Robben Island

The day

A ferry from the V&A Waterfront to the island where Nelson Mandela spent eighteen years. The prison section is guided by former political prisoners, and the island tour covers the lime quarry, the leper graveyard and the village.

Robben Island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the guiding is what makes it. The bus tour of the island is led by a resident; the prison block is walked with a man who was held in it, and he tells you his own story in the corridor outside the cells. You see the lime quarry where the prisoners' eyesight was permanently damaged by glare, and the cave in its wall that became a political classroom. The ferry takes about thirty minutes each way and the crossing can be rough. Book well ahead; sailings sell out.