Out of Africa: 09/19/18

Today after a leisurely wake-up we headed to the harbor at Table Bay for a tour of Robben Island (Robbeneiland-afrikaans). It lies 6.9 km west of the coast.
The ferry leaves from the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and was a very choppy 40 minute ride with large sea swells & many passengers seeking sea sickness bags. The earlier ferries in the day prior to our late morning departure had been cancelled due to rough seas. Luckily we had been warned and took meclizine and so fared well.

The name is Dutch for "seal island". Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid. To date 3 former inmates of Robben Island have gone on to become President of South Africa- Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe & Jacob Zuma. Robben Island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Since the end of the 17th century, Robben Island has been used for the isolation of mainly political prisoners. The island was also used as a leper colony and animal quarantine station. Since 1961 it was used by the South African government as a prison for political prisoners and convicted criminals.The maximum security prison for political prisoners was closed in 1991 and the medium security prison for criminal prisoners was closed 5 years later. Many of the the guides are former prisoners. It was a sobering look at a past not too distant.

After our return ferry which was much smoother, due in part to being a larger hydrofoil vessel, we spent time at the Alfred mall on the waterfront, enjoying the sights and colors in the stores as we mostly window-shopped.