After a worrying night and an early morning wake up call, we made our way to the airport. Our destination, Cape Town.
As Ben hobbled along Nadine’s side, we enjoyed a nice free breakfast at the airport lounge, as well as a warm and refreshing shower.
The fight was the length of about two episodes of the new show, The Spy, about Eli Cohen, an Israeli Mosad agent that infiltrated Syria in the 1960s.
We made it to Cape Town, where we purchased two all day city bus passes and made our way to the Four Season Apartment complex.
The complex was as expected, with the basic amenities. The rooftop pool was closed due to maintenance, but the place fine for a few days while we toured the famous cape.
The plan to limit spending while traveling includes grocery shopping rather than eating out, so Nadine walked while Ben hobbled to the nearest supermarket in search for a week's worth of food.
Fast-forwarding an hour, after wolfing a couple of homemade salads, we made our our way to the V&A waterfront to catch the 15:00 ferry to Robben Island.
We walked down to the bus stop that never was. Alas we found the bus station at the advice on a nice homeless gentleman, but the next bus was scheduled for 15:10. Determined to make it to our ferry we booked a South African Uber. We had not used Uber together since it was invented almost 6 years ago. (Living in Israel there is no such thing as an Uber).
15:47 made it just in time to walk on to the already packed ferry to Robben Island.
The ride was about 30min to the once prison of many African Freedom Fighters, including former president Nelson Mandela.
Upon arrival in the distance we hear “please prrrrrroceed to the buses, please prrrrroceed to the buses!” This South African R will always be imprinted in our minds. We proceeded to the buses, but then split up into two groups, a walking tour of the prison with a former inmate and a bus tour of the whole island.
We began our walking tour with former prisoner. He told us about many of the prisoners struggles and living conditions in Robben Island, including his own, and of course the infamous Nelson Mandela. Our guide spent five years on the island as a political prisoner for his activist role in the African National Congress (ANC). He told us many stories of his friends and colleagues within the organization and the prison, and their respective positions in country politics and a few humorous stories from their time behind bars.
We walked through the once prison and home to thousands of African fighters. if the walls could speak they would tell about the struggles and plotting of many fighters well into the 1980s and 90s! To get real for a minute, we were kids when this was happening.
Part II of the tour was a comfortable bus ride through the rocky mountainous island. We road passed the LEPERS graveyard (people with Leprosy ) areas, and we were told the island was not only a prison, but a place for quarantine.
The picture on the far right was the cell of Nelson Mandela.
Robben was named after the Dutch word “Rob” meaning seal. It is said when the Dutch came to the island it was in fact full of seals. We did not see any seals, as they have all since left, but we did see about five beach penguins flapping happily along the rocks.
The way back to Cape Town was fairly easy. It was a day well spent.
Determined to not spend a penny more that we had already after purchasing the 5- ays iVENTURE city pass, we went to bed early so that we could pick up our passes the next day.
Until tomorrow!
Nadine and Ben
Commentaires