Senior Morton's World Tour

Kids are done, work is done, Grand Kids…Eh… they'll be here when we get back!

Robben island

Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 05 7th, 2013

Sunday 5 May
Today we visited the place where political prisoners were housed during the apartheid days. We traveled the 11kms on the Sea Princess with Joan and Hugh on a nice calm sunny day, the trip taking about half an hour. When we arrived we were met by an African tour guide who took around the island showing us the quarry where the men worked and the special accommodation where Sobukwe the leader of the Pan African Congress spent his time. The thing that must have been most frustrating for the prisoners was that Cape Town looked so close but was so far away. We then had a tour through the actual prison. Our tour guide this time was an ex prisoner, Sparks, who served 7 years on the island for insurrection. We saw the dreadful conditions they lived in and we also saw the actual cell that Nelson Mandela was incarcerated in for 18 years. It is very sad that these things happened in our lifetime, but the Africans seem quite philosophical about it all now.

Our transport to Robben Island

and no-one got seasick

Nelson Mandela’s home for 18 years

Sparks our Tour Guide

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Johannesburg to Cape Town

Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 05 2nd, 2013

Thursday 2 May
We have just borrowed Fiona’s mini card as there are problems with Wi-Fi so we’ll do a quick update.
Our last day in Johannesburg we went and saw Granny for the last time in the morning and left her in very good spirits with Jill having reminisced over old times and her showing her memory is in good condition. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, packing and organizing the car collection etc.
The next day we left Eagles Nest at 10 am and headed to the airport where we ultimately caught a plane for Cape Town. Fiona and Stewart were there to greet us after an uneventful trip.
Since our arrival there has been much laughter discussing old times with the Govans and Joan and Hugh who live very close by. We have spent a lot of time going through Granny’s albums retrieving family photos to bring home.
Today we did a tour of the Cape Town Waterfront development which was even more interesting because we had Stewart showing us around and he had spent a lot of his naval time here and had a very good knowledge of the place. We had lunch at a very old restaurant near the docks together with Joan which was very nice and tasted the local fish and chips.
We are booked to visit Robben Island on Sunday with Hugh and Joan so we hope the weather will be calm for the ferry ride.

Jill getting attached to a local