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South Africa
Entry 6 of 11 | show all | print this entry |
We arrived in South Africa on the 14th and when we approached the dock it was to foggy to port so we had to wait for four hours right outside before we we're able to dock and get off the ship. When you approach the dock all you can see is Table Mountain which is a large flat mountain near the coast. My professor from South Africa talked about how beautiful seeing table mountain was from the water, and he was right. The fog made it a little hard to see early on but once the fog cleared up it was an amazing sight. The fog definitely wasn't how we expected our first day to start off but it didn't ruin the time there in the least.
When we were finally able to get off the ship I went to Robben Island through semester at sea. Between every port we have an inter-port lecturer who basically comes on to tell us about the next port we're going to. Our inter-port lecturer was a white man named Dennis Brutus who was incarcerated on Robben Island along with Nelson Mandela. Dennis spent 18 months on Robben Island followed by five years of house arrest. He told us a lot of information about the political turmoil surrounding the times of apartheid in South Africa. I was lucky enough to go to Robben Island with him. When we got to Robben Island Dennis was treated almost like a celebrity. Everyone that worked on the Island recognized him and many people cam up to him to shake his hand. The first part of the tour of the island was just a bus tour around the entire island when we got to see how the island was set up for defense during WWII and also where different facilities were located that many of the guards and their families used when the island was still being used as a prison. At the end of the bus tour we were dropped off at the entrance to the jail. Our tour guide for the jail was Modise, who was also a former political prisoner on Robben Island. He was arrested when he was 16 and was incarcerated and tortured for five years before being released. During the tour I was able to hear how the jail was ran while Dennis Brutus was there, before the Red Cross was sent in to check for human right violations and over 15 years later when Modise was there. When Dennis was there they didn't have beds, bathrooms or showers for the prisoners, all things which were later put in. Dennis throughout the tour pointed out different areas that he slept in and worked in and also pointed out where Nelson Mandela was during the time Dennis was there. Towards the end of the tour we actually got a chance to see Mandela's cell. The whole tour was very intense knowing all the torture and cruelty that had gone on in the prison. Modise vividly described one of his beatings where he was close to death. After everything he had gone through on Robben Island and during apartheid he told us that he holds no revenge and ill will towards anyone. He had even just recently met with the man that was basically responsible for his arrest and was able to talk to him and laugh with him. He credited his ability to not hold on to his revenge to the truth and reconciliation program that brought together the victims and those who committed politically motivated crimes during apartheid. When he talked about it you could tell that he was being completely truthful when he said that he held no malice towards anyone for the crimes of apartheid. After the tour was over we got a chance to talk to Modise for a long time about apartheid and the standings of South Africa now from his viewpoint and we learned even more about everything the country is still working through. Although it's been 15 years since apartheid and the country shows many signs of progress we learned that many areas are still far behind. After Robben Island me, Caitlin, Cheron, Kiley and Tara all went out to dinner together. The food was good and surprisingly cheap. Our waiter at the restaurant talked to us a lot about how things are different in the rural areas of the country compared to Cape Town. In the first day I learned a lot about the history of the country and the current political situation of it.
The next morning I woke up early for caged shark diving. We went out early and spent nearly the whole day at sea. I was a little discouraged when we hadn't seen sharks yet by the 3 after being out since 9 but we went to one more place to try to bait some sharks towards our boat. At our final location we finally found some sharks. We had about 2 or 3 sharks swimming around our boat and usually one at a time up close to the boat. Caitlin, Cheron and I all got into the cage in the second group and watched for sharks. The water was freezing even through our extremely flattering wet suits but we got to see the sharks really well up close. After all of it, it was definitely worth going. After shark diving we went out together for another dinner in Cape Town.
The next morning Cheron, Caitlin and I woke up early to catch our flight for our four day safari to Pilansberg. The lodge we stayed at was amazing. Semester at Sea rented out the whole entire lodge and each cabin only had two people in it. We arrived the day after a huge storm that had knocked the electricity out in the entire lodge. Although we were promised electricity by the first night it wasn't working again until the third day. Although that really sucked it didn't ruin the safari in the least bit. Everyday we were there we went on a morning and an afternoon game drive. I got to see a ton of animals and most of them up close. The game reserve we were on had all of Africa's Big 5 (Elephant, Lion, Rhino, Buffalo and Leopard) and we were able to find elephants, lions and rhinos along with many others. Our guide was Luke and he knew everything about the entire park and all its animals and fauna. Everyday the same group of 10 of us went out with Luke on the drives. Most of the people were really cool in our group except for this one girl that didn't talk to anyone else and never bothered introducing herself during the whole trip. Caitlin lovingly came up with the name "Leech" for her, because even though she never talked to us she insisted on always being in our truck. Each night we had dinner outside in the Boma, which was an outdoor grill with a fire pit. The second night Cheron and I stayed up the entire night because we decided it wasn't worth only sleeping for an hour in order to get up for the game drive at 5. The second day after our morning game drive we went to a lion park where we got a chance to hold and feed lion cubs. By that night we were all really close and we convinced Luke to pull an all nighter with us hanging out in the lodge. We stayed up the entire night again and went out on our game drive at 3:45. I've decided my new motto for the trip is going to be: "Sleep is for the weak". It seems no matter what when I'm in port I never get a full night of sleep. I think I was the only person out of the 10 of us in the car that actually made all 6 game drives. The safari was absolutely amazing and a ton of fun. When we were suppose to leave our tour company sent the busses to the airport instead of the lodge to pick us up and we ended up missing our flight. This meant that 120 of us had to fly standby on all the flights for the rest of the day. I think the last people finally got in around 12:30 when we were suppose to be back around 6.
After the safari I only had one more day left in port. I planned on climbing Table Mountain but when we woke up it was foggy and raining and the cable cars on the mountain were shut down. Instead of climbing the mountain we went food shopping in the mall and then to the craft market downtown. At the craft market they had a ton of good stuff and I managed to spend all my money in about 20 minutes of being there. I got some really good deals on things though and it was completely worth it. I was able to get everything I planned on getting at the craft market for really cheap which was nice. After the craft market we went out for one last nice dinner in Cape Town and then did some quick shopping around the mall.
Overall Cape Town was my favorite port so far. Everyday I had a ton of fun and even when things went wrong it didn't bother me in the least because I was having such a great time. I'm definitely going to come back to South Africa sometime soon. Next up is Mauritius which is supposed to be a beautiful island. I don't really have any plans so far for Mauritius but I might just use this port to relax and hang out on the beaches, which are ranked one of the top ten in the world!
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