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Published: February 12th 2006
Hello all,
The latest entry in our blog is coming from Mossel Bay a 6 hour bus journey east of Cape Town, but before we tell you about that we said we would tell you about our day trip to Robben Island! We bought our tciket the day before as this trip is very popular, and we could see why. Before boarding the ferry we walked around the exhibiton which explained about Nelson Mandela and apartheid. Once we had boarded our ferry it was a forty minute trip to the island. Once we had docked and got off the ferry we hopped on to a bus for a tour around the island, stopping at points of intrest such as the lepar graveyard and the limestone quarry, where the political prisoners were sent to work. In the middle of the quarry there was a pile of stones these were placed by the prisoners when they returned 5 years after the prison was closed. The pile was made in complete silence and was started by Nelson Mandela. When we had finished the bus tour we were given a tour around the Maximum Security Prison by an elder man who was once a prisoner himself, he told us of his arrest and release and his time inside. He relived his torture of being in prison aswell as his feelings and emotions as he showed us around what was his home for 5 years! He also everyday had to face the prison guards who had tortured and beat him, as they too still work at the prison. We both saw him as an extremly brave man! We were also very lucky as we got to stand in Nelson Mandelas cell which was 2.5m by 2.0m, only enough room for a mat and 2 prison blankets (his bed!) in contrast the kennels for the police dogs measured 3.0m by 3.0m! Much bigger than the cells. Our guide had writen a book of poetry that he gladly signed for us at the end of the tour (he was exceptionaly brave man and his story was very moving - Sarah)
Now that weve caught up with things! We were both eager to start our overland trip of South Africa, we borded the intercape mainliner (same thing as Greyhound back home) it was a pleasent journey and we had more space than the virgin atlnatic plane we flew over in! We arrived at about 1 in the afternoon, and got transport to our second hostel Santos Express, little did we know that are short stay would become hell! And to cut a long story short we couldnt even stay our 3 nights and weve checked into a new hostel about a mile up the road (which is very pleasent!)...
Back to Mossel Bay! We discovered that public transport was poor, but weve managed to hire a car for 15pounds a day!which is proving really fun! Once we got our new wheels we travelled out to a croc and big cat park which was amazing but as we were an hour inland from the coast the temperature soared to the mid 40's (bloody hot!) We noticed that the park offered close encounters with some of the animals (apologies to our parents if this is the 1st uve heard of it!) The 1st of our encounters were with 2 juvienile cheetahs (Kane 3 and Duma 2 1/2)
(personally it was a great experience ,but also quite scary knowing how fast they could move and that they eat meat,humans being made of meat made me rather aprehensive of touching and stroking them! - Sarah) I thought it was alright as im not the chunkiest guy around! - Nick)
Next up was 2 baby Bengal tigers (the white ones) they were both 6 months old. The Bengal tiger can no longer be found in the wild (they were so cute and looked so cuddley but the size of their paws said otherwise! - Sarah) We were able to get some great photos with the animals which im sure you will see soon (when i get that cable - Nick)
Hello this is nick writing now! as i'll share with you my 3rd encounter id just like to say not to worry mum as im still in one piece, one of the main things i wanted to do in S.A was shark cage diving but unfortunatly its the wrong season, but the park (might i add the only place in the world where this is possible) offered the chance to go croc cage diving! where i was submerged into a pool with 4 nile crocs the largets being 4m (well over twice my height)it was an odd experience being slowly lowered into the pool but having my face six inchs from the croc wasnt as bad as it sounds!i spent around 15mins in the pool, and its something i will never forget! we move onto plettenberg bay tomorrow so we'll update you from there!
Speak to you then!
Nick and Sarah x x x
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Dad
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Glad to hear you are having such a good time, keep up the travelblog it is great to hear what you are doing. Please get the lead Nick I am dying to see some pictures.Take care of yourselves,missing you both,love Dad and Anne.