Day 1 marks your arrival in Port Elizabeth, South Africa where you will head off on your journey into deep time. Upon landing, you'll be greeted at the airport and transferred to the Courtyard Hotel for the night before starting out the next day to drive on to Bethulie. 

 

Today begins your search for fossils from the Permian-Triassic extinction event. 

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You'll board an early flight from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein as we head to the Great Karoo (sometimes referred to "a gigantic playground packed with millions of fossils" This site is incredibly important to paleontologists as it is the only record of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction’s effect on terrestrial animals. 

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Our base for a few days is Bethulie, home to the Oviston Nature Reserve, where the effects of this mass extinction are easily accessible and visible.

You'll be working with Dr. Julien Benoit in Oviston, on the shore of the Gariep Dam. This location is of great interest to paleontologists as it’s a clearly visible record of the Permian-Triassic “Great dying” event. The end-Permian mass extinction was responsible for the elimination of 90% of species living in the sea and 70% of species living on land. 

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Your work will entail exploration and prospecting for fossils on hikes and locations throughout this area. Training and tools, including geopicks, brushes and GPS will be provided. 

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You will be contributing to research that will help scientists decipher the biggest mass extinction event of all, and thus anticipate the effect of the ongoing biological crisis.

 

During your time with Dr. Benoit, you will:

• Start off the mornings with breakfast at your hotel after which you will be accompanied by Dr Benoit to your site to begin your day collecting fossils at 8am.

• On the first day, Dr. Benoit will present an overview on the planned activities during your time at Oviston. You will also learn proper fossil excavation and collection techniques, with all tools provided. 

• You'll work for a few hours between meals as you look for fossils and excavate your finds.

• Lunch is picnic style and enjoyed as part of a well-deserved break on site.  

• At 3pm, we’ll pack up to head back to the hotel. Your late afternoons are free to visit local attractions and historical sites in Bethulie or simply enjoy a relaxing few hours as you slowly make your way through the most unbelievable library and music room for which The Royal Hotel is world-famous and where you are staying. 

• One afternoon, we'll explore a small museum together in Bethulie

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Accommodations: In Port Elizabeth Courtyard Hotel

Three night In Bethulie The Royal Hotel

Meals: Welcome Dinner, Breakfast and packed lunch each day 

Today, you’ll transfer from Bethulie to Graaff-Reinet for an orientation and overview of Karoo fossil landscape, including therapsids, with Prof .Bruce Rubidge. This extinct group of animals are the forerunners of mammals.

 

These days are sure to be one of the most anticipated experiences of the trip. Prof. Rubidge is an authority on tetrapod evolutionary change, mammal-like reptiles of the Karoo Basin and early therapsids. His studies and research have helped shape our understanding of the Pangean continental realm during the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic eras.

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Fossil-discovery runs in the Rubidge family and Prof. Rubidge will be taking us on a visit to his family’s personal collection at the Karoo Origins Fossil Museum, newly opened in 2025. This is the world’s largest private fossil collection started in the early 20th century by Dr. Sidney Rubidge (grandfather of Bruce), for whom the genus of gorgonopsid Rubidgea (an ancient saber toothed therapsid) was named. The Collection houses an exceptionally large number of holotypes of global importance, including an incredible number of Permian-aged land-living reptiles. It is estimated that over 2,000 scientific papers have been written on the fossils of this collection.

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Listen to a 2024 Interview with Bruce Rubidge that was featured on the I Know Dino podcast. He discusses fossils in South Africa, his family's contributions to paleontology and details about this itinerary. 

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On our first afternoon, we'll join Prof. Rubidge for lunch before heading to the towering Valley of Desolation located within the Camdeboo National Park. There, we will take in the geologic spectacle of the Valley’s tall dolerite columns which have eroded and weathered, causing the columnar structures characteristic of this area. We’ll enjoy a late afternoon sundowner and picnic dinner at a time when the valley is at its most beautiful and the perfect time to see the many species of animals who call the park home. 

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On our remaining days, Prof. Rubidge will guide us on exhilarating visits to the fossil-rich sites of:

• Doornplaats farm, a remarkable site with prolific vertebrate and invertebrate fossils, including fossilised fish scales, the fossilised burrows attributed to the dicynodont Cistecephalus.

• The Gats River fossil site at Nieu-Bethesda, where rocks preserve the fossilsed bones of ancient reptiles and therapsids which lived and died on the river floodplains. This area is where James Kitching began to formulate his findings that on palaeontological grounds, South Africa and Antarctica were once linked.

• Lootsberg Pass, a fossil-rich site which is one of the best places on Earth to study the effect of the Permian Triassic extinction on land. Here, we will see examples of some of the earliest Triassic fauna of the Karoo Basin, which is characterised by few dicynodont species, and a new fauna dominated by the amphibian Lystrosaurus, and early archosaurs (the most distant ancestors of dinosaurs) as well as cynodont therapsids, the ancestors of mammals.

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Activities included during the course of these 3 days include:

• An orientation and overview of Karoo fossil landscape with Prof. Bruce Rubidge. 

• A visit to the Valley of Desolation within the Camdeboo National Park with picnic and sundowners.

• A private tour of the Karoo Origins Museum.

• A visit to the Kitching Fossil Exploration Center

• Guided tour of Doornplaats farm, the Gats River fossil site at Nieu-Bethesda, the Lootsberg Permian and Triassic Boundary fossil site.

 

Accommodation: Drostdy Hotel Graaff-Reinet

Meals: Breakfasts and lunches; dinners on your own

Finally, we are on our way into the African bush of the Addo, Eastern Cape, with no better way to highlight your travels than in true safari style.

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Each day includes a morning game drive within the Big 5 landscape of the Amakhala Private Game Reserve at the Bukela Game Lodge. 

 

We’ll enjoy lunch then head for a late afternoon safari drive to the "deep time" dinosaur fossil site on the Reserve. It was here that the very first dinosaur remains were found in South Africa in 1845.

 

Our first night includes a traditional dinner served as an informal bush braai (barbeque) in the “boma” with a selection of dishes to suit all palates.

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After enjoying dinner, guests  can enjoy an evening of starlit skies and animals of nocturnal behaviour before retiring to the comfort and luxury of their suite. From there, you will awaken to the chorus of an African dawn . . . ready for another day of adventure!

 

Accommodations: The Amakhala Private Game Reserve

All Meals

Today you will meet Dr. Rob Gess, South Africa's leading researcher on Devonian (420 – 359 million year old) ecosystems and Early Vertebrates (ancient fish and early four legged creatures.) For the next two days, Dr. Gess will be our guide and paleontological lead. 

 

Dr. Gess will join you for a guided tour of the Waterloo Farm exhibits, as well as a tour of the lab and the most important specimens in the collections, including the oldest known land-living animal from Gondwana, the oldest fossil lamprey in the world and Africa's oldest coelacanth.

 

In the afternoon and the entire next day, we will head to Waterloo Farm in Bathurst for some hands-on fossil-finding of our own!

 

It is here we will have access to a large assemblage of shale blocks from the Waterloo Farm lagerstatte. These rocks which are located in the Antarctic Circle have yielded fossilized life from the Late Devonian, including fish, invertebrates, plants and algae. But what is most expected is the presence of early tetrapods, which were previously believed to have lived only in the tropics.

 

Your work here will directly contribute to our understanding of the most important site of its age in the southern hemisphere.

 

Activities included during the course of these 2 days:

• We’ll start by breaking up into smaller, supervised groups. With the provided tools, each person will very slowly and carefully chisel through the shale blocks, layer by layer. Each layer of rock is a mystery  that you will help to uncover.

• When you come across a fossil–and you WILL come across fossils–your group supervisor will identify and evaluate what you find. There’s a very real chance of striking palaeo gold during these two days. If you find something that’s highly significant, we’ll set it aside to prepare properly in the lab.

 

Accommodation at Halyards Hotel and Spa Port Alfred

Meals: Breakfast, packed lunch and Farewell Dinner

You will be working under the supervision of the paleontologists, but the tasks associated with working on an excavation can involve certain risks. Excavation work may involve difficult conditions, uneven terrain, unanticipated natural hazards, use of digging equipment, and  manual labor.  A general level of fitness is necessary for excavations, such as long walks, sometimes over uneven ground, walking up and down steps and inclines, kneeling, filling and carrying buckets of soil and stones. All outdoor activities are subject to the weather. 

• Hiking or work boots

• Work/gardening gloves 

• Sun hat

• Sunscreen

• Camera

• Notebook

Today we wish you farewell as you fly out of Port Elizabeth on to your other adventures and wherever your travels take you. We are happy to assist with planning and booking for other excursions within both South Africa and across the continent. 

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Meal: Breakfast