After last night I went and got myself a sim today. I had put off getting 1 as the wifi has been ok, but after the frustration of last night and last week I've given in. It cost R160 for 1GB.
Anyway onto today, today we became tourists again. We had planned for a while that today we would go over and see Robben Island. It was 1 of the must do things of our trip. We woke up, got ready and headed to the bus stop. We arrived at the waterfront where we would catch the ferry. We bought our tickets which cost R280/£14 which we didn't think was too bad. We slowly made our way through security then onto the boat.
If you haven't read Harry's blog from yesterday he didn't manage to get in the cage with the Sharks as he was seasick and was feeling too rough. I was slightly worried about getting on a boat with him after yesterday. He assured me he would be ok, but as precaution I made him sit down stairs. The last time I was on a boat I was with Tina and she spent the whole trip hiding away not feeling well and I didn't fancy that again. Luckily everything was fine and we arrived in 1 piece after and hour from the waterfront to Robben Island. As we approached we both said we didn't realise how big it was.
We got off the ferry and walked down to a coach that would be driving us around. We drove past a church, a burial site, the homes of the wardens, a rugby pitch and a school. Our tour guide was very friendly and gave us lots of information. She explained that around 150 people still live on the island and it was only in 2011 that the school was closed. The island looks as though it hasn't been touch in 20 years which is nice because we really got a feel of what the place looked like and it hadn't just been done up and made into a tourist site. It's crazy to think what actually happened on this island and in South Africa as a whole. People being locked away for years for not carrying an ID card or for being in groups of more than 5 people. We stopped off to look at the view of Cape Town from the Island and then went around to the quarry.
We finished our tour with a stop off at the high security prison, we were taken around by 1 of the ex prisoners here. It was a little hard to understand him but he gave a nice little tour. He had stayed here for 5 years for protesting against Afrikaans being the main language being used at his University. He took us to his cell where he shared the room with up to 60 people at 1 time. 2 showers a week and with only cold water. He told us he slept on the floor and showed us the food they were given. Apparently the black and coloured prisoners were treated differently to try and cause unrest between the 2 groups. The coloureds were given better food and extra clothing. We both said how difficult it must have been for him to come back here but he said for him it was part of the healing process.
Apparently Nelson Mandela who's cell we visited, and other leaders told the prisoners to forgive the wardens that were beating them and starving them. It really is unbelievable some of the stories you hear. Everybody speaks highly of Mr Mandela and he seemed like an inspirational man. People have different views on what has happened and what has been left. It's not for me really to give an opinion, I've been here for less than 9 weeks, I can only base opinion on what people say. It seems like people are happy with the freedom that Mr Mandela helped fight for, but maybe things haven't quite turned out the way they'd hoped or as quickly as they would have liked.
We finished up or tour and headed back to Cape Town. We had a nice day and it's definitely something I'm pleased I've done. It doesn't quite have the wow factor in the sense of wow this is a nice place, but it does make you think.
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