Robben Island

Robben Island is so boring I can see why  they used it as a prison (and why Clare suggested not going).

(Above) A cell. In a prison. With bars on the doors and windows. Some bloke called Nelson apparently lived in here for a few years. He seemed to be quite a keen gardener.

The only good bits were the views from the boat of both Cape Town/Table Mountain and also of some small container ships that were at anchor. Clare was less keen on the ships. There were also some seals. "Robben" is Dutch for seal - other than that I forgot everything they said on the tour, but I did manage to lock an old American lady in a cell, which was funny (for me).

They showed us some cells and we were shown around by a former inmate. He kept telling us how bad the conditions were for the prisoners, which they were and the imprisonment of political prisoners was clearly wrong, but it was still a bit predictable that in a prison the inmates wouldn't enjoy great luxury.

They had a shop selling sandwiches but no coffee (even though coffee was part of the prisoners' daily rations). So, in summary, prisoners on Robben Island were treated better than I was.

Obviously Richard wrote the above - he was hungry for the whole tour and so was predictably grumpy the entire time until I manged to feed him.  He then cheered up and took lots of boring photos of ships.  In summary - my second time to Robben Island was just as dull as my first trip, the main difference being last time I was by myself and this time I basically had a small child with me.