A day that involves a drive to the scenic Magaliesberg is always a welcomed pleasure and when my colleague Bianca Bothma invited me to the Sterkfontein Caves I jumped at the opportunity.
Only an hour’s drive from Johannesburg, the caves are home to the amazing discovery of “Little Foot”, an almost complete Australopithecus skeleton dating back three million years. I was intrigued to see the place where my ancestors had been uncovered.
Our knowledgeable tour guide, Maropeng Ramalepa, began the tour by telling us of the various fossils, such as “Little Foot” and “Mrs Ples”, before leading us down into the cave through the man-made opening. He warned that there would be some manoeuvering through tight nooks and crannies but that didn’t deter me at all.
Inside in the darkness I was awed by the relics of ancient history that were surely lying there, waiting to be exposed; the discoveries made so far seemed but the tip of the iceberg.
The Sterkfontein Caves tour is not very difficult physically, although the unfit could be out of breath at the end of the many steps into the sunlight afterwards. But don’t let that stop you from visiting this place of beauty where so much more about our ancestors can be learnt.
