We woke to a beautiful sunrise & a mill pond ocean, perfect for our trip to Robben Island.
We headed to the V&A waterfront, purchased sandwiches for lunch to take with us & headed to find me a coffee.
We passed the Cape Town version of dog adoptions, you could adopt, sponsor or just take a down out for a walk.
& found a great coffee & what a view.
We boarded the boat for the 30 min cruise to Robben Island. We then boarded a bus & we’re driven around the island which has been used as a prison, Leper colony & an army base during WWII & has been a museum since 1998. During its time as a prison the guards & their families also lived on the island. We saw their houses, churches, post office & a hall where dances we held (for the guards & their families of course), now the tour guides, bus drivers etc live on the island.
We saw the limestone quarry where the prisoners worked, when a number of former prisoners returned to the island for a reconciliation service in the 1990’s, they each found a stone & made a pile. The stones were varying sizes, colours, textures & symbolises the diversity in South Africa & how we should all come together.
We then went into the prison & our guide, Jama showed us around. He was a political prisoner. He was sentenced in 1977 for organising a rally & was 19 years old, found guilty of terrorism. We saw group & individual cells, initially prisoner didn’t have beds just blankets on the floor, when they installed beds the number of detainees in each group cell could increase.

We then toured a number of individual cells which contained photos & stories of the prisoners who had occupied the cells, 1 contained the story of how a few inmates had made a copy of a master key which included assistance from the blacksmith & was made over a number of weeks with only a whetstone & some grease.
We then walked down the wing that contained Nelson Mandela’s cell.
The tour guides for the prison part of the tour are all ex-prisoner meaning they now live on the island as free men.
Really interesting & to think this was all happening within our lifetimes.
We ate in our apartment with Richard cooking chicken fillets with lemon, salad & sauté potatoes. I got the dressing on my t-shirt & shorts, very annoying & Richard said that’s why you don’t make friends with salad!!! Richards now watching Fulham play Tottenham live (EPL).