Cape Town 3 (5-2)

Monday was my last day in Cape Town. My tour to Robben Island had finally been booked for that afternoon. There were no spaces on Friday or Saturday; so it was originally booked for Sunday, but the guesthouse manager was called and informed that the island was closed for the public holiday—May Day. There are three tours a day. The ferry was full, and we got into three buses with about 50 people in each.

Monday morning I went to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, since that is where the tour begins and I hadn’t been there. The District 6 tour guide had told us that the waterfront is the number one tourist attraction in Africa, followed by Table Mountain and the Great Pyramids in Egypt. He expressed astonishment that so many tourists want to come to what is essentially a shopping mall, and I agree. There are at least two indoor malls as well as a number of other shops and restaurants.

Since the waterfront is close to the guesthouse, I walked there. Upon entering the area, I saw the boats for harbor tours and decided to start with that. The boat I went on is one of the smaller ones, and since it was fairly early, there weren’t many people on it. It has a small upper deck where you can stand, and only four of us were there. 

We saw a few seals relaxing on the water surface. 

It was a lovely day, and the views of the skyline with the mountain were spectacular.

Next I returned to the aquarium since I had realized that I had missed two of the main exhibits. Looking at the map, I thought I’d been all around, but there was one loop I had missed. This loop included the famous kelp forest and predators. I’d seen small sharks; so I thought I’d seen the predators. I had no idea. This tank is huge and circular with a tunnel walk around it. There are small sharks and huge ones. The huge ones were especially fascinating. 

I wanted to see the kelp forest after seeing so much kelp floating on the top of the oceans. I’d seen part of it but, again, I didn’t realize that it went around or that you could view it from downstairs. I sat and watched the fish there for quite a while. 

And a few penguins were swimming, which was fun to see from below.

On the way out, I enjoyed a few smaller exhibits I hadn’t spent much time at before, including small sea cucumbers and anemone. I realized that if I had spent so much time in these exhibits on my first visit, I wouldn’t have made the 2:00 walking tour, and I’m really glad to have done that, as it was one of the best things I did in the city.

After the aquarium, I headed to the ferry to Robben Island. The tourist appeal of Robben Island is that it is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. (In the city I’d been past the prison where he spent his last several years.) But the tour is really about the prison itself.

The island was used to isolate political prisoners for 300 years. From the 1960s until it closed in 1996, it was for black male prisoners. On the bus tour around the island we were given some of the history. At one time it was also a leper colony, and there is a cemetery where some of the lepers were buried. We passed the lime quarry where political prisoners worked. Criminals sewed uniforms. However, when officials visited, they usually switched work assignments so the political prisons were sewing while the criminals did the manual labor. The island has the second oldest lighthouse in South Africa, having been built in 1864. There is also a small penguin colony on the island.

The guides for the tour of the prison are former prisoners. Our guide was there for five years for being involved in student protests. He said he learned a lot in prison about political protests and talked about some of the improvements—two uniforms, diet, two mats—that happened because of prisoners’ protests. Many of the political prisoners were kept in individual cells and not allowed to communicate with anyone. They could have two visitors a year for thirty minutes, which had to be scheduled in advance and could be cancelled if there were too many visitors that day. He talked about how they learned what they could write in letters by rewriting them after they were returned by the censors. It was an interesting glimpse of life in the prison. I wondered how it compared to life in other prisons, such as those for white men, at the time.

The tour finished with a look at Mandela’s cell. Then we were able to look at other cells that have pictures of one of the men who stayed there and sometimes a wall plaque with something the man said about prison life. A few of the cells had small mementos such as a cup. I found that part of the tour to be the most interesting.

The late afternoon light on the mountains on the way back was spectacular.

On the way to find a restaurant, I caught the setting sun reflected on the mountains. I had a fried seafood—fish, shrimp, calamari— basket for dinner. I have really enjoyed the fresh fish and calamari.

I enjoyed my time in Cape Town and saw the major sites but missed many other interesting places and things to do. But I can’t do it all and it was time to move on.