A crack just 18 centimetres wide in places is the only way in Elen Feuerriegel
ALIA GURTOV was still in bed when she saw the job advert in her Facebook feed. “The catch is this,” it read, “the person must be skinny and preferably small. They must not be claustrophobic, they must be fit, they should have some caving experience, climbing experience would be a bonus.” She applied within an hour.
Gurtov wasn’t the only one drawn to the post. Within minutes, it was being liked, re-liked, shared and blogged around the world. Elen Feuerriegel saw it on Tumblr. Marina Elliott received a link by email. “OH. MY. GOD,” wrote one blogger. “LOOK AT WHAT LEE BERGER JUST POSTED TWO MINUTES AGO GUYS.” “What did they fiiiiiiiiiind?” wondered a commenter.
At this stage, Berger himself had little idea. The South African fossil hunter famed for his discoveries of early hominids was going on a few photographs. The pictures had been taken a few days earlier by two young cavers, deep inside the Rising Star cave system, 30 kilometres north-west of Johannesburg and 30 metres below ground. The cave is in an area dubbed the Cradle of Humankind because so many hominid fossils have been found there. The last big find was made by Berger in 2008: at nearby Malapa, he discovered two partial skeletons of a previously unknown species with a strange mix of apelike and human features – the 2-million-year-old Australopithecus sediba.
Now he was on the brink of …
