17th March 2008, Robben Island, Kirstenbosch & Cape Town, South Africa
We arose fairly early in preparation for our visit to Robben island which was the incarceration centre for some 20 years of all the ANC and PAC freedom fighters including Nelson Mandela. First though, D took a pic from our cabin window across the bow of a French warship which gave us a direct view of Tafelberg. Had we been in a hotel, this view would probably have cost serious money.
We went off for our Robben island trip at 9.30 and we were walked round to the Nelson Mandela Centre and given tickets for the 1.00 sailing. These showed that the actual price, had we gone under our own steam, was less than a third what we charged for doing the tour and given there was little by way of value added - we were walked 10 mins to the terminal, the location of which we knew anyway - and M was incensed by this rip-off.
However, we had a reasonably pleasant 50 minutes sailing to the island which had served in a variety of isolationist guises before its usage as a high security prison, including being a leper colony. We were given a tour for just over an hour round the island and shown various historical buildings and the quarry where the prisoners were sent to do daily hard labour before being dropped off to do the actual prison tour with a second guide. Both of these guides were former political prisoners. The prison regime was harsh, but this may have been expected and we were assured that the current decor was as it was in the 70s and 80s. In fact the surroundings and the outside of the buildings were harsher than the insides. All the cells were painted in gloss paint and boredom must have been a major issue. Those held in the communal cells - there were four we recall, each held 40 inmates. However they were subjected to discrimination. First, no white prisoners were ever sent to Robben island - even when their convictions were for the same offence. Secondly, the extremely meagre rations were better for the coloureds than the blacks. But they were fed in their large communal cells and had internal toilet and washing facilities. Those assessed as needing to be held in individual cells including Mandela were not so lucky. Their accommodation comprised a single unit, about 8ft x 6ft sparingly furnished with no facilities. By all accounts the climate conditions also rendered all this worse. After out tour we went back to the boat, but as usual with tours from the ship were 25 mins late whilst fellow guests minced around the gift shop. The upshot of this late start and the 50 min trip back was that despite our dashing back quickly to MSVG we had missed lunch!
We were scheduled to leave at 3.00pm but at about 3.30pm there was a tannoy that we were not leaving until 8.00pm (it was actually 9.45pm) which was good news for M. One of the few sites we had missed in Cape Town that she had wanted to see was the botanical gardens at Kirstenbosch - around the back of Tafelberg - which has an international reputation. We raced back round towards the Mandela Centre and took a cab there straightaway. We spent two hours wandering, with very few other folk, around the large and idealic centre, located on the lower foothill of the mountain. We saw plenty of flora but there was also a goodly array of birds - including lots of guinea fowl - and a sculpture garden as well as a concert venue rather like Kenwood in North London. We took the cab back at about 5.45pm and spent a further hour looking for presents before re-embarking MSVG.
We went off for our Robben island trip at 9.30 and we were walked round to the Nelson Mandela Centre and given tickets for the 1.00 sailing. These showed that the actual price, had we gone under our own steam, was less than a third what we charged for doing the tour and given there was little by way of value added - we were walked 10 mins to the terminal, the location of which we knew anyway - and M was incensed by this rip-off.
However, we had a reasonably pleasant 50 minutes sailing to the island which had served in a variety of isolationist guises before its usage as a high security prison, including being a leper colony. We were given a tour for just over an hour round the island and shown various historical buildings and the quarry where the prisoners were sent to do daily hard labour before being dropped off to do the actual prison tour with a second guide. Both of these guides were former political prisoners. The prison regime was harsh, but this may have been expected and we were assured that the current decor was as it was in the 70s and 80s. In fact the surroundings and the outside of the buildings were harsher than the insides. All the cells were painted in gloss paint and boredom must have been a major issue. Those held in the communal cells - there were four we recall, each held 40 inmates. However they were subjected to discrimination. First, no white prisoners were ever sent to Robben island - even when their convictions were for the same offence. Secondly, the extremely meagre rations were better for the coloureds than the blacks. But they were fed in their large communal cells and had internal toilet and washing facilities. Those assessed as needing to be held in individual cells including Mandela were not so lucky. Their accommodation comprised a single unit, about 8ft x 6ft sparingly furnished with no facilities. By all accounts the climate conditions also rendered all this worse. After out tour we went back to the boat, but as usual with tours from the ship were 25 mins late whilst fellow guests minced around the gift shop. The upshot of this late start and the 50 min trip back was that despite our dashing back quickly to MSVG we had missed lunch!
We were scheduled to leave at 3.00pm but at about 3.30pm there was a tannoy that we were not leaving until 8.00pm (it was actually 9.45pm) which was good news for M. One of the few sites we had missed in Cape Town that she had wanted to see was the botanical gardens at Kirstenbosch - around the back of Tafelberg - which has an international reputation. We raced back round towards the Mandela Centre and took a cab there straightaway. We spent two hours wandering, with very few other folk, around the large and idealic centre, located on the lower foothill of the mountain. We saw plenty of flora but there was also a goodly array of birds - including lots of guinea fowl - and a sculpture garden as well as a concert venue rather like Kenwood in North London. We took the cab back at about 5.45pm and spent a further hour looking for presents before re-embarking MSVG.
