We were quite relaxed about timings, as there wasn't a specific time we had to be up, but we both naturally seemed to wake up around 10:30ish, we got ready and got the bus to the Waterfront for around 12. We made our way to the Robben Island museum building, where you wait for the ferry, and can get tickets/find out more info and stuff, so we paid for our tickets and queued up for the ferry.
There was so many people, it was crazy. They had to get 2 ferry's to take us. We were on the second ferry, which was a little less crowded which was nice.
After yesterday's antics, Martin was giving me a bit of stick about going back on a boat. To be fair, though, I would've given him a lot more had it had been him puking, not me. But I was a bit nervous myself. I was starting to question how well I could handle boats. Rest assured, after yesterday, I vowed against ever going on a boat again. That was before I remembered it was an hour boat trip to get to Robben Island, and another hour, back. I was fine though, so happy days.
We got there, and made our way to the bus that would be taking us round, and hopped on. It was stupidly crowded. I was lucky enough to be sitting on the inside seat, while Martin sat next to the window, which meant that my shoulders were, unfortunately, exposed to a rather large woman, who pretty much sat on my shoulder as she went past. Lovely.
The bus took us round to various points on the island, where our tourguide for the bus trip gave us all these facts about the island, such as it was originally for people who had lepracy, who were pretty much left there to rot, before other criminals joined them on the island.
After a couple of stops at points we made our way to the main prison, where Mandela was kept. There, we met up with a different tourguide, who was a funny guy, but had a really strong African accent, so at times it was hard to understand him. But he took us through the prison, telling us bits about it along the way, like how the criminals were split into category's, and depending on their category, depended on what privileges they'd get. Some would be able to write 1 letter a month, some 1 every 6 months and loads of other things. It was really interesting.
What made it more interesting was the fact that this guy was a prisoner here, too. He was arrested in 1977, and released 5 years later, in 1982. The reason he got arrested? Because he refused to learn Afrikaans, which was forced upon people back in the day. Crazy.
He showed us his cell, which he shared with up to 60 people. It was a cell which would've struggled to fit 20 people, let alone 60.
He also showed us Mandelas cell, which he occupied alone. It was this tiny room, with a bit of cloth on the floor which made his bed. It was nasty. He spent 27 years in it. I can only imagine how horrible it must've been.
After seeing everything, and having questions answered and all that, the tour was over. So we headed back to the boat to go home. I was exhausted so I fell asleep on the boat trip.
When we got back, Martin picked up a data package for his phone, incase the wifi goes down at Berghof again, and we grabbed milkshakes from a restaurant called La Playa. These milkshakes were huge. Pricy, but huge. I went for Nutella, while Martin opted for Oreo. After that we headed for the buses, and came home.
Quality day to end a fairly disappointing (in my opinion) weekend. Now onto our second to last week of coaching!
Harry
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