Your fun guide to the Cradle of Humankind
The Cradle of Humankind is not just about hominid fossils. It’s also the cradle of fun: Explore a cave, ride your bike, fish for trout… Here’s your guide.
The Cradle of Humankind is a roughly defined area north of Krugersdorp in Gauteng. Cyclists know about the trails and quiet roads there, but regular visitors often shoot past on their way to the Hartbeespoort Dam or the Pilanesberg. Don’t be one of those people! The Cradle has lots of fun activities and attractions and it’s close enough to home that you can be back on your couch in time for the rugby on a Saturday afternoon. The name of the area comes from its rich paleoanthropological heritage. Beneath the rolling hills is a network of limestone caves, of which Sterkfontein is the best known. The caves have been protected from the elements for thousands of years and many early hominid fossils have been unearthed here, including superstars like Mrs Ples and Little Foot. In fact, almost half of all hominid fossils in the world have been discovered in the Cradle. These discoveries changed our understanding of our origins and proved that Africa was indeed the birthplace of humankind…
1 Maropeng Visitor Centre
The Maropeng Visitor Centre is a hive of activity: There’s a market with food and curio stalls and a boutique hotel, but head to the Tumulus building first. It’s the one that looks like a burial mound and it’s where you’ll find the museum. But you won’t find any dusty artefacts in glass cases. Maropeng is part museum, part amusement park! At the entrance, security guards and cameras keep an eye on two fossils – Little Foot and a Homo naledi which was found in the Rising Star cave system about 2,2 km from Sterkfontein. Head down the hall and you’ll find boats and a manmade underground river. Get in and let the boat take you on a tour of the four elements – water, air, fire and earth – and the stages of Earth’s creation. You’ll go through an ice tunnel and past waterfalls, you’ll feel a strong gust of wind and you’ll watch water bubble and steam as lava forms caves around you. The last hall has a variety of interactive information boards and games where you can build puzzles and talk to extinct animals like the dodo on the telephone. Afterwards, have coffee at the Tumulus Restaurant, which overlooks the hills, and try to imagine what it must have been like when our ancestors roamed around. Cost: R120 per adult; R65 per child under 18; free for children under 4; R65 per pensioner and R75 per student. A double ticket for Maropeng and Sterkfontein costs R190 per adult; R125 per child. Opening times: Daily from 9 am to 5 pm. Contact: 081 375 5104; maropeng.co.za
2 Sterkfontein Caves
Each member of our tour group peers into the black mouth of the cave where a set of steel steps disappears into the darkness… “I can do this, Daddy, I can be brave,” the four-year-old girl in front of me assures her father. “Before Homo sapiens, Homo erectus and Neanderthals came Australopithecus, one of the first ancestors of humankind,” says guide Kgothatso Mzandisi. “Lucy is one of the best-known Australopithecus fossils. She was found by a team of palaeontologists in Ethiopia, who liked to listen to The Beatles. They named the fossil after the song ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’.” “Who were they listening to when they named Mrs Ples?” someone asks. “Ples Bridges!” I chip in. No one laughs at my joke. Palaeontologist Robert Broom discovered Mrs Ples, also an Australopithecus, in this cave in 1947. To date, it’s one of the most complete skulls of a human ancestor ever found. The path takes us past a side shaft, which is locked behind a steel door. This is the Silberberg Grotto where excavations are still being done. In 1980, four bones were found in Silberberg – at first they were thought to belong to a monkey and were dumped in a box with other animal bones. Fourteen years later, however, paleoanthropologist Ronald J Clarke looked through the box’s contents and realised that the bones were in fact part of the foot of an animal that had walked upright. It took his assistants only two days to find more bones in the cave, but it took another 15 years to carefully remove the fossils from the surrounding rock. You can see the nearly complete skeleton of Little Foot in the Maropeng Visitor Centre. For the next 100 m or so, you have to crawl in places to get to the main hall because the roof of the cave is only about a metre high. Fortunately you can’t get stuck. There’s an underground lake in one corner of the main hall. Kgothatso uses his hard hat to scoop up some water and calls the children in the group over to see the blind shrimp that live there. It’s hard to believe anything can survive down here. At the end of the tour you have to climb about 200 steps to the top, where bright sunlight and fresh air await. Cost: R165 per adult; R97 per child under 18; free for children under 4; R65 per pensioner and R100 per student. Buy a discounted combo ticket if you also want to go to Maropeng. Opening times: Daily from 9 am to 5 pm. Contact: 081 375 5104; maropeng.co.za
3 Kromdraai gold mine
When you pull into Ibis Farm on the Kromdraai Road, a young ridgeback called Django will run up to greet you. I scratch his ears and he leads me to the reception office, then he heads over to a cocopan and lies down – he knows this is where the tour will start. “The mine opened in 1885 and closed in 1914,” explains owner Gavin Whatley (pictured) as we set off on the tour. “Johannesburg didn’t exist back then. People were mining here before the gold rush on the Witwatersrand even began.” We walk through a museum filled with photos, maps and mining equipment. The miners went down the shafts without shoes or hard hats, and had only candles for light. They bored holes in the rock with hand drills and used dynamite to break the rock into smaller pieces. Donkeys pulled the pieces out in a cocopan and the miners looked for gold among the rubble. I follow Gavin down an old shaft, with Django taking the lead. A cold wind blows from the dark mouth of the mine. It smells old. Gavin points out porcupine quills on the ground. These days the mine offers shelter to several animals: porcupines, jackals, servals and bats. He directs the beam of his torch into the darkness, where Django is scurrying back and forth. “I’m never sure whether he comes along to keep me company or to hunt for bats,” Gavin says, scratching his head. Cost: R150 per adult; R50 per child. Opening times: Daily from 8 am to 4 pm; Friday from 8 am to 1 pm. Closed on Mondays. Contact: 082 259 2162
4 Wonder Cave
Wonder Cave is the third biggest (known) cave in South Africa, after Cango and Sudwala. You go down a set of stairs and then a lift takes you 18 m further into the earth. The hall of the cave is big enough to park a passenger plane! Wonder Cave was closed off from the outside world until the 1800s, when it was discovered by limestone miners who extracted the rock to make cement and even toothpaste! No fossils have been found here. The mine wasn’t in operation for very long. It was closed down during the second Anglo-Boer War and never reopened, leaving the cave in a fairly pristine state. There are several impressive stalactite and stalagmite formations in the cave. Look for the Praying Mary – a small stalagmite that looks like the Virgin Mary bowed in prayer, especially when torchlight casts her shadow on a cave wall. Wonder Cave is inside the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve – look out for game like buffalo, sable antelope, blesbok and eland on your way there. Cost: Wonder Cave R120 per adult; R100 per child under 12. Entrance to Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve R190 per adult; R140 per child under 12. Combo ticket for the cave and the reserve R240 per adult; R150 per child under 12. Opening times: Weekdays from 8 am to 5 pm; weekends from 8 am to 6 pm. The first tour of the cave starts an hour after the reserve opens and the last tour starts an hour before the reserve closes. There are also picnic and braai sites and a kiosk that sells light meals. Contact: 011 957 0006 ( Wonder Cave); 011 957 0349 (Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve); rhinolion.co.za
5 Catch a trout
Visit the tackle shop at the entrance to Brookwood Estate Trout Farm and you’ll usually find owner Dave Bain behind the counter. When I arrive, two men who look like seasoned fishermen are keeping him company, each sipping a beer. The trout farm has a laid-back atmosphere – you could easily spend the whole day on the lawns surrounding the five dams on the Bloubankspruit. Three of the dams are reserved for fly-fishing and one has all kinds of fish (trout, barbel, carp and bream). There’s a catch-and-release policy for all fish except trout, which you can buy and take home. There are also braai facilities under the trees if you can’t wait that long… (A guard at each dam makes sure you don’t take any fish you haven’t paid for.) Cost: R80 per adult per day; R50 per child under 12. Trout R110/kg. Hire a fishing rod for R50 per day. There are also two self-catering chalets on the farm (R350 per adult; R250 per child under 12; minimum stay two nights) and two camper’s cabins (R180 per person). Opening times: Weekdays from 7.30 am to 6 pm; weekends from 6 am to 6 pm. Contact: 072 526 7561; 082 856 2448; brookwoodtroutfarm.co.za
6 Ride your bike
It’s a Saturday morning. Before I set off for the Cradle, I type my destination into Google Maps. The roads in the area all light up red, meaning there’s heavy traffic, but when I get there I realise it’s not vehicles clogging up the roads but hundreds of cyclists in the bike lanes! Men, women, children… It’s road-biking heaven and there’s even a dirt track on the verge for mountain bikers. ( With all the cyclists coming and going, take care on the R374.) Like the roads, most of the restaurants in the area also cater to cyclists. Bidon Bistro ( 076 011 29612; bidonbistro.co.za) takes the cake. Come here on a weekend and almost every vehicle in the parking area has a bike rack. Inside, the place is packed with people wearing spandex. The menu is on the healthy side with a variety of smoothies on offer (add whey protein or wheatgrass for an extra R20), but there are also other options if you feel you deserve a treat. My decadent Cookies & Cream milkshake (R45) attracted a few envious stares. On weekends and public holidays there are stalls outside the restaurant, where you can get a massage or have your bike washed. There’s even a ridethrough coffee station! If you didn’t bring your bike, hire one for R200 per day at the Cradle Moon Lakeside Game Lodge ( 011 919 5000; cradlemoon.co.za) on the banks of Lake Heritage about 8 km north-east of the bistro. The lodge has three mountain-biking trails on its premises (entrance R50 per person) – visit cradlemoon.co.za for an interactive map. The Thatch Café ( 011 957 0109; thatchcafe.co.za) in the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve has a bike park where you can test your technical skills. There’s also a pump track for kids. Entrance costs R70 for cyclists older than 12; R50 per child under 12. Hire a BMX (R150) or a scooter for children under 5 (R100). Helmets are required – hire one for R30.