Robben Island

Of course, while in Cape Town, we wanted to make sure we visited Robben Island, so wer booked a reservation online. It happened that the day we went, Tuesday, May 29, was a rainy day. We were told you could go on a rainy day because you are in a ferry, then a bus, then a prison. It was, for us, however, an ill-fated day.

Here is the ferry we were supposed to take - a catamaran which makes the 4 km trip in 20 minutes. It was broken down, so they put us, and 100 or so other people, on a ship that took about an hour to make the voyage.

It was raining and choppy, but we decided to stay outside rather than go into the hull with no windows.

When we finally arrived, feeling queasy, we got on a bus without heat and with fogged up windows for a lackluster tour. We couldn't really see anything out of the fogged up windows and couldn't really hear what the guide was saying. We got off and went into a part of the prison for a presentation by a former inmate. He was very interesting, but his accent was hard to understand. We got to see Nelson Mandela's cell in passing (4th on the right in Block B), but then we had to get back on the ferry for the return trip. Here is Marin in front of Mandela's cell...

 

The return ferry trip was torturous. The choppy sea now also included quite large swells rolling through. It's a good thing there were barf bags in the room where we were sitting. Brooke may have been the first to go down, but she wasn't the last. Folks were grabbing for the bags left and right. Ben had to step outside and focus strongly on the horizon to keep from hurling. We didn't see Brooke's mom, Donna, until after we had arrived, but she had been using her breakfast to chum for fist off the prow, if you catch my drift.

Brooke and Donna were dead to the world for the rest of the day. For their part, Marin and Sophia were champs the entire day, patient with the less than ideal travel accomodations, gentle and understanding with their sick parents and nana, enjoying the opportunity to relate to other people on the fated voyage.

While he didn't get sick, Marin's face here sums up the day.