With the live matches out of the way, we took a day off to de-pressurise and lounge around the lodge, and take a trip out for a long and boozy lunch. After that there was nothing more we could do than head for a reunion with the couch and take a nap or watch some TV.
We had planned to spend the next day crossing off one of the touristy things from our list, and therefore headed off to an area to the North-West of Jo’burg called the Cradle of Humankind. This area of South Africa is riddled with caves that have been in existence for literally billions of years, with some of the local rocks being the oldest rock found on the surface of the Earth, at around half the age of the earth itself. In the Sterkfontein cave they have discovered some of the oldest fossilised bones of human ancestral Hominids (pre-Homo Sapiens) ever found, and a couple of distinct branches of the Human family tree.
So we started our exploration of this fascinating area at the World Heritage Site of Maropeng, where they had built what I can only describe as a discovery centre to tell the story of these early human ancestors. The main building itself sits like an earth pyramid jutting out of the landscape and covered in long African grasses, and disguises the fact that it descends many meters below the surface. We entered and looked around an exhibition about Darwin, before moving into the bowels of the building on an interesting journey of discovery, down a ramp that reverse chronologically described the sequence of significant events in the Earth’s History from modern technology to the Big Bang. Who would have imagined that the next step of the journey would involve a subterranean boat ride through a physical manifestation of the forces that shaped the early planet...!! We were blasted by wind, heated and cooled, sprayed with water and even fogged in mist as the 5 minute ride meandered through a series of passages. After the boat ride we had our photo’s taken and then had to navigate the ‘Vortex of Perception’ in which we had to walk across a bridge, suspended in a spinning tunnel of lights..... Woah....!! Both Yates and I had some serious trouble making it through the vortex without falling over, and we hadn’t even had a drink yet...!
The rest of the exhibition space was filled with interactive displays describing every aspect of being human from our place on the family tree, through evolution, DNA, and how we become creative and socialise as groups. Even though this part of the exhibition looked like it was aimed at educating the kids, Fiona seemed to enjoy playing with all the buttons and flaps, and seeing if she could answer all the questions correctly. Toward the end of the exhibition was room full of fossils and a display about plate tectonics, and a very small display showing that earlier this year, the paleoarchaeologists at this site had discovered another Hominid species, not previously known. I guess what I took away from the whole experience is that there is a whole lot more to be discovered than science currently knows about. The exhibition area ended and threw us out, somewhat disorientated, into the daylight a little way away from where we started, but with a view over the ’Cradle of Humankind’, and a walk back to the main building.
We made our way back to the main building and decided it was time to grab some lunch in their World Cup themed restaurant, which was quite upmarket considering where we were. Even the meals were themed, and Fiona had a Mexican inspired dish (chicken), Yates an Italian style meal (tagliatelli), while took a walk on the wild side and ordered something call ‘Eisbein’ which was described to me as being pork. Fiona & Yates’s meal arrived and looked very tasty, but when mine arrived...., HOLY CRAP....! It was a massive Pork Roast sitting on a huge plate, big enough to serve all 3 of us and more...! Just looking at this monstrous thing made me feel full, and even though I manfully tried to eat as much as I could, I still had over half this thing left, and the heaviest doggy bag ever....
After that I needed to walk around a bit and let thing settle, which was good, as our next stop was at the Sterkfontein Caves, where we were due to take a tour. Our Guide, strangely called Maropeng, the same as the place we had just come from, led us on a short walk to the cave entrance at the top of a 119-step series of stairs into the belly of the caves. Once inside, the Maropeng gave us a humorous but informative guided tour of the caves main features, and some of the history of the discoveries made at the site. We saw stalagmites, stalactites, flowstone, pillars, lakes and whole bunch beside, before going through a series of very small and cramped passages, requiring us to bend almost in two or resort to our hands and knees. At this point I thought I was going to have a re-visit from my lunch, what with all the crawling around, but luckily we started the assent back to the surface, before my lunch did.... It was a very interesting tour and the guide made the hour fly by, but we were soon back in the car and heading for home once again, to do our own thing for the evening, which for me did not include any further eating...
Today when I opened the fridge, my pork monstrosity doggy bag stares out at me in a slightly threatening manner until I can take it no more and close the door..... I think I need to starve myself for a couple more days before contemplating any further attempts to finish it....
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