Sterkfontein Caves

We spent our last 48 hours in S Africa staying at Bob's Bunkhouse in Jo'berg, where we prepared for moving onto India - top priority was re-activating a debit card which Abbey had unaccountably decided to cancel - & we took one more day trip. We felt that we couldn't leave without visiting the Cradle of Humankind - in particular, the Sterkfontein Caves.

We know that our culture traditionally dates the world at 5767 years old, but fossil records discovered in these caves dates the earliest human ancestors as having existed here 2.5 million years ago. In the early 20th C miners searching for gold, found extensive lime deposits instead, which kept them digging. In the process, they uncovered the famous "Mrs Ples", 1.6 million years old, & are still working on chipping out the even older "Little Foot" (actually a whole body!) preserved intact in the rock. Interestingly, one of the leading experts & researchers working on the evolutionary evidence discovered in these caves, is a Professor Philip Tobias whom we saw honoured in the Jewish Museum, in the grounds of the orthodox shul in Cape Town.

The Caves themselves are wonderful, cool caverns "decorated" with stalactites & stalagmites. There is an incredible & dangerous underground lake that stretches for 40 kms, but the main wonder was to stand on the spot where it's almost certain that human beings evolved & have lived ever since.