Weekend in Hermanus

This past weekend (Saturday, July 10 to Monday, July 12), we went to the seacoast town of Hermanus, which is about two hours’ drive southeast of Cape Town. After a week and a half of unseasonably good weather, we finally experienced the characteristic rainy weather of Cape Town during the winter. It rained off and on the whole way there, and stayed that way most of the next day too.

On the way we passed a beach near the town of Gordon’s Bay, which Corvell told us was the most dangerous beach in South Africa because the rip currents were so strong. During apartheid this was one of the only beaches that black and colored people could use. Unfortunately many people drowned every year because the water was so dangerous. It breaks my heart to hear these stories about what people had to endure back then and how much things have changed for the better in such a short time.

Hermanus has a large flea market in the center of town with little stalls where different vendors will sell items like painted bowls, wooden carved animals, paintings, handmade jewelry, and other items made in traditional African designs. They were also selling vuvuzelas, scarves, and other World Cup paraphernalia as well. We spent a long time shopping at this market and I bought tons of souvenirs and gifts here, since everything was fairly cheap. You would pay a lot more for this same kind of stuff in the U.S.

On Sunday we drove to the town of Cape Agulhas, which is near the southernmost tip of Africa. We ate lunch in a small restaurant in the Cape Agulhas lighthouse. After lunch we climbed up to the top of the lighthouse, which was actually quite an adventure. To get to the top, we had to climb four, steep, narrow ladders that wound up through the lighthouse tower. I felt kind of like I was living my winterguard show this year, climbing ladders to get out of a small dark place and into the light above. Once we got to the top of the lighthouse, the view was beautiful. I could see the town of Cape Agulhas, the hills and mountains on one side, and the ocean on the other side. The wind was intense up there and it was very cold, but the view was worth all of that and the climb up as well.

View from Cape Agulhas lighthouse

From there we walked down the road that ran along the coast to the southernmost tip. There’s a small stone structure built there that says “Southernmost tip of Africa” and points to the Indian Ocean on the left and the Atlantic Ocean on the right. One girl from the group brought an MSU flag with her and we all took lots of pictures with the flag to commemorate bringing a little of Michigan State to the very south of Africa. It was mind boggling to look out at the ocean and realize just how far south I was. From this point of the land straight out, the next land a person would come to would be Antarctica, thousands of miles away. It really was something.

After this we drove back to Hermanus and ate dinner at a restaurant called Fusion to watch the final match of the World Cup. The next morning, some of the group went shark cage diving in the nearby town of Gansbaai. We had to sign up for this activity several months ago and I decided not to go since I was kind of scared and also didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it. While they went shark diving, the rest of us stayed in Hermanus and found fun things to do. We did a little more shopping and then drove a little way out of town to go wine tasting again at a wine farm called Southern Right (named for the Southern Right whale that inhabits the ocean near Hermanus).

After this we got to see some Southern Right whales ourselves when took a two hour trip on a whale watching boat. We only saw a few whales but it was still a fun trip for the most part. Unfortunately, after about an hour on the boat the rocking of the waves made me feel a little seasick. I never threw up, but my stomach definitely felt queasy. This mostly went away though when we saw a mother and baby whale right before we pulled back into the harbor. The guide on the boat said that the baby was only a few days old. It was very exciting. After the whale watching trip was over we met back up with the shark diving group and headed back to Cape Town for our last night in the guest house before leaving for our host families. More adventures to come very soon.

Robben Island

One of the first places we visited was Robben Island, a small island about 19 miles off the coast of Cape Town. This was where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for decades and many other political activists during apartheid were imprisoned as well. Robben Island has a long history as a place of imprisonment and exile. The Dutch East India Company originally used Robben Island as a trading post during the 1600 and 1700s. Later on, the Dutch and the British exiled convicts and native leaders who opposed them to the island. In the mid-1800s, Robben Island fell out of use as a prison and instead became a place where people in the western cape region suffering from leprosy were sent. This leper colony, as it was called, eventually closed in 1891. Finally during apartheid, convicts and political prisoners were sent there again, including Nelson Mandela. The last prisoners were sent in the 1980s and all political prisoners were finally released in 1990 and 1991. Ever since the late 1990s, Robben Island has been entirely converted to a museum celebrating the peaceful triumph over oppression.

Main prison building

The Robben Island tour includes a ferry ride from the mainland, a walking tour of the prison, and a bus tour around other parts of the island. The prison tours are given by former Robben Island political prisoners. Ours was a man who was sent there in 1983 at the age of 17 for helping to recruit young people to the apartheid resistance movements at the time. He was released with all other political prisoners in 1990. He showed us the courtyards where prisoners were forced to endure hard manual labor and the cells they lived in, including Nelson Mandela’s. He also showed us the communal cell where he lived for seven years with 60 other men. I was so amazed that this man was able to give these tours and talk about the past with such frankness and honesty. One girl from our group asked him how he did this and the man replied that it was hard at first for him to return to Robben Island and see the prison where he once lived, but after enough years had passed he didn’t mind it as much and actually found peace and healing through sharing his story and experiences with others in this way. He spoke of how he and the other ex-prisoners have moved on, forgiven their oppressors, and reconciled themselves with the past. Many of the ex-prisoners and former wardens are even friends now. Hearing these stories was incredibly inspiring. If these people are able to forgive something so huge, then shouldn’t I be able to always forgive those who wrong me as well. Definitely something to take to heart.

Nelson Mandela's cell

On the bus tour they showed us the limestone quarry where Nelson Mandela and other prisoners were forced to dig rocks in the hot sun for hours on end. In the side of the rock face is a cave where the prisoners would go to get some shade and eat their lunch on these long days. Apparently, Mandela and the other leaders imprisoned there would secretly discuss their beliefs and ideas for South Africa and share them with the younger political prisoners. According to the tour guide, it’s believed that some of the foundations of the new South African constitution were discussed in that cave. It’s mind boggling to think about how these political leaders went from discussing their ideas in a limestone cave to eventually running the country and guiding it toward peace. Robben Island itself is such a beautiful place that unfortunately played host to many awful things, but it’s nice to think that the triumphs that occurred there are able to be celebrated.

Limestone quarry