Day 19 (Sunday, Sept. 24th)
Robbin Island, then Depart for Home!
Robbin Island:
On the last day of our trip, we tried to take in some culture and visited
Robbin Island. We happened to be visiting on the day of the Heritage Day
Festival, where they were unveiling the World Heritage Site plaque and hosting
a series of speakers and performances. As a result, the dock was a madhouse.
After pushing our way through the line, and much difficulty involving red
stickers, we boarded the boat. The boat ride was quite an adventure, as the
seas were very choppy and everyone on board, including the old women and young
kids, were all either screaming or laughing. We finally made it to the island
alive, and discovered that due to the festival we were going to be given a
five-hour tour instead of the normal three-hour tour. After some argument, we
were told there would be a ferry returning in three hours and that we could
have a special three-hour tour that would have us ready to leave on that
boat.
The tour began at the maximum-security prison. Our tour guide leader
was a former political prisoner, who was imprisoned on Robbin Island for seven
years, including some of the years where Mandela was there. He explained
to us
the way that the prisoners were treated, including the way that apartheid was
incorporated into the prison system. The white prisoners were given shoes,
blankets, and better clothes than the black and colored prisoners. The black
prisoners were only able to send and receive mail a few times a year, and even
then it was heavily censored. Our tour continued as the guide showed us
around, letting us see the yard and the individual and communal cells.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Robbin Island political
prisoners was their attitude toward the guards and the criminal prisoners also
jailed on the island. They believed that the time that they spent in prison
could be used to enhance their minds and ideas, and passed these ideas on to
the guards and other prisoners. Some of the basis for the post-apartheid
state
was founded in this prison, including the idea that everyone was equal and
that
they should heal the past with an attitude of conciliation, not repression.
They thought those who were oppressed needed to work together with, not
against, their oppressors. The last of our time in the prison was spent
looking at exhibits in the individual cells, where we were able to hear former
prisoners tell their stories. The cells also displayed items that the
prisoners valued and the stories behind them.
When we left the prison grounds, we went on a bus ride to view the
rest
of the island. On the drive we passed through the town where the museum
curators live, saw a beautiful view of Cape Town and Table Mountain with a
shipwreck in the foreground, saw some gemsbok, and listened to the obnoxious
guy in the back harass the tour guide. We also saw the lime quarry where many
of the prisoners worked during their time in jail.
We made it back to the dock just in time to see a dance troupe
perform,
then boarded the boat for a much more peaceful ride back to the waterfront.
For the rest of the day we hung out at the waterfront, doing some last minute
shopping before we met back up with the people who went on a hike on Table
Mountain.
Our last stop in South Africa was at a flea market where most of us
spent the last of our money. Then we filled up on gas and dropped the cars off
at the airport, where they tried to charge us for 50,000 km (we drove about
4000 km per car). Our final act was to buy all the final gifts at the
duty-free shop that we could carry back into the US. Then we just sat around
for a few hours until it was finally time to board the plane, and we were all
on our way home.
Written by Jeanette
Table Mountain:
While most of the group went to Robbin Island, a few of us decided to venture
up the side of Table Mountain. Antonin, Shane, Kristine and I (Magali) hiked
up a trail that follows the steep path of a stream from the road along the
top of the talus slope at the base of Table Mountain to the top of the mountain. The trail, which took about 2 hours to climb, was more of a rock stair
case than a trail. Boulders 1 1/2 feet tall lined the trail. In the misty,
fog-covered morning, this was a slippery path to the top. Normally there is
also a tram to the top, but on our visit the cable was being replaced so
there was no tram at all.
At the top, the trail crossed huge boulders (the size of VW-bugs) up to a
narrow ravine that lead to the flat top of the mountain. Since the weather
made it difficult to see very far, we walked around the top searching for
the highest point. The vegetation on the top consisted of small, delicate
fynbos which grew in the cracks of a rocky surface and between pools of water.
After walking north for a while he headed south to the tram station. Even
though the tram was not running, the station was unlocked. We took a look around and after warming up a little headed back to the trail down the mountain.
The hike down took almost as long as the hike up, mostly because I wasn't
very confident that my knees would prevent me from slipping on the
wet boulders and tumbling down the slope. A few times on our hike down
the clouds would open up and treat us to a view of the city and
harbor. These were quick peeks though, the wind quickly blew clouds
in to fill in the gap. At the bottom of the trail we rejoined the stream
and the flowering fynbos before reaching the road.
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