Prof. Deborah Fahy Bryceson,Oxford
I immensely enjoyed the Cape Insights 8-day paleontological tour. My desire was to visit some of South Africa’s many dig sites and San bushmen cave art, in addition to gaining more awareness of South Africa’s mining and urbanization history.
Cape Insights provided an excellent tailored-made tour that catered to all my interests, and led me to an array of beautiful, awe-inspiring sites, accompanied with contextually rich background information.
Throughout, the tour operator teamed up with expert guides who had intimate knowledge of the places we visited, preceded by visits to imaginatively curated museums, which provided clear and strikingly memorable information on what I was about to encounter.The Cedarberg cave art sites at Bushmans Kloof provided an enchanting window into San culture, backed by exhibits at !Khwa ttu and the West Coast Fossil Park.
In Johannesburg, visits to the Evolutionary Studies Institute and the Origins Centre at the University of Witswatersrand, as well as the Pretoria Javett Art Centre with its impressive display of Mapungubwe gold, and the Malapa Museum’s explanation of the Rising Star Cave discovery of Homo naledi were prelude to paleontological site visits at Sterkfontein, Gladysvale and Malapa.
The tour was marvellously choreographed by Marion, who ensured that it was continually enjoyable. The engrossing daily tour activities were balanced by stylish, comfortable accommodation at night. Overall my tour expectations were thoroughly fulfilled.I am an academic researcher who has worked in East Africa for decades. Being a tourist gave me quite a different vantage point, affording me deeper appreciation of the political and cultural creativity of a multi-racial nation, which has been endeavouring to confront its historical injustices, while continuing to be a leading economic force on the continent.
The country’s superior infrastructure, economy and its tourist industry offers visitors an abundance of attractions. In my mind, its most fascinating attraction, is the recent discoveries of ancient origins of humankind in South Africa. The theme of human survival has a very long history in South Africa paleo-anthropology.My experience of South Africa was exhilarating, fun and deeply enriching. I definitely will be returning to see other parts of the country in the future to glean more about the puzzle of human origins and South Africa’s intrepid cultural, political and economic transformation during the 20th and 21st century.
– Professorial Fellow / Centre of African Studies / School of Social and Political Science / University of Edinburgh, UK
