We explore in some rather extreme spaces when we are searching for evidence of ancient human relatives in the subterranean environments like Rising Star cave. This 4 ½ kilometer system is not wholly the typical cave system one might imagine. We spend a lot of time crawling and squeezing along passages that are not particularly suited to modern human physiques, but it’s clear Homo naledi was more comfortable with these spaces than we were based on evidence of fire in the form of hearths, ash, soot on ceilings and lumps of charcoal at almost every critical intersection or larger chambers. It’s difficult sometimes to navigate these spaces even when you know them well. This video is one I took back in 2023 of a journey Maropeng Mpete, one of the senior members of the exploration team and I took into the Rising Star Chamber (which probably should be renamed as its confused with the whole system being call the Rising Star Cave). You first must descend through a rock shelter like cave and then go through a rather adventurous bit called “upside down turnaround”. You will see why it’s called that when you watch the video. For taller people this is a terrible little journey as you must enter upside down (and that takes commitment), swing back greater than ninety degrees by forming your body into an L shape and wiggle into a passage that is a little larger than a basketball in diameter before reaching a place you can stand. On this trip Maropeng actually got his boots stuck and I had to crawl in after him and pull it free. It sucks quite frankly. But then, after a journey of a little over a hundred meters or so, you reach the beautiful Rising Star chamber and on this day, we made some very special discoveries you will hear about in the not-so-distant future! Oh, and you have to go back out the same way….