sFootPrintOutsidetheMuseum

Prez'sFootprintOutsideMuseum

The museum is well-appointed and well-run. I was very proud of the impression it made on visitors (myself included!).Our country can be proud of the way in which it exhibits our history.

Contrary to old wives' tales neither the Arch or the Prez' prints resembled bigfoot!!!

Keep up the good work at Maropeng!

It is a must-see for all outh Africans included and it is not very expensive. In fact, with the Rand's freefall, it is uber-cheap for tourists from countries with strong currencies!

I did not include this pic in the previous post where it belongs but I thought it necessary to prove that I got my holiday wish:

IgotMyWish

 .Until my next post!