Had breakfast freshly prepared in the morning before we set off for the Cradle of the Humankind, another UNESCO site. Took about 30minutes to drive there, wasn't difficult trying to locate the place. We arrived pretty early and there wasn't much people around which was perfect. Bought the tickets for both Sterkfontein caves and Maropeng, which was another site further up the road.

We were then greeted by a guide after we bought the ticket telling us where to meet for the start of the tour. Meanwhile we were free to roam around an exhibition area which showcased scientific theories and models explaining the beginning of Earth and Life itself. Lotsa brilliantly illustrated exhibits filled up the place and kept us busy while waiting for the tour to start.

We were led out of the exhibition room pretty much on time and were on our way to the Sterkfontein Caves, where the famous fossil of the Little Foot was discovered and still being excavated at this moment. Passed by a really cool Sundial along and way and the guide explained how it works and that it can only read time till 6pm. Why? 'Cause it needs the sun to tell time..duhh!

Into the Sterkfontein caves we went. It was downslope followed by an upslope walk/climb and we had to squeeze through tunnels at some points. The cave was strategically lit up by yellow lights along the way so it wasn't a problem looking where you were going yet the cave sort of still retained it dark atmosphere. Inside were pretty much just, don't know how many x years ago, rock formations. The exciting thing was, to the scientists at least, the dicovery of the fossil of the Little Foot, which was basically just a monkey that fell into the caves and died there long ago. The reason why its given such high publicity is because its the first time, I was told, that a full set of bones and fossils are preserved nicely and thus will provide a hell lot of info for scientists to find our more about the evolution of human etc etc etc.

What was interesting to me was actually a lake, a cavern lake to be precise, that was cordoned off but can still see it. Well, actually you can't really see it 'cause its too dark there and it became obvious only when the guide threw a rock in and water splashed. Then we were told a chilling story about how 3 students tried to establish the depth of the lake. In the 1990s, those 3 students decided to scuba dive to try to find out how deep the lake is. And so the went in and they dove till 40metres below the surface and still no bottom was in sight. They couldn't go any further as the rope almost ran out and so they decided call it a day. When the divers surfaced, they realised that 1 of the students did not come up and it was taking way too long. So they decided to go back down to search for him but no luck. The only thing they found was a floating torch that he was using and a dettached rope that he was bound to initially. A team of resuce divers were called in to help but they simply could not find any clue to where the student might go! The search was subsequently called off. And a few days or weeks, I can't remember, passed before his body was finally found, and it wasn't in the lake, it was somewhere along the side of another water body a distance away from the caves. I has to wonder if there was any prehistoric creature living in the lake! There were no further attempts to find out the depth of the lake since then.

At this point, just when everyone was a little creeped out, the guide suddenly spinned around and started dashing off!! WTF! The kids that were sticking to him immediately chased after him! Then the guide stopped! SMLJ?? Turned out that he was just making use of the atmosphere to cracka joke on us. LOLz! And the kids were all so embarassed! It was a really funny moment actually!

And so we made our way out of the caves and there was a statue of one of the scientists at the egress. Touch his nose and you will have good luck! We continued to walk all the way back to our car and drove to Maropeng. This place is basically just a scientific exhibition area telling theories of human beginnings and evolution. Some artefacts were also on display. There was an interesting boat ride too in there. We had lunch there and then after much deliberation, we decided to check out a game reserve nearby.

It was called the Lions and Rhinos Game Reserve. We paid the entrance fee and went in. The terrain was really meant for 4x4 vehicles and our Picanto really had a tough time in there. Took us sometime before we spotted our first animal, the Ostrichs! Then we went round and round and realised that there are gates which we can pass thru to other sites. This brought us to a encounter of a lifetime! Lions sleeping right beside the roads! It was like just a couple of metres from the car! Thrilling! We went around somemore and caught views of cheetahs, wildbeests and some weird birds. Tong was really disappointed when he didn't manage to see Rhinos but just when we were about to leave, I saw a Rhino standing amidst the tall grasses a distance away! Now we finally left with no regrets.

Drove back to Jo'burg and had dinner at the area near our guesthouse again. I had Ostrich fillet and Tong had Ribs, both sucks! The first lousy meal of our trip and it was our last of the trip. TMD! But well, this trip was fantastic and there were certainly no regrets! More than a year in the making and turned out better than expected. Money well spent!