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A STEP BACK IN TIME
Today it’s finally off to Robben Island - hopefully! It looks nice outside so fingers crossed.
Tim’s on the third day of man-flu so instead of walking we’re taking a taxi.
Got to the Waterfront about 15 minutes before the ferry was due to leave and the queue was huge, it was the first day in 12 days that the ferry has run so there were a lot of people like us who had to postpone. They say to get there 10 minutes before departure time but I seriously recommend getting there half an hour before otherwise you won’t get a choice of where to sit, upstairs outside or down inside. I also recommend when you get on the ferry to sit on the left side as you face the front, that way you can see the island as you get closer. We sat on the right side so saw nothing but ocean.
Once you arrive at the island you all get on big buses and with a guide get driven around the island. You don’t get off very much, so I suggest when you get on the bus you sit on
Yasien Mohamed
Our guide on the bus at Robben Islandthe left side of the bus, behind the driver side. We sat on the right side! So you can all now benefit from our mistake!
Our guide was Yasien Mohamed who was once a political prisoner there.
His tour was good, he asked people on the bus where they were from and was able to say how each country made an impact on the island. Australia’s contribution (via the English) was Eucalyptus Trees and rabbits. The trees sucked up all the water and the island is now over-run with rabbits - go the Aussies!
There were also 5 canons built to protect Cape Town and the island during the war. Unfortunately the war ended in 1945 and the canons were finished being built in 1947, apparently not much is done with any sense of urgency in South Africa.
Once we got to the prison area we had a different guide. His name was Ntoza and he was held there under the Terrorism Act from June 1984 until June 1986. There daily schedule went like this:
0730 - unlocked from cell, breakfast of bread
1200 - lunch of 3 slices bread and some soup
1400 -
Cemetary
Cemetary at Robben Island dinner of bread and piece of meat
1500 - locked up again for the night
During the day they worked in a limestone quarry, it wasn’t until the end that they could wear sunglasses and a lot of the men ended up with snow blindness because of the brightness of the limestone.
They used to write on cement bags what they knew about in life to educate the other prisoners, when guards came they would hide the cement bags under the rock, so the limestone quarry became known as the University of Robben Island.
There was a picture of Nelson Mandela with English reporters and he is dressed very nice in shirt, pants etc. In reality they wore shorts, shirt, no shoes, no underwear. We saw his cell, not much in there and only 3 x 3 metres. In pictures of their cells though they did have photo’s etc, so not sure if they were put there for the media to give that warm fuzzy feeling to the public, no amount of photo’s could make it homely, it was very cold - I’d die!
Nelson Mandela wrote a book while he was there called Long Walk
Leper's cemetary
Robbens Island was at one time was a Leper Colony. Looks like things didn't go so well. to Freedom. The manuscript had to be smuggled out as he went along.
HEADING SOUTH
We got our hire car today, look out South Africa! It’s a Fiat Emotion. Nice little number and only 27,000 on the clock.
We decided to drive to Simon’s Town to see the Jackass Penguin (they make a noise like a donkey e-aw) colony. Got Carmen the Garmin out all excited to have her lead the way - but… Unfortunately Carmen decides the way SHE wants to go and gives you no options. WE wanted to go along the coast, SHE wanted us to go the boring highway, so for the first 45 minutes all we heard from her was, recalculating, turn around, recalculating, turn around… Eventually she saw things our way and started to play nice.
PENGUINS IN AFRICA
We got to Simon’s Town, and found the car park for Boulders Beach easy enough; finally Carmen came through for us. We saw an office next to the beach where they charged you to go onto the beach as it’s a National Park. We thought we’d be clever and walk along the board walk to the other beach, but got
Canon
This is one of five canons that were built for the war. They were finished in 1947, the war ended in 1945. there and there was another office! So we relented, paid our money and went onto the beach. All along the boardwalk there were dozens of penguins with babies in nests. They weren’t bothered by the people walking past at all. There was a small fence that kept the penguins off the path and I guess to stop people, dogs etc getting to them. There were a lot of people walking dogs along there, in Australia they wouldn’t let you, instead in Africa people are responsible for what they do themselves, it’s a very relaxed way to live.
Went back up to the main beach, paying the fee gives you access to both beaches. This one had the main colony; as you came around the bend you could hear them before you saw them. Sounded great as a tourist, don’t think it would be as great if you lived across the road, they were pretty loud!
They were also coming in from the ocean, all of a sudden there would be 20 penguins body surfing onto the beach and waddling onto the beach. Pretty awesome sight! They had a boardwalk set up so you couldn’t go down onto the
Table Mountain
View from Robben Island beach but you were still really close to the penguins.
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE - NOT TODAY
We drove to see the Cape of Good Hope (also hoping to see the baboons on the way but saw NONE - but did see a Dassie on the side of the road, not quite one of the Big 5…). The fog was rolling in really fast, kind of surreal how quick it moved, and I think I’ve read too many Stephen King and Dean Koontz books because it looked like a perfect setting for ‘something’ to happen…
Got to the Cape and saw that all vehicles had to leave by 1730, it was about 1725 when we got there, but we thought we’d be right… But they had obviously come across stupid Australians before and had a gate that was closed to prevent anyone from entering from 1700. We probably wouldn’t be able to see anything because the fog was so thick.
Headed back to Cape Town, saw lots of railway stations on the way but no trains running. The train drivers and transport workers have been on strike since before we got to South Africa asking for
Us at Robben Island
Table Mountain in the background more pay. The train drivers are asking for 15%. Good time to do it as the government would want everything running before the World Cup starts. So far the highest offer they’ve had is 11%, still more than what we get offered!
LAST NIGHT IN THE CITY
Since it was our last night decided to have dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top of our hotel. It was only 2 floors higher than our room but the view was amazing, you don’t really appreciate how big Cape Town is, we still think it should be a tiny little coastal town, far from it.
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linda
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aussie advetures
sorry to here that Tim has the man flu, hang on aaaahhhhhh. hope it didnt last too long. the blog is fantastic you can add it to your list of opportunities if the trains get the flick. looks like you are having a great time over there and fitting everything in, the penguins are so cute. if you manage to slip one in your suitcase? i know you want to :) i almost feel like im on holiday with you, just a few days behind, which in fact would be a good thing then i could head all of your queque busting hints. but alas im still here, never the less its still sooooooo exciting. lots o love