Day 3 – Cape Town (Robben Island)

We had hoped to have a late start today as it was about midnight by the time we checked in and got to our room and set up etc.

I was awake at about 4:30 so I’m pretty tired as I write this at 6pm. We have been out all day today so no rest for the wicked.

Our hotel, the Portswood, is very close to the waterfront so it is very easy to get to. It’s a lovely hotel with views across some heritage buildings on one side and Table Mountain on the other.

Our tour to Robben Island was booked for 11 am but the tickets said boarding begins 45 minutes before. We walked over to the V&A Waterfront to find where the Robben Island Ferry left from.

We had to wander around a bit and had a look in a few souvenir shops while we killed time.

At 10:15 we all lined up at the terminal and we stayed lined up until about 10:45 when they let us on the boat. While we waited they had videos playing of the prisoners who were locked up on the island because they protested against apartheid.

The crossing was pretty rough and there was a couple of times the ship rolled on its side, however we managed to get there in one piece. Once you are on Robben Island you are put on busses with a guide and driven around the island. The island has been a place of banishment (leper colony), an army facility and a prison.

Predominantly Robben Island was where they put the “political prisoners” the guides are very clear that that is what most of the prisoners were, that they were there because they were fighting against apartheid and the South African Government.

The conditions were terrible, we got a feeling for how bad they were from the tour guide on the bus who talked about Nelson Mandela and the lime quarry. We visited a number of sites and were then taken to the maximum security prison.

We were told when we got there that we were lucky the weather was too bad for other boats to come over so we were the last tour of the day.

We had a tour guide who was kept in the prison for 5 years of his 7.5 sentence he took us around the maximum security prison and showed us the conditions they were kept in and and how even the diet indigenous Africans were given was less than the “coloured, Indian and asiatics” where they weren’t given bread or a much rations as the other group.

He talked about how when he arrived on the island he was given a hessian bag and after a while a thin rubber mat to sleep on. The indigenous Africans were given a pair of tyre flip flops a pair of shorts and a shirt which they had to wear for a week between washes, when they came back from hard labour they were strip searched beaten and given what ever clothes were in the pile which meant they could be wearing clothes that weren’t theirs covered in dirt and other peoples sweat and they may not even fit.

In Nelson Mandela’s block the windows were blacked out and welded shut back when he was a prisoner. Below is his cell.

The boat ride back was very bumpy there were a few very scary waves, however we cot back in one piece. We had a very late lunch and then wandered around the V&A shopping centre and even got to see some African dancing.