Cape Town 2

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Well, it's my last day in Cape Town. I've had a good few days here. It's a bit of a disappointing day today, not great weather but it's the first time I've been able to see the famous mist descending over the mountain.

Went to Robben Island yesterday to see where Nelson Mandela et al had been incarcerated as political prisoners, it was an interesting place to visit. I'd envisaged it as being a purely prison island like Alcatraz for example but the island is quite vast and there's a small village there. The tour involved two sections, firstly a coach tour around the island to get an overview of the whole island and then a tour around the high security prison where the political prisoners were held away from the other criminals who were detained on the island. The first part of the tour was interesting and the tour guide was very entertaining. However, the second part was less so, it strikes me that the Robben Island Museum is not making a good use of what they have, the tour's are done by former political prisoners which would be great if it were not for the massive sizes of the groups which they were talking to (it was hard to hear the guide at times). The isolation cells are closed at the moment for maintenance work so that was disappointing as well (though it is winter out here so probably the best time for maintenance work). Although I left kind of disappointed at the way things went on the tour it was still quite a poignant reminder of the struggle which took place and the conditions in which prisoners were held. Maybe my standards are a bit high.....

I'm looking forward to getting back to Refilwe tomorrow morning, I feel refreshed and invigorated and ready to get stuck into work again. Hopefully the couple of jobs from last week will have been finished off so we can tackle something else. It'll be good to see some familiar faces soon as it gets quite frustrating at times being on your own.

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