Day 19 - Wednesday 31st July

This morning we had tickets to go on a tour of Robben Island. This is an island off the coast of Cape Town. It is most famous for being a prison for political prisoners in the apartheid era. The best known prisoner was Nelson Mandela.

The ferry was due to leave at 9am from a wharf about 300m from our hotel. We got there soon after 8:30am and it's just as well that we got there early so we could get a good seat on the ferry. There was a long queue - mainly because we all had to pass through security before boarding.

The ferry holds about 300 people and the trip to the island takes about 30 minutes. After getting off the ferry, they loaded us onto buses for a 45-minute drive around the island stopping at places of interest. The final destination was the maximum security prison.

Here our guide was a former prisoner who had been held for five years for plotting a demonstration against apartheid. He took us from one wing to another relating personal stories of the hardships they endured.

At one stage, he stopped outside the cell where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of the 27 years that he spent in prison. As with the other cells, it was very small and basic.

We could walk from the maximum security prison to the ferry and we were back at the Cape Town waterfront at about 12:30pm.

For lunch, we stopped at a cafe called Alfredo in the same complex as our hotel. It was very pleasant sitting on the terrace in the warm winter sunshine overlooking the passing scene. There was a jazz band playing nearby entertaining the passers-by.

After lunch we decided to go to Signal Hill. This is a hill top high above Cape Town that has a great view of the city and beyond including Table Mountain. This had been suggested to us as a second best option because we couldn't go to the top of Table Mountain itself since the cable car was out of action.

To get there, we caught a taxi from outside the hotel. This involved an indirect route that took about 20 minutes to reach the peak. We asked the driver to wait for us so he could drive us back the V&A Waterfront again. It was very worthwhile because the view was excellent.

Back at our hotel, I started working on my photos and blogs while Suzy went shopping. Unfortunately the hotel's internet connection stopped working again and so I decided to go for a walk along the waterfront.

On the advice of the hotel reception desk, we decided to have dinner at a restaurant called Moyo which is located near the clocktower about 300m from our hotel - near the wharf where we caught the ferry to Robben Island this morning.

They had recommended it because it was an African restaurant. The restaurant describes itself as "modern sophisticated African". The waiters and waitresses wore African traditional outfits and there was a two-piece band providing entertainment.

I decided to have ostrich which, believe it or not, is red meat. It was tasty but not as tasty as the lamb dish that Suzy had. She thinks the dish she received was not the same one that she ordered but she thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. The staff obligingly posed for photos.

After dinner, we stopped for ice creams from Hagen Daas in the shopping mall. When we got back to the hotel, the internet connection was working again.