A big archaeology day for us today. Very exciting! We had breakfast at 7am and were picked up at 8 by Nic, a softly spoken, wonderfully friendly, chatty man from Soweto (the same place as Nelson Mandela). Our best guide by far. We headed to the Cradle of human kind UNESCO world heritage site, which is 47,000 hectares and is made up of lots of caves and archaeological sites where our earliest human ancestors remains were discovered. I live human evolution. This was just as much up my street as the cave paintings.
We headed to Sterkfontein cave where 'little foot' Australopithecus was found. A juvenile male, thought to be 3.7 million years old. To get to his dig site we put on hard hats and headed into the cave. I hate caves usually, but this one was dry, well lit and spider free, so I was fine. We walked through cave and were even crawling on our hands, knees and bums at some points, but it was perfectly safe, and we felt well looked after by our guide. The cave was 60 metres at its deepest. There was a crystal clear underground lake that years ago they had put dye in to see where it went. It came out 100km away, all undergroind. There was a bit of dust on top from the excavations still going on. There were also a few Stalactites and stalagmites but mist had been mined years ago. Limestone was mined there too. Little foot fell through an opening 45 metres from the ground and was fossilized. No one lived in the cave. Archaeologists know this because thete are no wall paintings or smoke on the ceiling.
Mrs Ples was the second specimine found and was also an Australopithecus (an offshoot of hominids, not from the Homo genus like we are). She (turned out to be a juvenile male) is 2.5 million years old. The Site is not in the cave, but close by. There were some students excavating fossils in a building nearby.
We then headed to the Lesedi cultural village (means place of light). It is not the natural site of a village, but was built to showcase the culture of four villages from 4 tribes in SA. Our guide was from the Zulu tribe, and ge led us around each village, where traditional houses had been made, and women were preparing traditional meals. We had to shout a greeting before we went into each village.
The first village was the Zulu tribe. We were introduced to thr spear maker and he dropped his spear. They were a Marijuana smoking tribe.
Basotho from Lesotho was the second tribe, who had slightly different buildings and clothing and language.
Xhosha was the next tribe. They have tounge clicking speech and songs. Went inside the hut. Women on right men on the left because if an enemy entered the door swung to the right so the men would be attacked first. Also a Marijuana smoking tribe!
Last was the tribe of the Pedi (Limpopo tribe, bordering Botswana). They wear kilts because they were attacked by the Scottish and refused to fight what they thought was a group of women. They were defeated and wear the kilts even today to remember. We were offered a dried or fresh worm to try as a local snack. Matt ate a dried worm, rather than fresh. I didn't.
There was then a 45 minute performance of dance from each village, plus neighbouring countries. We recognized the Swazi dance. Group of school girls were going mad and screaming at the men, who were only wearing animal skins. Drums and whistles, dancing with sticks or spears. Very charismatic Zulu man introducing each dance. Older women playing drums and singing. It went into break dancing, backflips, flossing and the worm at the end. One guy was absolutely living life. So energetic. A real spectacle.
Next, we drove back to the cradle of human kind to visit the museum. First we had lunch in the cafe with Nic. Chicken prego rolls. Delicious. The museum started with a corridor describing all major events in the Earth's history, like 4 mass extinctions, continents changing from 1 to 2, dinosaurs, first monkies, first single celled organisms, etc. Then we turned a corner and there was a round boat in the dark leading off into a dark river. It was a journey through Earth's geological beginnings - water, ice age, lava. It was fun and so unexpected.
The museum was then an interactive look at evolution and man's impact on the planet. It had 7 stations of what qualifies us as homo sapiens: ability to make fire, ability to speak, creation of tools to manipulate our environment, being sociable, creativity, food consumption, big brain. There was also a great 'clock' that showed the entire history of the earth in 12 hours. The first hominids appeared with only a couple of seconds to go, and homo sapiens, with less than a second. We are a mere dot in Earth's history!
We then drove back to our hotel, the Hype Park Guest House, chatting to Nic about the history of SA. The man sure knows his history, and the regions politics. He can recall dates instantly of anything from SA's history. A great tour guide. We managed to persuade Nic to be our guide for tomorrow's trip too.
We ended up back at Nelson Mandela Square in the Hard Rock Cafe listening to Queen again, exhausted after a fantastic day!
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