Friday, 17 January 2014

Day 8

Day 8. 

Today was a day that I'd been looking forward to since we got our programme printed out.. Robben island!!!

We were collected by Lourens at 10:30 to head down to the waterfront for the 11:00 ferry. However there was immense amounts of traffic which meant we realised that 11:00 was a bit hopeful. We didn't mind though, this meant jeff and I could explore the waterfront! We headed straight to the mall to check out the shops and get a bit to eat! There was many shops in the mall that you would find in England such as topshop,Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger etc which was good to see and it also meant I could get lunch at a place close to home (London)... Subway!! 

After lunch we made our way to the ferry point where we would board the ferry to take us to robben island, after Lourens bought our ticket. The ferry was a great experience, Jeffrey and I got some fantastic photos! I've taken so many photos so hopefully when I'm back I can show the hundreds of photos on the TV via HDMI! 

We got off the ferry after a 35 min journey, we were edging closer to robben island!! How surreal! Jeff and I would be visiting the place were THE Nelson Mandela was incarcerated! Not many people can say they have visited South Africa, let alone Robben Island! How lucky am I to be involved in such a programme and have the support of my parents to make it possible, aswell as communicare! Over the course of your trip to robben island, you have two tour guides. One on the bus and one former political prisoner who takes you around the prison! The bus tour guide was very informative and funny whereas the prison tour guide was a bit more serious but still as informative, despite how fast he talked! It felt really weird seeing the places which the film was based on! I thank Kate and Mark for taking me before I left as this gave me a bit more of an insight into it all. After the tour.. We started to speaking to MP (our bus tour guide) for quite a long while and afterwards we took his number as he was keen to show us more of Cape Town and wanted to know more about what we was doing in the community! 

We walked to the 103 bus stop at the civic centre after the ferry trip back to Cape Town. Believe me, jeff and I were shattered but it's good to experience how to walk about and direct ourselves rather than just jumping on a bus! Again, it was all adding to our Cape Town knowledge!

We jumped on the 103 bus back to Berghof. Jeff and I fell asleep on the bus but luckily awoke at Montrose, a couple stops before rayden (our stop). Surprisingly, sight seeing takes it out of you! 

We arrived at Berghof at around 17:45 and we were starving! We grabbed our food from behind reception and headed to our room! We both felt dirty and thought it was priority to have a shower/bath before we started eating! Dinner was really nice tonight, one of the best we've had so far at Berghof. We had chicken salad with wedges and then cod and chips! Lovely stuff. 

After eating we headed down to mixers, despite being knackered! It was Friday.. we wanted to celebrate the great week we had with a few beers, 5 to be precise!! Coincidentally we met a woman who was backpacking and who had lived in earls court (near jeff) but worked in Enfield (where I live). What a small world!! She lived in England for 5 years but her nationality was Australian. We had a seat which was quite prone to being asked by homeless to give some rands to them! Someone asked me for 20 rand but I had only brought out a  100 rand note. For this reason.. The guy pointed at me and told me to 'watch out!'. It would be an exaggeration to say I took that statement with a pinch of salt but that kind of behaviour is part and parcel of Cape Town so I wasn't massively fussed, but no doubt it still made me cautious! 

We made our way back to Berghof for the second time in one day. I was excited to call Kate and Mark who were looking after Holly, my grandads dog.. who of course I was missing hugely! After a few technical difficulties we managed to get hold of each other by face timing! It's always good to speak to the family.. Even if it's for a couple minutes! 

I'm gonna shoot now anyway, time for bed I think! Day off tomorrow.. Did someone say beach?? I think so. 

All the best,

Luke

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