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| African Penguin |
Cape Town was the last leg of the Journey before we headed back to Polokwane. After several weeks of small seaside towns, it was weird being back in a big city. While the Waterfront was great, and there was plenty to do around Cape Town, there was a weird feel about the place. Nonetheless, we had a good time and made three days' worth of fun out of it. The first day, we strolled from the backpackers to the V & A Waterfront, had some coffee by the water, looked around the shops and all that tourist stuff. The second day we took the train down to Simon's Town, and walked along to Boulders Beach, a famous nesting ground for African Penguins. Watching them on TV doesn't give much impression of how comical those things are. Watching them work up the momentum to take just one step forward was enough to make it worth going to see them.
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| Mandela's prison garden |
The final day of the trip we went to Robben Island, sight of the prison in which Nelson Mandela spent most of his sentence, now more of a historical monument. Some of the stories written by ex-prisoners were enough to make your stomach turn. It was interesting to stand in Mandela's own garden, where he apparently hid his papers for A Long Walk to Freedom, which he'd apparently been working on for many, many years. When the prison decided to build up the concrete wall as you see it here in the photo, they dug up the ground and discovered the papers, which earned Mandela an extra four years on his sentence.
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| Nelson Mandela's prison cell |
When you see what his cell looks like, the idea of even four days in it would be a struggle for most of us.
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