South Africa 2024 Trip Day 3: Exploring Soggy Cape Town & Robben Island (September 28)

This was a picture (which I have since cropped) of the new South Africa flag of the post-apartheid era. I actually took this one at the apartheid museum, as this was the final display, if you will, of the museum, the symbol of the emergence of a "new South Africa."

On the third day of my trip to South Africa, it was rainy and almost shockingly cold. I had expected Cape Town to be cool, even chilly at times. But it was outright cold. Bundled up as I was, it did not feel like nearly enough. 

The waters to reach Robben Island were quite rough. I felt seriously nauseous and came somewhat close to throwing up on the way there. On the way back, it seemed like a bunch of people were throwing up. Luckily, I was not one of them, although that required fighting the urge.

After we got back, it was getting late. It felt like a good idea to explore soggy Cape Town a little bit more.

Below are some pictures and the original descriptions from those times:

It proved to be cold and eventually soggy in Cape Town yesterday. 

My tolerance for cold weather is usually pretty strong. In fact,  I have always kind of liked the cool and rainy weather conditions. But it was so cold that I had to go back to the hotel and get both my sweater and jacket. 

Thought it would warm up as the day progressed. But it never did. In fact,  it just seemed to get colder and colder. 

Shocking.

I understood that Cape Town is supposed to have weather than the rest of Africa. Again,  though,  it was outright cold. 

Anyway,  I was actually glad on some level. Mostly,  I just wanted to see what the locals call a "table cloth over Table Mountain."

The rain added some charm to the trip. Here are some pictures which, in fact,  are likely enhanced by the presence of rain.

Guess I can now say that I touched the rain down in Africa. 

Literally. 

Robben Island is famous for being the place where Mandela was jailed for 18 years. 

In some ways,  it almost reminded me of concentration camps in Europe. While it was not so extreme as a death camp,  it nevertheless has a similarly somber place. 

Of course, there is a good reason for this. After all, this was a place where people were taken into isolation and specifically made to suffer. So while it wasn't quite as extreme as the Nazi concentration camps were,  it nevertheless was still in the same ballpark. 

Our guide was a former inmate. However, he did not serve time here while Mandela was still a prisoner.

During our visit,  the weather was cold and miserable.

Somehow,  this felt fitting. 

Pictures of Cape Town Drenched in the Rain

One of the main places to see during a visit to Cape Town is Robben Island. This is where Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. Of course, many other political prisoners were there with him. So much was this the case, in fact, that when a new generation of political prisoners were brought to the Robben Island, it came to be known, unofficially, as Mandela University. 

This was the first (and really only) morning of the trip where I allowed myself to sleep in a bit. Thus, I woke up late, a bit after 9 AM. Guess the largely sleepless nights of the days of the trip prior to this simply caught up with me. Truth be told, I still felt a bit fatigued and sluggish. But this was Cape Town, and I only had a limited time to explore. I was trying to figure out what I should do while getting ready, when it suddenly dawned on me that time was wasting away. Already, it was about 9:30. Time to get a move on already.

So I headed to the Waterfront, the one part of the city which I had already seen. But I wanted to know if I could get tickets to Robben Island for that morning, or possibly Monday or Tuesday. Unfortunately, both Monday and Tuesday were booked solid, with no openings. There was exactly one opening, and it was for one that afternoon. She told me that I would have to be there by 12:30 in order to catch the boat.

By then, it was maybe 9:45. That was inconvenient, because it left no time, really, to visit anything else. In fact, it just allowed me to take a bus back to the hotel and get a sweater and jacket, which on this day was clearly needed. It started off chilly that morning. But to my surprise, it not only never warmed up, but actually seemed to get only colder.