Robben Island
Some of you may be familiar with Robben's Island and perhaps some are not. To make it easy I posted an entry from their website that explains a little about it:
"During the apartheid years Robben Island became internationally known for its institutional brutality. The duty of those who ran the Island and its prison was to isolate opponents of apartheid and to crush their morale. Some freedom fighters spent more than a quarter of a century in prison for their beliefs.
Those imprisoned on the Island succeeded on a psychological and political level in turning a prison 'hell-hole' into a symbol of freedom and personal liberation. Robben Island came to symbolise, not only for South Africa and the African continent, but also for the entire world, the triumph of the human spirit over enormous hardship and adversity." - www.robben-island.org.za
This is one of the best tours I have been on. You first catch the ferry to the island, once there they load you onto buses. The bus that we happened to be on is the only bus they have left that was used to move prissoners around on the island. The bus tour consisted of driving us around the island and telling us about the history and pointing out different points of interest. One being the quarry where the prisoners that were the political leaders were put to work (they kept the leaders seperate from the other political prisoners), this includes Nelson Mandela. The pile of rocks belows was created by the prisoners on a trip back to the island after having been given their freedom. The first one was place by Nelson Mandela.
Once the bus ride was complete we were dropped off at the prison. This part of the tour is given by an ex political prisoner. It' was really amazing to his story and have the chance to ask him questions. It really hit you with everything that happened hearing from someone that experienced it personally.
Below is Nelson Mandela's cell.
The Second Half of Monday
After Robben Island we rented a car that was dropped off to where we were staying (definitely not as nice as the last one we had rented - this was an old Nissan). Let me tell you that by now I have the whole driving on the other side thing down - and I'm really enjoying it. There is this one drive particular down the Cape Peninsula that everyone recommends. With our luck though we started our journey only to find there had been a rock fall and the road was closed. So instead of driving down the peninsula as originally intended we cut across. We made a few stops along the way and took some scenic drives and eventually ended up Muizenburg where we stayed the night at a backpackers/ guest house there. Below are some photos from the day - tomorrow I will continue with the rest of the week.
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