Yesterday I travelled to the beginning of the universe – and was back in time for lunch. 

Who would have believed that you could watch - in a morning - ice-ages pass, molten lava turn into rock, and plants and animals rise and fall through processes of evolution and extinction.  You can do all of these things – including the lunch – at Gauteng’s Cradle of Humankind or its component parts of Sterkfontein and Maropeng.  This is where you will find out – perhaps to your consternation – that life (including you) started out as the kind of black algae that you get in your swimming pool if you have not been prompt with the HTH.  For some people it has been a short hop from single-celled beings to driving blue-light cars and talking loudly on cellphones; others have taken a more circuitous route. First I must explain:  the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site is not, as you might think, a single complex with all the trimmings.  It is instead a vast 74 000-ha piece of land about an hour’s drive north of Johannesburg.  It is on this piece of land that a number of breathtakingly exciting palaeo-anthropological finds were made by people like Raymond Dart, Robert Broom, Ron Clarke, etc, Professors all.  These discoveries are further evidence to support the argument (which still rages fiercely whenever a group of grey-beards get together over mugs of tea) that every single human on earth today is descended from a handful of hominids who lived in this area, oh, about three or four million years ago. Within the Cradle of Humankind precinct are a number of visitors’ centres a few kilometres apart.  There are the Sterkfontein Caves, which have delivered more important fossils than anywhere else on earth, including the famous Mrs Ples (two million years old), Little Foot (four million years old) and a few more of my direct ancestors.  The Caves have been developed into an exciting ride into the past – and the fact that the displays and entertainment are exactly on the spot where the discoveries took place (and might still take place – there is ongoing excavation) gives the whole thing an irresistible frisson. About 15 kilometres away is the Maropeng Visitors Centre.  Maropeng means ‘Returning to our Roots’ and is an extremely impressive building rising like a half-buried space-ship out of the surrounding lawn.  The front of the building resembles a tumulus – an ancient burial mound – and the back is a modern glass-and-concrete structure.  The centre has been incredibly well thought out, with subtle little touches in keeping with the theme of ‘Back to the Future’.  Actually, it’s quite a sensory experience – the first sound in the airy foyer is the huge rush of falling water, which then goes on to celebrate the other three elements;  earth, wind and fire. A lot of trouble has been taken with exhibits and displays to make them as accessible and interesting as possible.  You can chat to a dodo on the telephone, take a boat ride through Creation, share make-up tips with a group of hominids (I don’t know about you, but I think humans have improved slightly over the intervening centuries), and have all your questions answered about the history of the world and everything in it.  In a separate and heavily guarded room is a low-key display of the actual fossils that caused all the excitement – it is a little startling to think that our entire history has been deduced from these scraps of discoloured bone.   Although if you put a brunette wig on Mrs Ples she would look irresistibly like an ex-boss of mine, complete with petulant expression. The most traffic-stopping element of the entire exhibition, in my opinion, is the ‘Modern Man’ section at the back, where a population clock ticks off the number of people being added to the planet.   The scariest thing is watching the numbers increase so fast that you can hardly see them change – just where on earth are we going to put all these new people?  This visitors’ centre is most certainly an extremely thought-provoking place. Part of the Maropeng complex is a superb boutique hotel and restaurant for lunch and stop-overs, boasting a stupendous view over the dreamy hills where Man had his beginnings.  I would recommend spending at least two days in this ancient valley, exploring the different attractions as well as the game parks and craft villages nearby.  Sterkfontein would soak up a fair few hours, and Maropeng is good for half a day at least.  One can get combined entrance tickets, which makes the whole place highly affordable.  There are also group rates for school children (and this place is a wow for school-children). Just one gentle warning – the Cradle, Sterkfontein and Maropeng are not terribly easy to find.  Do not approach this trip with insouciance, or you might find yourself so lost that you will be inhabiting a cave for the rest of your life.  Get careful directions or take the good old GPS.  Many of the roads are not marked and the actual signposting is woeful.  Having said this, though, the effort is worth it. Take a look at the superb website at www.maropeng.co.za or contact the Visitor’s Centre at 014 – 577-9000.