The Cradle of Humankind

Our four day weekend has been an extremely busy one, which is why it has been since my last update. Hopefully I'll be back on schedule by the end of this evening though!

After finding out that the theme park trip which was scheduled for Thursday was one we had to pay for ourselves, we decided to go to the Cradle of Humankind instead. The caves at Sterkfontein are where the bones of "Little Foot", described to be half human, half ape are currently being excavated. The skeleton, which is over 3 million years old, is considered a most remarkable find as it is one of the oldest complete pre-human skeletons in existence.

The Sterkfontein caves are pretty, although some of the caves I have visited in Austria have been deeper or contained more exciting formations. The major theme of Sterkfontein seems to be people who've died tragic deaths. The reason Little Foot's skeleton is so beautifully preserved is because he fell into the cave through one of the small holes in its ceiling and proceeded to die of starvation in the cold. There's also a story about one of the divers from Wits University who's rope got cut while exploring underwater caves, and who was unable to find his way out. Six weeks later his body was found in the tunnels, next to a message telling his mother and newly wed wife that he loved them. It strikes me as a particularly lonely and terrifying way to end your life.