Cruise Port 6 – Cape Town, South Africa

Molo!

it is April 26th, 2023, and we will have two days in Cape Town, South Africa!

Percy is a gentleman passenger on this cruise who is from South Africa. He lived near Port Elizabeth but his job took him to Cape Town frequently. He has also cruised many times and is adamant that we need to be up in the front of the ship at 6 AM when we come in to port. Coming around the point just at sunrise is a spectacular sight, says he!

The problem with this plan is sunrise isn’t until 7:18 AM today. Hmmm…

I get up anyway. We take on the pilot at 5:45 AM and head toward the harbor.

The Cape Town waterfront is beautifully lit at 6 AM!

I find Percy and comment that the Sun did not cooperate this morning. He nods and mutters, “They did us a disservice this morning. This could have been amazing!”

I decide to make my way back to the cabin intending to get another hour of sleep, but instead I pick up a cup of coffee and go out on the veranda and watch us back up through the harbor into our little berth at the Cape Town Cruise Terminal. A little light begins to filter into the sky, and Signal Hill and Lion’s Head start to come in to view!

The morning sun finally lights up Table Mountain at 7:25. That’s a long time after 6 AM! But hanging out to get this photo is worth it!

We are supposed to pick up passports and go ashore to clear South African Immigration at 8:00. No time for a nap now!

The entrance to the Cruise Terminal has beautiful displays!

Inside are art projects created by The Magpie Studio using trash. There are several works such as this. This work uses plastic bottle caps!

We meet our private car driver, Saifu. We hired him through Viator for the day! We head first toward the colorful part of town known as Bo Kaap. On the way we pass this colorful crosswalk! This part of town is very supportive of LGBTQ+ people!

A few blocks later we are in Bo Kaap. The name means “above the Cape”. They received a special permit to paint the buildings in a colorful manner, and there was a lot of coordination to ensure the same colors were not used too closely!

This area also received special funding from the government to make it a safe environment for tourists! That is part of Signal Hill rising up in the background. We’ll be up there soon!

In Bo Kaap we ask to do some shopping in this bazaar. Saifu knows the people and agrees this is a good place.

We head up to the top of Signal Hill. This is the view to the Atlantic Ocean side. Beautiful! They are launching paraglider rides from here, so we watch the paraglider chutes head off to the coastline. There is a steady flow of paraglider launches, so they do a good business up here!

Looking toward Table Mountain and Cape Town, a large stand of gorgeous trees blocks the view. We need to go downhill a little bit to get a clear view.

Even through the trees the view of Lion’s Head is nice from here!

Then we get a very clear view of Cape Town and Table Mountain. Stunning!

The Bo Kaap area is clearly visible at the base of Signal Hill. The bright colors pop!

We head south along the Atlantic Ocean coast and reach Camp’s Bay backed by the peaks known as the Twelve Apostles. Saifu tells us this is the Beverly Hills of the Cape. Homes are very expensive here!

 

At a scenic overlook this sculpture is serenely listening to the waves.

The roadside is home to several vendors selling their carvings, but I’m not sure stopping a car on this road is a good idea.

Looking back into Hout Bay, the point looks like a rhino’s head!

There are two castles on the green hillside in the right half of this photo. One is reported to have been owned by Michael Jackson!

This is an interesting part of the road – the road is carved into the side of the mountain, not hanging outside or tunneling through. Pretty cool!

At the north end of Long Beach there are a handful of beautifully roofed homes on the hillside.

Long Beach has waves that are great for surfing, according to Steve. His daughter will love this place!

We find an unusual sign! We spend the next 30 minutes looking for baboons, but never find any.

Soon we are at the Cape of Storms, the Cape of Good Hope.

We head back north to Simon’s Town to the Boulders to find some African penguins.

There is a small colony here. The first group is sunning on the boulders!

The second group is hanging out by the nests, and we are pleasantly surprised to see so many big fluffy chicks!

The third group is playing on the beach! There are no chicks here, but one of the penguins at the upper right of the photo is molting its fluffy gray layer!

Saifu takes us to a restaurant in Simon’s Town to have lunch. Seaforth has a large patio with picnic bench seating, a great view of the water, and very good food!

Our last key stop is a visit to the Groot Constantia Winery. This is the oldest winery in Cape Town. They allow us to taste five of the nine wines available for tasting. Their very high-end wines are not available – grayed out on the sheet. We focused on the red wines and find the Pinotage is our favorite! The Shiraz is a close second!

We place an order to have a case of each (Pinotage and Shiraz) sent home, and they break out the good stuff! One last taste of their brandy as a “thank you” for our order! It is phenomenal! Supposedly Napoleon Bonaparte declared this his favorite also! But it is not available for shipping.

Back in town sunset dominates the sky over City Hall!

We catch a glimpse of the statue of Nelson Mandela on the balcony at City Hall in the spot he made his first speech after being released from prison.

We finally head back to the ship. It has been a great day!

It is now April 27th, 2023, and our second day in Cape Town. We are heading to Robben Island via ferry. Near the ferry dock I find more of the masks we saw yesterday!

I see this very interesting building on the waterfront, but don’t have a chance to explore.

The next street has a herd of rhino! Actually, it is a “crash” of rhinos! Who knew?

The ferry ride takes about 35 minutes. This is about the worst ferry ride I’ve ever had. We have 10-ft waves and there are a lot of people asking for motion sickness bags.

We succeed in reaching Robben Island!

This is the entrance many political prisoners saw as they arrived.

We hop on our tour bus. It’s tiny for our group! Nice! the man on the right is Kevin, the overall tour guide. The man on the left is Tolo, our guide on the island.

We tour the overall island before going to the prison. A long time ago Robben Island was used as a place to send lepers and lunatics. This is part of the graveyard where the lepers who were sent to Robben Island are buried.

After the leper colony was shut down all of the buildings they lived in were burned to the ground, except the church. This is the Church of the Good Shepherd, the only surviving building.

Right across the street from the church is a pillbox. This is a protected gunnery site built during World War II as part of the island and Cape Town defenses from invasions expected the Germans and Japanese.

We head into town. This is the Robben Island Post Office!

We come across the Garrison Church. We are told the flag staff on this church was used to celebrate the birth of children on Robben Island. A flag with blue or pink would be flown as a gender reveal!

There is a beautiful school on this island that serves all of the children on the island!

We find a picture frame similar to that for Table Mountain. This one is also supposed to frame Table Mountain from Robben Island, but the low clouds obscure the mainland so all we see is the ocean!

We begin our drive to the prison!

We pause at this gun. It is one of three gun emplacements built on the island for the defense of Cape Town in World War II. The guns are 9.2-inch (234 mm) barrels. The shells weigh over 200 pounds each and have a range of 17 miles. It is reported the shells took 5 minutes to target! But the guns were never used in war as they are reported to not have been completed until 1947.

One more stop on the way to the prison is the lime quarry that Nelson Mandela and the other prisoners were forced to work. The pile of stones in the center is significant. When Nelson Mandela and 1200 former inmates came back for a visit on the fifth anniversary of his release he picked up a stone, pondered it, and tossed it on the ground.  The 1200 former inmates who accompanied him all did the same, adding their stones to Nelson Mandela’s. The result is the pile of stones in the middle.

At the prison we meet Zozo, but I never catch his full name. He tells us of the details of his incarceration as a political dissident. He was released in 1982.

He escorts us into the grounds.

Zozo explains the athletic field is called FIFA Stadium. The days they were allowed to play out here were treasured. That was the only time they didn’t have to wear their prison uniforms. They were allowed to wear athletic gear for the team they represented.

We enter one of the buildings. This is the central hallway of Block F.

We enter a room lined with benches and take a seat. Mats are folded under the benches. One mat is spread out in the floor. One set of bunk beds is in the corner. Zozo tells us there were 50 to 70 inmates in this room, and there are four of these rooms in this Block. They all start with just the floormat and a blanket, and aspire to advance to being allowed to sleep in a bed. They advanced and gained privileges on good behavior, and could be demoted and lose privileges on bad behavior.

He explains their prisoner numbers. For example, Nelson Mandela was the 466th prisoner registered in 1964, so his number is 466/64 or more simply 46664. Billy Nair’s card, below, shows he was the 69th prisoner in 1964.

Finally, Zozo shows us the card that shows that not all inmates receive the same amount of food. Bantus are the primary black population of South Africa, and Coloured people are lighter skinned, mixed-race people. Coloured and Asians generally received more food every day.

We file over to the Block B building.

We gather in the courtyard. Zozo explained this is where inmates were called outdoors. There was nowhere for them to go, and they spent many hours sitting on the ground with hammers and chisels breaking rock. The next photo is on display and is generally well-known when discussing Nelson Mandela’s time here. But I feel it is important to point out that this courtyard is not the same courtyard that is shown in the next photo. Similar, but not the same.

This is the famous photo of prisoners sitting in the sun breaking rocks

This courtyard is important – this is where we first glimpse part of Nelson Mandela’s cell for 18 years. The fourth window from the doorway is the cell used by Nelson Mandela.

The hallway looks much like what I showed above for the Block F hallway.  That leads to this cell, Nelson Mandela’s. It is 7 ft by 9 ft in area.

Removing the bars from the picture, this is what his cell looks like. The red can is what was used for a toilet when the doors were locked. He had to carry it out and empty it in the morning if it was used at night.

We wind out through an interesting door. This is a huge cement block on tracks that is opened and closed by a motor with a toothed arm. There does not appear to be any handle or way to move it without the motor.

We finally step out of the prison through the door the freed prisoners traveled.

We take the 400-meter walk to freedom that the freed prisoners took! This leads us to the ferry dock.

Soon we are back at the ferry. I don’t look forward to the ride, and hope it is smoother. Long story made short – it isn’t smoother but I weather it better. Fewer people ask for motion sickness bags.

Back at the ferry pier we see a handful of African fur seals! They’re hanging out in a fenced-off section of the pier.

We have a little more shopping to do, then we out-process through South African immigration. Once on the ship we can’t go back ashore!

The ship leaves port during dinner so I have no farewell photos to show. But we love this port!

This journey in Africa has been a surprise – we never thought we would get such a wonderful history lesson on slavery, apartheid, and Nelson Mandela! I want to recommend two movies, in can you haven’t seen them. The first is “Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom” that explores the unrest that led to Mandela’s incarceration up to his release. The second is “Invictus” that shows how Mandela used rugby to unite South Africa!

Usale kakhule!

Our next port is Luderitz, Namibia!