The Cradle

Over the weekend, we sent the dogs to camp and had a little time for ourselves. We used it to investigate the Cradle of Humankind, the only World Heritage Site within Johannesburg's province of Gauteng. The Cradle of Humankind is about a 1 hour drive from our house in Melville, and consists of several jaw-dropping sites where various human ancestors have been found. Here's an overview, but don't worry - when you come visit us you'll get to experience it for yourselves.

You simply can't drive through the grittier neighborhoods in Johannesburg without a "Sanford and Son" flashback. Here, a desperate attempt to avoid copyright infringement amuses us on our way out of town.

...45km later, we decided to go straight and visit the visitor center at Maropeng first, then circle back and go to Sterkfontein. 

This auspicious sign greeted us along the path from the parking lot to the visitor center. Kelsey was not amused.

Here Kelsey is sitting close to the entrance to the visitor center, which is the strange, flat-topped mound in the background. It's called the "tumulus" which sounds like a cross between a turd and a cloud but actually means a burial mound.

Inside the tumulus, this large water feature foreshadows the strange entrance to the exhibit...

...whereby you are ushered into a small, circular dingy and cast off to experience "Earth's Elements" along a murky subterranean "river" that runs through a tunnel. Certainly, the element of surprise was the most prominent one on display. Kelsey is not amused.

One element down (water?)

Fast forward to the last element, fire. 

After this stunning ripoff of "It's a small world after all," we joyously disembarked from our lifeboat (we both agreed it was kind of neat though).

Now it was time to get serious about evolution.

Kelsey was pleased to see the leading role DNA played in the exhibit. This portion consisted of a button and a random phenotype generator - which was stuck on "red haired" and "left handed".

Also you got to place a call to the Aunt Dodo, who was full of juicy extinction gossip.

And try your hand at primate proctology.

Kelsey is finally amused.

No exhibit on human evolution could be complete without graphically showing you these embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions.

These shots of the rest of the exhibit exemplify that Maropeng is seriously strange and intermittently educational.

Case in point, this exhibit on humans and fire, where the seats were a pyromaniac's fantasy of army men and explosives for blowing them up.

Upon reaching the end of the exhibit, you were led out back, where this forbidding facade ensured you didn't try to hop back into the boat. After wandering the grounds, it was ho! for the Sterkfontein Caves, another Cradle of Humankind locality just 10km away.

Sterkfontein is famous because two Australopiths (ape-men) were found there: "Mrs. Ples" and "Littlefoot". This plaque may be Mrs. Ples' grave, but we're not sure. 

The exhibit at Sterkfontein has some questionable graphical representations of human evolution...the questionable part here, for you nerds, is the implied hybridization event between Australopithecus africanus and Homo habilis

But it also had some gems. like these fossils from the cave deposits, 

and who could not like bubbleskulls?

But by far the coolest thing was that you got to go on a guided tour of the caves where they found human ancestors.

The bottom of the cave is 200 feet below ground level, and has a lake of unknown depth

These stalactites grow at 1cm/year, tops

Parts of the caves are very narrow and require walking like an "ape man" (said our guide).

Upon leaving the cave, you meet Robert Broom, discoverer of Mrs. Ples. You apparently rub the nose for good luck and the hands for wisdom. If you had rubbed either before you went down below ground, you'd probably never have entered the caves at all.

The visitor center at Sterkfontein is neither turd nor cloud.

And no trip on the South African roadway would be complete without seeing a trailer being pulled by an inappropriately sized vehicle.

That's all from the Cradle of Humankind! Come visit us to see more!