This was my first trip to the African continent – so I was super excited. A lot of what I knew about South Africa was gleaned from the many Wilbur Smith novels that I had read. Despite that, I kept an open mind as I truly believe that every journey is a path of discovery.
We landed at OR Tambo airport and were picked up by my friend Gaurav and driven to his apartment in Bedfordview which is a suburb of Johannesburg, fondly known as Jo’burg and Jozi. My first impression was that everyone lives in gated communities and that one cannot freely walk on the roads or take public transportation. You have to drive yourself everywhere or be driven about! There are maxi taxis which are a cheaper option but I was given to understand that it is the best and surest way to get mugged!
The first day we took it easy, getting to know our hosts – Gaurav, Mini and their wonderful son Parth. It was also the last day of Mini’s sister Deepti’s stay in Jozi, so the day revolved around her and her last minute shopping. We went to the Broma Handicraft market where we picked up African masks, candles and other souvenirs. That evening, we had a farewell dinner for Deepti at a Thai restaurant in Nelson Mandela Square.
The next morning we drove an hour north from Jozi to the Cradle of Humankind. It is a UNESO World heritage site, famous for the 3 million year old fossils of hominids and other animals. The discoveries were instrumental in changing the way we view humanity and the history of human development. The most important and most famous of these fossils are “Mrs Ples”, a 2.1-million-year-old Australopithecus skull, and “Little Foot”, an almost complete Australopithecus skeleton that is more than 3-million years old. These fossils, both found in the Sterkfontein Caves in the Cradle of Humankind, tell us much about the precursors of modern humans, Homo sapiens.
Archaeological finds within the Cradle of Humankind also include 2-million-year-old stone tools. The oldest recorded, at Swartkrans, near the Sterkfontein Caves, is a collection of 270 burnt bones that reveals how our ancestors learned to master fire more than 1-million years ago – a significant development and an early technological innovation. The ability to do this has taken us from the basic skills needed to keep ourselves warm and to cook our food, to being able to control and harness the power of fire to the extent that we can now create and burn rocket fuel to reach space and beyond.
The Maropeng Visitor Centre is an exciting, world-class exhibition, focusing on the development of humans and our ancestors over the past few million years.
It is remarkable how much we have achieved as humans over the last 3 million years but finally we have to ask ourselves................
http://www.maropeng.co.za
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