#BucketListOdyssey #Sterkfontein caves UNESCO World Heritage Site

2 old friends
a producer & a paramedic
defying menopause
on a Bucket List Odyssey

Follow friends Vanessa Yelseth and Kim Williams on their adventures to bring you affordable bucket list adventures in and around South Africa.

THE STERKFONTEIN CAVES UNESCO World Heritage Site

After visiting the Maropeng and purchasing our combined tickets for both Maropeng Visitors centre and Sterkfontein we made our quick 10 minute drive to the caves.

Combination ticket
Adults R215 | Children (4-14) R143
Opening times
Maropeng 09h00 - 17h00
(Closing time extended to 19h00 on Fridays and Saturdays until 11 October 2015)
Sterkfontein Caves 09h00 - 17h00

There was great excitement and a huge buzz within the Cradle of Human Kind as one of the worlds most fantastic and significant finds had been revealed. The find of Naledi (read our Maropeng blog to find out more). I had been to the caves before but each time I return the thrill is always there! I have added some pics from my last visit as we had a little oops with one of the cameras. You will note in these photos we did not wear hard hats so this is a fairly new rule, but a good one. I hit my head a few times and was glad I had my hard hat on!

the caves are under the mound

the small building in the background is a small "shop" were you can buy fossils and replicas. Some are really beautiful

So it is with renewed excitement that we visit the Cradle on Human kind and in particular the Sterkfontein Caves.!

photo google

Photo Google

The area has been beautifully presented with a restaurant and gift shop. Ample secure parking and a beautiful museum. Hard hats are now compulsory

The Sterkfontein Caves - Inside the gorgeous museum

The Sterkfontein Caves form part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, which named as such by UNESCO in 1999. This area is part of over 47 000 hectares of privately owned land.

The Sterkfontein (meaning strong spring) Caves are a series of limestone caves some 50 kilometres north west of Johannesburg that are not only the richest, but also the most productive palaeo-anthropological sites in the world and we were about to enter into this incredible place

The Sterkfontein Caves lay claim to some of the most important discoveries about man’s evolution, including the famous discovery of the hominid fossils “Mrs Ples and “Little Foot”. The caves are well worth a visit and an absolute bucket list must!. After something of a facelift the Sterkfontein Caves now have improved access into the caves, new walkways and a boardwalk past the excavation site, offering visitors a bird’s eye view of the spot where these famous fossils were found.

Part of the exhibition at the caves includes a reconstruction of a mined cave as opposed to a pristine cave, early life forms, cave formations and geology, mammals and hominid fossils, as well as detailed description of the finding of “Mrs Ples, the “Taung Child” and “Little Foot”.

You are really thrown into a world of the past and you realise just how small you are in the bigger scheme of things!

Some of the fossil displays - they have really gone to great lengths to make this tour very informative and interactive. It is fantastic.

Photo google

Photo Google

All of the lifelike hominid illustrations were interestingly produced by the man who worked on the film Jurassic Park and whose exhibits you can see at other museums in America. We found this information really super cool especially the boys as they are big fans of Jurassic Park!!

The tour of the Sterkfontein Caves, which start above ground then goes deep into the caves. Fossils discovered here date back more than 4 million years, to what is considered to be the birth of humanity.

Vanessa snapping me as I sneak in a shot of her!!

and we are off

Interesting information on the sun/time dial

The Cradle of Humankind Site comprises a strip of a dozen dolomitic limestone caves containing the fossilized remains of ancient forms of animals, plants and most importantly, hominids.

And into the belly we go. You can feel the temperature drop significantly and you can smell the damp as you go deeper inside.

And this is why we need the hard hats!!

The Sterkfontein Caves are owned by the University of the Witwatersrand, whose scientists have been responsible for the main excavations of the World Heritage Site.

They are credited with a multitude of famous discoveries including the world famous “Mrs Ples” and “Little Foot”, an almost complete Australopithecus skeleton dating back more than 3-million years.

My favorite the "elephant rock"

Within the Sterkfontein Caves, scientists have discovered many hominid and other animal fossils, dating back more than 4-million years, to the birth of humanity. 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.

Jordan having a laugh with a stuffed Zebra

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 Swartkrans caves are next on our list - we cannot wait to explore them and share our adventure with you all.

A real life dig on the go!! So super cool!

Daniel and Vanessa

and crawling we start to go - this was such fun we felt like real life Indiana Jones' in Raiders of the Lost Arc!

it was amazing to share this experience together and with our boys!

Conor on a mission

Daniel taking it all in and loving it!

photo google

then we popped out the cave and it took a little while to get used to the sudden daylight!

Please remember to wear comfortable shoes when going to the caves and leave your handbags and other luggage behind. There are a number of tight spots and pathways to negotiate in the caves and it is not advisable to do the tour if you are claustrophobic. It is also not advisable for people who suffer from acute asthma or chest problems to do the tour as there are a lot of stairs.

Photo Google

Once you pop out the cave you make you way around the wooden walk way

Where do we find the famous Sterkfontein caves?

Only an hour’s drive from Johannesburg and Pretoria, the Sterkfontein Caves are world famous for their fossil finds and a well-known visitor destination. After an extensive face-lift in 2005, the Sterkfontein Caves site is home to a top restaurant, conferencing facilities, easy access to the caves themselves, modern walkways and a boardwalk past the excavation site where world-acclaimed fossils have been discovered.

Some of the awesome goodies on sale in the small shop

This well researched storyline forms the basis of the Sterkfontein Caves experience.

Dr Robert Broom with Mrs Pless
The Sterkfontein Caves are owned by the University of the Witwatersrand whose scientists have been responsible for the main excavations of the World Heritage Site. Sterkfontein has been excavated for more than 62 years in total, but it is amazingly still yielding up its secrets.
The discovery just recently of the almost complete skeleton of 'Little Foot' bears ample testament to the wealth of information which is still to be gained from the cave deposits at Sterkfontein.

Maropeng is the visitor centre of the Cradle of Humankind and about 10 minutes drive from Sterkfontein.

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Photo Credits: Kim Williams Copyright
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