The Wednesday morning we were up bright and early and on the road to Cape Town again. Our first port of call was the ferry terminal at the waterfront where we purchased our tickets for the tour to Robben Island. Since we had missed out the last time we tried to get tickets we wanted to make sure that we weren't going to miss out again. We booked the tour for the afternoon and then jumped back in the car bound for Table Mountain which had finally re-opened.
The view from the top was spectacular. There are a number of walking tracks that lead you around the top of the mountain which is actually deceptively large. Aside from the view I was also on the look out for a small mammal called a Dassie (Rock Hyrax) which my friend told me looked like an over-sized guinea pig. Not at all a bad description actually because when I came home and googled them it came up with "superficially resembling a large guinea pig"... We didn't see any at first but then... Lo and behold... there they were scrambling around the rocks. I was ridiculously excited and like a good tourist rapidly snapped a bunch of pictures.
We mucked around up the top of the mountain taking pictures for about an hour and then decided to head down again. On the way down I was much more together, looking around, and looking down. I had been told that if we were to go up Table Mountain we had to use the cable car because the criminals hid along the paths to rob you...and no, this is not another naive "I'll believe anything bad about South Africa" instance I was told this by South Africans! The naive part was when I was busy looking down at the path to see if I could spot any...
Once at the bottom we jumped back in the car and went in search of some breakfast before our tour left for Robben Island. Before we even made it to breakfast we got a little lost and accidentally found Bo Kaap, an area with lots of brightly coloured houses, and went for a little drive. Bo Kaap was formerly called the Malay Quarter and is the historical centre of Cape Malay culture. More information can be found here.
We had spent most of the trip talking about how happy we were that we had chosen to go to South Africa in the winter because we had less tourists to compete with and nothing had changed that morning. We waited in line to buy our ticket for the cable car for less than a minute and were on the cable car 5 minutes later. I was a little nervous on the trip up, which I am sure is mostly due to an overactive imagination, and having watched the James Bond movie where the guy with the metal jaw bites through the cable car's cable...
We eventually found our way back down to the waterfront and after breakfast sat at a great little restaurant right by the water to have a nice cold drink (yes it was winter...but it was a really warm day) and we were treated to a little show by a seal swimming up and down in the water right next to us. Before long we wandered over to the ferry terminal and waited for the boat to arrive... which unfortunately was about 20 minutes later than it was supposed to be. We had arranged to meet with our photographer, from the engagement shoot, at 4:15 as on our ticket it said we would be back by 4pm... needless to say we were a little worried but then we assumed that they would still leave at the same time so we should still be back in time.
The ride over to Robben Island was beautiful, Cape Town behind us perfectly situated in front of Table Mountain, and Robben Island ahead of us. For those of you that don't know too much about the history of South Africa Robben Island is a monument to a time called Apartheid. It is currently listed as a world heritage site as a reminder of a time that none of us should wish to return to. In the 17th Century the dutch first used Robben Island as a prison for political prisoners from it's other colonies. When the English took over the governing of South Africa in the 1800's they also used the Island to imprison some of the African leaders involved in the Grahamstown uprising in 1819.
After 1845 the island was used as a leper colony and an animal quarantine station. During WW2 guns and fortifications were added to the island, as an added defense for Cape Town, though the island itself continued to be used as a prison. The period known as Apartheid spanned from 1961 to 1994 and during this time the Island was used as a maximum security prison for political prisoners. These political prisoners were predominantly black Africans who were campaigning for greater black rights within South Africa. After the end of Apartheid Robben Island continued to function as a prison, housing medium security criminal prisoners, for one year. In 1997 it became a museum and a national monument and then in 1999 it was declared a world heritage site.
Nelson Mandela, known affectionately to the people of South Africa as Madiba, was imprisoned on the Island in 1964, and spent 18 of his 27 year prison sentence living in a tiny cell and peering out on a tiny garden. Our guide told us that much of Nelson Mandela's book "Long Walk To Freedom" was written during his time on Robben Island. Because of the incredible history of the Island it was an impressive and yet very sombre place to visit.
We arrived late in the afternoon and were the last group to go through for the day. All the people from the boat were loaded onto 4 tour buses and taken to visit the various buildings around the island, including the limestone quarry, and houses where the prison guards once lived. When we first got onto the bus the guide asked where people were from, I was surprised to discover that my friend was the only South African, and suddenly wondered if the fact that we were both wearing our springboks jersey's would be offensive (again the naivety). It was a big moment for me. My friend is an Afrikaaner and during Apartheid it was this group of people who were considered to be the oppressors, I wondered how the people who had lived through this history felt about escorting us around this place. We were let off the bus to walk around the maximum security prison and were escorted by a tour guide who had actually been a prisoner on the island.
Our guide showed us around, explaining what each building had been used for, and talking a little about his life within the walls. Our guide had been imprisoned on Robben Island as a teenager for being a part of a smaller student uprising that was linked to the larger Soweto Uprising. He was an incredibly knowledgeable and gentle man who could answer any questions we had. All in all it was an amazing experience.
The next morning we were up bright and early again to re-pack our bags and head off to the airport. We had to return our hire car and check our bags nice and early and we were keen to have a final wimpy breakfast before we flew out. Before long we had done everything we needed to do and after a spot of shopping we were on a plane again bound for Dubai and leaving Africa behind.
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