Mauropeng - The Cradle of Humankind

We were up at O'Dark-thirty again to catch an early flight back to Johannesburg.  Once there, we split into two groups.  Half of us were staying in Jo'burg, and the others were flying on to Phalaborwa.  The flights to Phalaborwa are small planes, and we wouldn't all fit on one.  Yikes!  So...my group got to tour Mauropeng - The Cradle of Humankind first, with Pumla back as our guide. It was supposed to only be about a 30-minute drive, but there was road construction and lots of traffic, so it took twice as long, but we finally got there.

Mauropeng means “returning to the place of origin” in Setswana, an indigenous language.  About 1,000 hominid fossils have been discovered there, some more than three million years old (Australopithecus), and that's something I'm still trying to wrap my brain around.  (Mary - this is where I got your first rock!)

Mauropeng Visitor Centre

 

 

After lunch and a little souvenir shopping, we headed back to the airport.  My jaw dropped when I saw our plane.  I'd never been on a plane this small before, but I put on a brave face, took a deep breath, got on, and survived to tell the tale.