Woolly says – We were up and out early again with our ferry tickets clutched in my paw. A short drive back to the waterfront and half an hour or so to wait,
we spent the time seal spotting of which there were plenty in the harbour area lying in the water with their flippers crossed over their chests just floating around. Jo got very over excited to find some more basking in the early morning light by the boats until we had to drag her away to get on board.
As the ferry chugged out of the harbour and past the sea wall, I watched Cape Town recede behind us with the glorious backdrop of Table Mountain.
As the sea became choppier and Zoe became greener, I kept my eyes peeled for the first sighting of our destination, Robben Island.
Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 miles) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, it takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (Robben). The island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 kilometres (2 miles) long north to south, and 1.9 km (1+1⁄8 miles) wide, and only a few metres above sea level, as a result of an ancient erosion event. It was fortified and used as a prison from the late seventeenth century until 1996, after the end of apartheid.
It is most famous for having housed the Political activist and lawyer Nelson Mandela who was imprisoned on the island for 18 of the 27 years of his imprisonment before the fall of apartheid and introduction of full, multi-racial democracy. He was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and was elected in 1994 as President of South Africa, becoming the country’s first black president and serving one term from 1994 to 1999. The majority of prisoners were detained there for political reasons, two other former inmates of Robben Island, in addition to Mandela, have been elected to the presidency since the late 1990s, Kgalema Motlanthe (2008 to 2009) and Jacob Zuma (2009 to 2018).
The island has a terrible history, being discovered by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 where for many years it was used by Portuguese navigators and later by English and Dutch as a refuelling station. In 1654, the settlers of the Dutch Cape Colony placed all of their ewes and a few rams on Robben Island, and the men built a large shed and a shelter. The isolation offered better protection against wild animals than on the mainland. Since the end of the 17th century, Robben Island has been used for the incarceration of chiefly political prisoners. The Dutch settlers were the first to use Robben Island as a prison. The island’s first prisoner was probably Autshumato in the mid 17th century. Among its early permanent inhabitants were political leaders imprisoned from other Dutch colonies.
In 1806, the Scottish whaler John Murray opened a whaling station at a sheltered bay on the northeastern shore of the island, which became known as Murray’s Bay.
The island was also used as a leper colony and animal quarantine station. During the Second World War, the island was fortified, and BL 9.2 inch guns and 6 inch guns were installed as part of the defences for Cape Town.
From 1961, Robben Island was used by the South African government as a prison for political prisoners and convicted criminals. The maximum security prison for political prisoners closed in 1991. The medium security prison for criminal prisoners was closed five years later. Since 1999 it has become a tourist attraction.
As our feet and paws touched onto dry land again, Zoe’s colour started to return to the more normal pasty white colour, we followed the hordes of people towards the coaches that were parked near the dock, climbing on board our first tour guide introduced himself and started to explain about Apartheid which had affected South Africa from 1948 until 1994 where there was the racial segregation under the all-white government of South Africa which dictated that non-white South Africans (a majority of the population) were required to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities, and contact between the two groups wasn’t allowed.
It was a horrendous situation and one that the non-white population fort to change for so many years. The bus set off and we headed along the small roads passing houses that museum workers now inhabited but that had once been the homes of the guards who held the prisoners. A lovely white church appeared, and we were told that it was traditional to raise a blue or pink flag on the birth of an island baby, with only 150 residents this doesn’t happen very often anymore, in fact the last baby born was over a year ago.
We drove on before pulling up at a rest point with incredible views across the ocean to Cape Town, the guide explained that we needed to be care about the penguin colony that lived in the area as in the last two years it had dropped from over 40,000 to a mere 9000 now due to a strain of avian flu. Jo looked very sad at this information. We clambered down and took our pictures without spotting a single black and white suit anywhere.
On back on the road, we journeyed onwards stopping to look at a look out post with a lime quarry at its base. The quarry told a horrible story as it had been where Mandela and 31 other solitary political prisoners had been put to work removing the limestone, not for any use as it was just stockpiled but as punishment. The quarry however had done far more than that as it allowed the 32 men to communicate with each other and talk about a future for Africa that didn’t include segregation and injustice.
The next stop was at a row of dog kennels (they had been built a long time after the prison ceased to be), just to the rear of the kennels however was a small white building where Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe had been held in isolation. Born on 5th December 1924 he died on 27th February 1978 never knowing the difference his contribution had made to South Africa. A South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), serving as the first president of the organization. He organized and launched a non-violent protest campaign against pass laws, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison on grounds of incitement. In 1963, the enactment of the “Sobukwe Clause,” allowed an indefinite renewal of his prison sentence and Sobukwe was subsequently relocated to Robben Island for solitary confinement. At the end of his sixth year at Robben Island, he was released and placed under house arrest until his death.
It was very sobering to hear all of the information given and as we pulled up at the actual prison, we were now about to meet a former inmate who now conducts tours around the jail itself. Our new guide introduced himself and explained that he been in the prison for 3 years for a number of crimes.
We passed the playing fields where prisoners had been allowed to exercise for a few hours on the weekends but were strictly not allowed to talk to each other.
We were then led past the prison blocks before entering one of them.
From a long corridor many doors led off each door led into a large communal cell where over 50 prisoners had slept. The guide told us of how they had all gone on hunger strike to obtain beds rather than rush mattresses on the floor and that during the summer they had been forced to wear a uniform that consisted of long trousers, long shirts, jackets and hats but that in the winter months the uniform was changed to shorts and t shirts, a horrible picture to imagine.
The bathrooms were only allowed to be used once a day after that it was a bucket, pictures showed us the cards that each inmate had had to carry and the meals that had been served. It was terrible.
We walked outside arriving in a large yard which is where the political prisoners had exercised, in the far corner was a tree under which Mr Mandela had written his first book, A Long Walk to Freedom, and told us how paper had been passed around using tennis balls and plates in the canteen.
The last part was viewing the block that the men had slept in and Nelson Mandela’s cell where he had spent so many years.
We walked back to the ferry and set off back to the city. Following another lunch in the wonderful Time Out Market again we headed for some fishy delights.
The Two Oceans Aquarium is an aquarium located at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town and was opened on the 13th November 1995. The aquarium is named for its location, where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet. Well, you don’t need me to tell you about fish I’m sure but there were some amazing ones and the most incredible colours of anemones and starfish that we had never seen.
It had been an incredible day with us all having learnt a lot as well as enjoying our last day on the Cape. Tomorrow sees Zoe leaving us and heading back to the UK whilst Jo and I have a super early flight at silly o’clock to catch to our next country. We have truly loved Cape Town and the surrounding areas and will defiantly need to come back as there is still so much to see and do.