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This is where it all happened. Africa is home where we became human. You will never be able to fully understand how it happened, or even when and where, but a trip around some of our heritage sites will give you an inkling. Day 1 Fly in to Johannesburg, and settle in to your hotel. Then visit Museum Afrika in the Newtown Complex. Day 2 Drive out to Cradle of Humankind and do an escorted tour with a qualified palaeontologist. It was here that the groundbreaking discoveries of fossil remains of the homonid Austrolopithecus africanus (most popularly represented in the skull nicknamed Mrs Ples) were found. Day 3 Visit the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, where you can see whats left of Mrs Ples, the austrolopithecine who caused all the fuss.
Day 4 Drive towards Cape Town through the Karoo on the N12, stopping over in Kimberley.
Day 5 Explore the rock engravings near Kimberley, and then continue to Cape Town.
Day 6 Visit the South African Museum, where you will see Eves footprint. This is a cast of an approximately 120 000 year old footprint, surmised to be that of a woman. Whether male or female, scientists agree that Eve was human.
Day 7 Head out to the Cedarberg. Depending on your budget, either stay over at Bushmanskloof, a luxury Game lodge, or next door at Travellers Rest, a simple, self-catering establishment. If youre staying at Bushmanskloof, youll be taken on guided tours of the incredible rock art by qualified guides (as well as doing game drives and being fed on lovely food). If youre staying at Travellers Rest, you can buy an inexpensive guide to the rock art, and take yourself out for walks. The paintings are similar, and were done by the same people, who would have migrated from the West Coast to the Mountains, spending winter at the coast and summer in the mountains. Spend at least two days here.
Day 8 Return to Cape Town via Langebaan, where you can walk on the beach, admiring the view and imagining what it was like to move between these two lovely environments. If its summer, you could lunch at Strandloper, in Langebaan, where you will be offered a very modernised, romanticised, version of what the ancient hunger-gatherers ate while in the coastal area.
Day 9 Drive out to Plettenberg Bay via Hermanus. Have lunch in Hermanus at Bientangs Cave. The food, while perfectly ok, is not special, but the setting is superb. The restaurant is built in the cave, which was inhabited by the last surviving Khoi-San to live in that area. It is easy to imagine what life must have been like for her. Continue to Plettenberg Bay, and settle in to a nice hotel or B&B.
Day 10 Go for a walk on Robberg Peninsula, visiting the archaeological field museum in Nelson?s Bay Cave. This is only one of the many caves which were inhabited, and which are being excavated, in the area.
Day 11 Drive to Port Elizabeth and stop at Stormsriver Mouth, where you can go for a lovely walk, and visit another cave this one is not as well documented as Nelsons Bay, but it should give you an idea of the range of settlements that existed tens of thousands of years ago. This is a good spot for lunch nothing special but a great view.
Day 12 Fly to Durban and transfer to the Drakensberg. Settle in to your hotel or B&B.
Day 13 Go for a walk to see rock art, and compare the style and content of this rock art to that of the Cedarberg and Kimberley. Spend a day or two here.
Day 14 Then drive towards Johannesburg, with an optional stop in Clarens to see more rock art ? on the other side of the mountains.
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