Road Trip!: Of Cradles and Caves

Boo!

Listen, around here you gotta get used to bones, skulls and such.

OK, so last time we had spent a hectic 2 days seeing many of Cape Town's iconic sites.  Then it was a quick flight to Jo'burg and we were off to see The Cradle of Humankind. 

The Cradle is a Word Heritage site about 50 kilometres northwest of Jo'burg where some of the oldest fossils of early human ancestors have been found, some dating back as far as 3.5 million years ago.  Given Aaron's profession, it was clearly a "must-go-to" for us.

The Cradle is made up of several different locations, we went to 2.  The first was this:

This odd, seemingly innocuous grassy hill houses a very large underground complex including a water ride and huge museum.

Here we are during the water ride:

The water ride was supposed to represent the evolution of the earth, from molten ball through tectonic shifts, etc.  To be perfectly honest, it was cheesy.  I'm sure it's fun for kids and all, but um.  Yeah.  Moving on:

The museum that followed the ride was very interactive and included a lot of fascinating facts -- ranging from evolution, to the vagaries of race to the current challenges we Homo sapiens face:

Also, there was this:

I don't know what's more bizarre, the male hominid's shocked expression (perhaps because his genitalia has been, uh, tucked away) or the Amazonian pose of the female hominid behind him.

There was a lot of good info, but it was almost too much.  It was overwhelming -- all the videos and noise made it all a bit "much" for me -- but it would probably be great for young kids.  I guess I just enjoy more traditional/simple museums.

Anyhoo, then we were off to the Sterkfontein Caves.  Now THIS was cool!  Sterkfontein alone has produced more than a third of early hominid fossils ever found.

Unfortunately, it being caves and all, it's very hard to take decent pictures.  Happily though, we did get this one, of the "Elephant Cave."  Can you see the elephant?

This chamber was absolutely stunning.  As large and echo-filled and awe-inspiring as any cathedral (more, actually, if you ask me.) 

The tour took about an hour or maybe even an hour and a half.  There were a lot of stairs and it was a little tough, but we had a blast!

As we emerged from the caves we saw this bronze statue of Dr. Robert Broom, who discovered the famous "Mrs. Ples," a 2.3-million year-old fossil of Australopithecus africanus in 1947.  I told Aaron, "One day honey, if we're lucky, there's gonna be bronze statue of you somewhere ... except you'll be holding a teeny tiny mole rat skeleton.  Or maybe some owl pellets.  Bronzed owl pellets."  

And then I noticed the look on his face so I took some pictures of some flowers:

And we were off to our hotel for a quick night's sleep because the next day we were off to KRUGER!  Next week, it's all Kruger, all the time!  So many ellies and lions and rhinos ... oh my!

Have a lovely weekend kids!