Tuesday afternoon we had arrived in South Africa!!! After almost 23 hours of traveling we had arrived in a continent neither of us had ever been to, we couldn't help sing Toto, "Africa" upon landing. We headed to Greenpoint in Capetown where we were staying, took a nice long walk by the ocean, then grabbed some food and explored the tiny, cute beach town.
Wednesday we woke up to take the Robben Island tour where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. We took a 30 minute ferry out to the island and I couldn't believe my eyes after maybe 10 minutes into the ride I was scanning the ocean and saw a fully breaching whale!! I called everyone to attention and we all started watching for more movement and it did a half breach, I couldn't believe it. The whole time in the Galapagos Islands I wanted to see a whale and hadn't, so I was super excited. As we got closer were saw that there were actually two whales swimming by, it was pretty amazing.
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| Robben Island |
When we arrived we took about a two hour tour around Robben island, famous for Nelson Mandela being imprisoned there, which was a fantastic tour. I must admit I'm not one to enjoy group tours, but this one was well worth it. The last 45 minutes we were shown around by a political prisoner who was imprisoned on the island for 6 years. His stories were unbelievable and we were able to see the cell that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned during 18 of his 27 prison years. He was confined to a small 4X6 cell, the floor his bed, a bucket his toilet and he was forced to do hard labor in a quarry.
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| Nelson Mandela's Prison Cell |
After over an hour of strenuous, rock climbing and steep footing we got to the top and were able to see a breathtaking sunset and views. The way back down was even more challenging especially in the dark!!
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| sunset Lion's head |
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Lion's Head Hike
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