Things to Do in the Cradle of Humankind for Couples

The Cradle of Humankind, about 50 km north-west of Johannesburg, gives a couple a full day and a night without a long drive. Mornings go to the fossil caves at Sterkfontein and the Maropeng visitor centre. Afternoons can go to a sculpture park, a long lunch or a massage. The evening belongs to Forum Homini Boutique Hotel, where the Dare2Dream Dome Restaurant serves an 11-course Dinner with a Story, on selected days, in a lit forest and a transparent dome; a cave-style suite waits for the night, and a themed breakfast can follow.

The plan below runs in that order, with the published times, prices and booking terms, and a plain note wherever something has to be confirmed. It ends with a few rituals from the love story behind the dinner, which couples can take home.

Why the Cradle works for a couple’s day

It is close. Forum Homini’s own directions put the hotel roughly 40 minutes from Sandton City, 60 minutes from Pretoria and 15 minutes from Lanseria Airport, so there is no long drive at either end of a special day.

It is fossil country. UNESCO declared the Cradle a World Heritage Site in 1999, and its 47,000 hectares include the Sterkfontein Caves, where the fossils known as Mrs Ples and Little Foot were found.

And the evening has a love story in it. Dinner with a Story comes from Upstairs Downstairs: A Musical Memoir by Karina Marais, the story of a couple who have lived apart together for more than 20 years, with his bachelor pad upstairs and her retreat downstairs. The pair married in October 2022, after 18 years of that arrangement, and carried on Living Apart Together: the full account is in how they married and kept their two floors.

By day: fossils, sculpture and views

Start at the Wits Sterkfontein Caves (opens in a new tab). Tours take up to 30 people underground, where it stays at 20 °C all year and everyone wears a helmet. Wear closed, non-slip shoes and avoid dresses or loose clothing. The caves involve stairs and tight spaces, so they do not suit anyone with limited mobility or claustrophobia; the museum and the Timeline Walk are wheelchair accessible. Book on Webtickets or on arrival; the Curious Café on site serves refreshments.

Maropeng (opens in a new tab) tells the longer story, from the formation of the planet through human evolution, with fossils and stone tools up to a million years old. Book a time slot online or at the door, and arrive 15 minutes early.

For the afternoon, NIROX Sculpture Park (opens in a new tab) sets art across 30 hectares of lawns, fields, waterways and wetlands. Its restaurant, And then there was Fire, opens Thursday to Sunday from 11:00 to 18:00, with the kitchen closing at 16:00, and diners who book ahead pay a reduced park entry of R80.

Forum Homini itself lists more to add nearby: palaeo tours with palaeontologists, hot-air ballooning, a rhino and lion nature reserve and canopy tours. It does not publish operators or prices for these, so ask the hotel about them when you book. At the hotel there are in-room massages, sound therapy and a monthly wine tasting at Roots, its other restaurant. The full day-trip plan has more lunch stops and ticket details.

At 17:00: a photo with the swans

The launch programme for the dinner began at 17:00 with arrival and a photograph with the swans. These are two golden swan floats on a timber deck by the water, which Karina Marais’s culinary guide calls “Symbols of a Lifelong Bond”. In her photographs they sit inside a giant gilded picture frame, with a red carpet in front: the obvious place for a couple’s portrait.

By night: Dinner with a Story

Dinner with a Story is 11 courses, served in stages through the evening. Her restaurant’s website says each dish is presented as an act in different locations: guests step into a fantasy setting, then cross a bridge to the dome. Nine of the courses are acts in the full sense: a tale from the memoir, one of Karina’s songs and a dish. The grappa and the sorbet are pauses in the forest.

Several acts are love-story moments. The caviar and cava recall the day her first song arrived from a producer in Bali, and it is the love song Upstairs Downstairs that plays. The Purple Pears arrive fifth, because in the film The Taste of Things marriage is compared to a dinner that begins with dessert, and she writes that Living Apart Together keeps the couple in that “dessert phase”.

The last course, coffee with glazed ginger and marshmallows by candlelight, belongs to the Swan Cups and their popera song. Every course, with its tale and its song, is set out in what to expect at each of the eleven courses.

Bookings go to Forum Homini: email reservations@forumhomini.com or call 071 533 1019. The dinner runs on selected days only, and its price is not published, so ask for both. The dinner page has the full menu and a booking email you can fill in.

Stay: cave-style suites

Forum Homini’s rooms are built into the earth in a “cave” style, with grass-covered roofs, fireplaces, stalactite lights and double indoor and outdoor showers. Its accommodation page lists:

• 10 standard luxury suites.
• 2 deluxe suites, each with a private outdoor Jacuzzi.
• A honeymoon suite, with a spa bath and private dining for two.
• A presidential suite, with a private garden and a splash pool.

The online booking page (opens in a new tab) sells bed-and-breakfast rates for one or two guests. Dinner is available on request and must be chosen with the rate, and guests may pick Roots or Dare2Dream for dinner. Check-in is from 14:00 and check-out at 10:00. A 50% deposit is required, with the balance due seven days before arrival, and bookings cancelled or changed 48 hours before arrival carry a 100% fee, as the page words it.

If you would rather celebrate at Roots, 50 Best Discovery describes it as a restaurant for a special occasion, with a short tasting menu of modern food with a South African twist and a view of the private game park.

Morning: breakfast with a story

The dinner has a partner: a 3-course “FUN breakfast”, with a tale and a song for each dish. There is a fruit parfait from the fruit salad her former mother-in-law made for Sunday lunches; chunks of croissant with caramelised banana in steaming hot milk, from her mother’s rainy-day treat; and lamb tails with putu pap, from a cold late-1960s morning around a fire on a Karoo farm. The songs and chapters are on the dinner page under breakfast with a story.

Like the dinner, the breakfast runs on selected days. The published details do not say whether it is only for guests who stay the night, so ask for it when you book the room and the dinner.

A gift with meaning: the Swan Cups

Karina Marais and her husband drink their coffee from a pair of cups designed for them: one cobalt blue, one lime green, with gold wing handles, sharing a single saucer. The back cover of her memoir explains the idea: swans form a lifelong bond, and the cups reflect the couple’s “togetherness while celebrating their individuality”.

The Swan Cups are sold at Forum Homini for R1,995, including a copy of the memoir, and are on display at reception. Her restaurant’s website says guests use them in the rooms and at the Dinner with a Story. They have their own song, the popera Swan Cups of Love, and a QR code on the book’s back cover opens it. The Swan Cups page has the song, the story and where to buy them.

Rituals to borrow from more than 20 years together

The memoir is full of small ceremonies that the couple have kept for more than 20 years. None needs a hotel.

• Set the tray the night before. On mornings they spend together, Karina makes the coffee. She chooses the tray and the cups the evening before and adds a flower, a few rose petals or a small token, a habit she learned from her mother-in-law.
• Start with dessert. Their “dessert phase” is a real dinner: purple pears first, then the rest of the meal.
• Dress for each other. During lockdown they dressed as if they were going out, even on the days they spent apart, and sometimes matched their outfits to the colours of the table.
• Set a table anywhere. Their weekend breakfast table goes in front of his bed. They carry set tables wherever they choose, and she calls it “never a chore but a ritual”.
• Light the table. For summer dinners she sets a table for two in front of their pool’s glass wall, and sometimes changes the colour of its LED lights to suit the table.

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These small details transform an ordinary act into something special, a ritual that has bound us together for over 20 years.

The whole story, rituals and all, is in the memoir.

Good to know before you book

• Age. No children under 12: every guest must be 12 or older.
• Days. Sterkfontein is closed on Mondays, and the NIROX restaurant opens Thursday to Sunday. Dinner with a Story runs on selected days only, so fix the dinner date first and build the day around it.
• Price. Room rates change, and the dinner’s price is not published. Ask for both in one email to reservations@forumhomini.com, or call 071 533 1019.
• Dietary needs. No dietary policy is published for Dare2Dream, so raise any needs when you book.
• Getting there. The hotel is on Letamo Game Estate, Kromdraai, off the R540 and the N14; its printable directions cover routes from OR Tambo, Sandton, Pretoria and Lanseria.