Cradle of Humankind

The day

A UNESCO World Heritage Site holding around a third of all early hominin fossils ever found. You descend into the Sterkfontein Caves where Mrs Ples was discovered, then走 the Maropeng exhibition that puts it all in order.

Sterkfontein has been excavated continuously since 1936 and is still producing. The guided descent takes you past the working dig and into the chamber where Little Foot was found, almost complete, in the rock. Afterwards, Maropeng's exhibition under its great grass tumulus runs from the origin of the planet to the Homo naledi reconstructions, and it is genuinely one of the best-designed museums on the continent. Wear shoes you can walk in; the cave floor is wet.