Discovering my human heritage

Two weekends ago we got lost on our way to Maropeng which is an exhibit about the evolution of man and all things related in the atmosphere.  It is not uncommon to get lost since the places here will not give their addresses but intersections or just GPS coordinates.  But after a 20 minute detour we finally found the massive center in the middle of nowhere Africa.

Maropeng is a modern museum with lots of interactive stations and even a water ride.  When we entered we read up on some basic history of humankind then loaded into our raft to embark on a journey back in time.  The water ride took us through the highlights of the major events in history which formed the earth.  Complete with snow, rain, shifting rocks and fire it was an interesting 10 minute ride.

After docking our raft we went through a vortex signifying the Big Bang Theory where I became quite dizzy but non the less, made for a fun entrance.  First up was the birth of the cradle with several interactive displays.  All of the info was a little too mature for Adalyn to understand but she does not shy away from pressing buttons and manipulating things, so she enjoyed her time.

Next we were able to see human remains and they had quite the impressive collection.  The displays spoke about the evolution of man from ape and how we now interact with our environment.  There was a short clip at the end that was next to a fossil display.

As we headed out of the exhibit there was a whole wall with info on sustainability and the human impact.  Of course it had to have a large display on power and energy speaking to the horrific use of burning coal for energy that Mark was not so keen about.  And interestingly enough they talked about how Americans are the worst at using energy and how we are polluting the planet more than anyone else in the world.

After the exhibit ended there was a kid's cave that Adalyn and of course Mark and I were able to explore.

We then ventured to the view top for some pictures and off to the playground.  After lunch and a little shopping we headed home.  The excursion took longer than I expected and was interesting but it did not interest me enough to go back again.  At least we got to throw in a little science into our normal animal adventures.