In 1992, my family & I spent Christmas in Texas and New Mexico. During that trip we visited the Carlsbad caverns in New Mexico. The caves were gigantic and amazing to wander around in! Ever since that family trip I’ve loved exploring caves. Perhaps this early exposure led me to be a geologist in some sort of way…

The last destination on our long weekend trip was to the highly anticipated Sterkfontein Caves. They’re world-acclaimed as many fossils have been discovered in them. First discovered in 1896 by an Italian miner, they endured 40 years of mining activity before scientists started more serious archeological excavations in 1936.

We left Maropeng in the morning and made our way through vast farmlands to Sterkfontein. The visitor centre was very nice yet sadly the first thing you see is their gift store. This is not such a welcome sight when you have kids. Claire had a hard time with us saying no to a new stuffy so we bartered a purchase in trade for no-fuss during our hour long underground tour. Yes, sometimes you have to erm, ‘cave’ if you want to get things done as a parent.

I figured we would walk into the side of a mountain to get started but no, we entered by way of the earth down a very long & steep staircase, ducking at times to proceed. In fact, the entrance isn’t visible at a distance as it blends into the grassland so well. It was intriguing and the kids were amazing on the tour. I thought for sure they would be scared as it was dark and we had to crawl through few a few sections, but no. It was a hot day and the caves were a cool 18C which was soothing for us heat sensitive Canadians. After our unique tour through the dolomitic limestone depths we climbed out of the earth, squinting much of the walk back to the visitor centre.

After buying the promised stuffed animals (a giraffe and a hippo) we made our way back to our cooked car. Onwards back to Johannesburg.

We had a great little trip that provided us with plenty of memories and photos. Perhaps one of the kids will find future inspiration as I did with my geo work.

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