DAY 134

Today was the second of my 2 days off. Even though we only one thing, well actually it was one ting with two main parts. It still took the whole day, and didn’t get back till right before dinner. Today I went to the Cradle of Humankind. This attraction is distributed throughout the province into, I think, 7 parts. We went to the two of the main spots, which were also close to each other. It took about 1½hrs to get there, and we momentarily got lost. Not because my tour guide didn’t know how to get there, but because we had a slight detour, so naturally not being from the area only knew the one route. The first place we went to was this cave called Sterkfontein. This cave is in an area of 290m² were they have found fossils of hominids and other animals that are all around 4million years or younger. The two most famous being Mrs. Ples and Little Foot; the first being 2+ million years old and the oldest recorded fossil being the closest relative to modern human beings, and the second (closer to modern monkeys the humans) being the oldest, 4-3million years old, full skeleton, everything from skull to the tip of the toe bone, nothing missing. Both were found in the Sterkfontein cave. This area is a big Lyme mining area and miners wanting to mine there found the cave in 1860. At random parts of the cave there are holes or openings. This takes millions of years to do, since to make these holes or opening the ground below has to sink, which in turns makes the topsoil sink making these holes or openings. They believe the reason why Little Foot was found all in one piece was he was going through this area and didn’t see the hole and fell in. In turn dying and over time being fossilized by the ground, this is over millions of years, falling on top of him. The first of the two fossils to be found was first, through resent study; they are now thinking that Mrs. Ples is actually a Mr. Ples. She, or he, was found by chance by some of the miners who were working in the cave. Little Foot skull was found in 1936, and not till 1947 was his body found. The cave is 60m down and 500m long, going in a crescent type shape, and is thought to be 22million years old. There are lots of stalagmites and stalactites in the cave. One thing that I think is cool, is one of the rocks down there, in one of the thinner parts, has a hole shaped like a heart. So with the help of a light making a shadow, there is a heart on the wall, naturally :) Right before heading back up to the surface there was this lake, well it was called a lake but it didn’t look any bigger than a pond. The whole look of it could have come straight from the movie The Cave, it even came with a underwater tunnel that led to another “lake,” and had albino shrimp……. Just like in the movie, ummmm… kind of creepy, if you ask me. We then walked up to the surface and walked on this boardwalk back to the parking lot to drive over to the other place that we were going to today. Oh, I forgot to tell you something. As part of the tour, before entering the cave, there was this millennium sundial thing. It works the same way as the time clocks, working with the sun. Besides the time, it also has the month and day. This is how you can tell the time; you find the month and then put the metal stick on the day of the currant month and then the sun does the rest. The really cool thing was that it actually worked. The shadow said it was 11am and it was like a minute or two before. Ok, now back to the tour, so after the cave we drove over to Maropeng, this place is more hands-on museum, and all under ground. The top part, this means not underground, looks like a large grassy mound. The building on the inside though is much more. The ground floor is part of the museum, which then leads down stairs. Then the second and third floors are conference rooms, the fourth floor is a restaurant, and then the roof was made into an observation deck, which can I just say has amazing views, completely breathtaking views. Anyways back to the museum underground. So we walk down this winding ramp, with all these different facts about the human race or something to do with evolution, and how humans share 99% of our DNA and despite our physical and cultural differences we are in fact one species that share the same thoughts and concerns, etc… One thing that I did remember is that there are 6,800 known languages in the world, which is crazy. This ramp takes us to a little boat ride. On the ride we go through the four life-giving elements that combined shape the world. After the boat ride we go to this room were we get an audio-visual of the evolution of the earth and how it started with the gases, etc… turning into Pangaea, turning into what we know today. Then we go into this interactive room where cave formation and evolution as a science are introduced via various hands on interactive displays, audiovisuals and graphic panels. We kept on going and entered the main room where the first thing that we came to was this thing called Pathway to Humanity, where it explored the evolution of humans on visual displays, graphic panels and life-like recreations of species based on the original fossils and environment. Next was “The Sustainability Wall” the wall explores human impact o the environment and how, as the first species to control the environment, we are impacting on the world as we know it. Walking further along the corridor, we arrive at the “What It Means To Be Human” exhibit. This explores the 9 characteristics that make us human, and explored with the modern world and then the gradual build up of human/environmental interaction over time. Last, but certainly not least we arrive at the coolest part of the museum. This room, and we have to go through a metal detector and get out bags checked first, has a large display of fossils. These are original fossils on loan from different scientific and educational institutions that lets us have the privilege of viewing them and learning from them. Afterwards we went up to the restaurant and had a late lunch with the most amazing views. Afterwards, we went up to the aforementioned observation deck. Then drove back, to where were arrived at around 4ish. Spent the rest of the afternoon at Guinea Fowl Lodge.


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