One of South Africa's premier tourist attractions is Robben Island, 10 KM into the South Atlantic from Cape Town, where many of the anti-apartheid leaders were imprisoned. Tickets are tough to come by, so I emailed Robben Island at the beginning of September. I even sent them my credit card information but never heard back. Inevitably, they had no record of my reservation. We asked at our hotel--no tickets until the 29th, we were told. We asked at the Tourist Information Center and were told the same.
Finally, we got up early this morning and headed down to the dock. The depressed-looking Irish woman ahead of us was there for the second day in a row and was again turned away. We pleaded our case with the unsmiling ticket woman. "We tried to make a reservation!" we said."No tickets until September 30," she replied. "But we leave on Sunday!" "No tickets available." "None at all?!?" "Well, how about 9:00 this morning!" (It was about 8:45 at the time). WHAT!?! We were surprised to say the least! We moved quickly toward the boat in case our luck ran out!
The tour, led by two ex-political prisoners, was excellent. We learned a lot about the history of the prison and saw a lot of wildlife (dolphins, seals, turtles, jackass penguins, rabbits, various other birds). We saw where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years, and where the prisoners were forced to break rocks into gravel into a pointless, exhausting daily routine. We returned the the lovely Victoria and Albert Waterfront, a redeveloped zone of shops, restaurants, and attractions, for a late lunch and some shopping.
Our final adventure of the day was renting our car for the next two weeks. Of course, the reservation was somehow fouled up, but fortunately everything turned out fine and we are the proud renters of some four-door Nissan car. It is automatic so that is all I needed! We finally checked in at An Africa Villa, our home for the next three nights. Another great day in Cape Town!
Robben Island Web Site
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1 comment:
Sounds like y'all had a little better experience than I did at Robben Island. I was so sick from the wine tasting that we all did the day before, I hardly made it across the ferry alive. It was horrible. Still, I highly recommend Stellenbosch.
Love the blog, Thomas!
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