While Elsa sat in the dentist chair, I took the opportunity to visit our good friends, Kobus and Gert, a mile away. Connoisseurs for the finer things in life, both are consummate experts on quilting and crochet. In between, another ‘first’ was experienced with a professional shave at a local barbershop! Then it was off to Mariana, our sister-in-law in Ruimsig (“Wide View”), a community west of Johannesburg. With every visit to SA, Mariana’s place has been a second home for us. Again, we were treated like royalty, and it was good to catch up with nephew Malcolm and fiancé Sandra. She has a gorgeous homestead with two apartments besides the main house. Ruimsig was central to many old school friends, and we caught up with Laura, Heck, and Stefan. Mot to be left out, it was off to have a few beers with old university buddies.
Fifteen miles away is the Sterkfontein Cave System (“Strong fountain”), home of the site where the discovery of a 2.3-million-year-old fossil Australopithecus africanus (nicknamed “Mrs. Ples”), was found in 1947 by Robert Broom and John T. Robinson. The find helped corroborate the 1924 discovery of the juvenile Australopithecus africanus skull known as the “Taung Child”, by Raymond Dart, at Taung in the North West Province of South Africa, where excavations continue.
Also known as The Cradle of Humankind, the site is home to the largest concentration of human ancestral remains anywhere in the world. It currently occupies 47,000 hectares (180 sq. mi) and contains a complex system of limestone caves. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, Sterkfontein alone has produced more than a third of early hominid fossils ever found prior to 2010. It is indeed a sight to behold and should be on everyone’s bucket list.
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