The Sterkfontein Caves… a marvellous experience
In South Africa, in the North Eastern part of the country, there is a world-renowned tourist attraction called the Sterkfontein Caves. Archaeologists and palaeontologists around the world know this landmark that is only 45 minutes from Johannesburg by road. This has been dubbed the Cradle of Mankind since it’s where the oldest bones of our earliest ancestors were discovered. I will not bore you with the millions of years that the skulls date to because this is not a book about evolution or even archaeological findings.
Around the year 2019 BC (read Before Covid-19) I got the honour to visit the Maropeng Game park where the caves are located, refer to image below (if you cant see me look for white big eyes). It was a big group of students from all the continents of the world under the YouthMappers.
The story was narrated to us that day as follows. In 1984, two divers attempted to establish the depth of this underwater lake with crystal clear waters. These were very experienced divers, so they tugged themselves onto a cord line. This line would guide them back to the entrance of the cave given no accurate positioning system had been adequately developed back then (hello to the land surveyors!!!!).
As fate would have it, one of the divers strayed too far and possibly severed the cord that would guide him back to the entrance. This underwater lake had numerous entrances and hundreds of islands which made it all the harder to retrace one’s path to the entrance. The other diver retold the story that he quickly left the cave and reported the matter to the police who came with a huge team of rescue divers the following day. The search went on for about two weeks until the diver’s…
Find more and such stories in my book premiering next month, November 2022.
Michael Ssebaggala
Twitter @seya_694
