Compact Travels - Exploring Places Like Never Before...

After a lovely evening at the Table Mountain, we enjoyed some fine African cuisine that night at The Africa Café which was located quite close to the Holiday Inn Strand.

The Africa Café is situated in a beautifully restored 18th Century Cape Georgian Home at No 108 Shortmarket Street Capetown. Eating at the Africa Café gives you an altogether different experience as the food is a fusion of meals across Africa. We were seated on the ground floor which had around 5 large eating rooms to seat around 80 guests.

The serving is known as a Communal Feast and is indeed a feast of dishes from all over Africa and it highlights a new part of Africa every two or three months. Chef Portia serves a wide variety of cuisine from finger foods hawked at a road side in Malawi or a steaming plate served under a Thatched Khaya.

All African meals are shared - there are no starters or main courses. The meal can be shared by all at the table and you can eat as much as you want and that includes tea, coffee and desserts as well. The Africa Café is a family affair and that evening we were treated to a real sumptuous meal which comprised lamb stew, spicy rice patties stuffed with shrimps, Xhosa pot bread, dip of aubergine dhania and garlic, white curd cheese dip with fresh herbs, sweet potato and cheese balls rolled in sesame seeds, Moroccan cous cous salad with chickpea, Malawi chicken, Egyptian koshery followed by African desserts and tea and coffee. After a very “African” meal we returned back to our hotel room having started our day in Johannesburg and having ended the day in Capetown.

The following morning which was day nine of our FUNDI trip , we had a change of schedule. As we had already visited the Table Mountain, we left after breakfast from the Holiday Inn Strand to the V&A waterfront from where we would take a boat to visit Robben Island - the Alcatraz of South Africa.

Robben Island is around 12 kilometres from Capetown and has been a place of banishment, exile and imprisonment for almost 400 years. It was here that rulers sent those they regarded as political troublemakers, social outcasts and the unwanted of society.

During the apartheid years Robben Island became internationally known for its brutality. The duty of those who ran the Island and its prison was to isolate opponents of apartheid and to crush their morale. Some freedom fighters spent more than a quarter of a century in prison for their convictions. Those imprisoned on the Island succeeded on a psychological and political level in turning a prison 'hell' into a symbol of freedom and personal liberation. Robben Island came to symbolize, not only for South Africa and the African continent, but also for the entire world, the triumph of the human spirit over enormous hardship and adversity.

It was home for many years to famous South Africans - the famous of them all undoubtedly being Nelson Mandela - the Former President of the post apartheid period. The cream of the country's political leadership spent time here plotting about how they could win freedom and independence for their people.

Today tourists can visit the island, see the cells in which these people spent much of their life and listen to first-hand accounts of life on what has been called one of the world's great university's of political struggle and strategy. It became a World Heritage Site in December 1999. On arrival at the V&A waterfront we weren't surprised as to why the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront is one of South Africa's most visited destination. With the sea in front and the Table Mountain as the backdrop, the V&A waterfront is one of the most happening places in Capetown, be it day or night. You have entertainment and shopping galore with some of the finest world class restaurants, imax theatre, two oceans aquarium , a maritime museum and the Nelson Mandela Gateway which takes you to the Robben Island.

We were booked for the two hour Robben Island cruise which costs approximately 120 Rands (Rs 900) and besides viewing the famous prison island, close by is the penguin colony as well and not forgetting the breathtaking views of the Peninsula. On your way one can encounter seals, dolphins and even whales though we managed to see quite a few seals around the island. The Nelson Mandela Gateway is a departure point for Robben Island tours and was opened late in 2001 and has a museum which depicts the struggle to overthrow apartheid. We were lucky to witness original lithographs of Nelson Mandela which was on display at the gateway before boarding our boat which would take us to Robben Island. Once on the Island, you will be able to see some of the 23 species of mammals, including small herds of bontebok, springbok, steenbok, European fallow deer and eland. Ostriches, lizards, geckoes, snakes and tortoises can also be found.

The Island is actually the summit of an ancient, now submerged mountain, linked by an undersea saddle to the Blouberg. Its lower strata consists of Malmesbury shale forming a rocky and somewhat inhospitable coastline. Above this lies a thick limestone and calcrete deposit covered by windblown sands and shell fragments. The Island is low-lying with the highest point at Minto's Hill (named after a nineteenth-century Surgeon-Superintendent of the General Infirmary) 24 metres above sea-level. Initially this island was used as a hospital for lepers and the mentally ill and much later as a prison. Tours to the island include a visit to the prison, the limestone quarry, the Leper's Church and a Kramat which is a Muslim shrine.

In the 1840s, Robben Island was chosen for a hospital because it was both secure (isolating dangerous cases) and healthy (providing a good environment for cure). During this time, political and common-law prisoners were still kept on the Island. As there was no cure and little effective treatment available for leprosy, mental illness and other chronic illnesses in the 1800s, Robben Island was a kind of prison for the hospital patients too. Since 1997 it has been a museum. The museum is a dynamic institution, which acts as a focal point of South African heritage. It runs educational programmes for schools, youths and adults, facilitates tourism development, conducts ongoing research related to the Island and fulfils an archiving function.

The guided tour was lead by an individual who had spent a major part of his life in the prison. Hence, the narration was full of emotions and it depicted the atrocities that some of the freedom fighters had to face during the apartheid days. Nelson Mandela spent as many as 27 years and his prison cell is the highlight of the trip where in such a small chamber he spent several years of his life. Robben Island, where he was imprisoned, became a centre for learning, and Mandela was a central figure in the organised political education classes.

In prison Mandela never compromised his political principles and was always a source of strength for the other prisoners as well. As you take a tour round the island there is a road to the village and you'll pass a square-towered church and old Sailboat cannons. Most of the buildings today, date back to the Second World War with 9.2 inch guns and bunkers bearing testimony to the armaments erected to defend Cape Town. The main centre of Robben Island is located in a small village and mostly everything from milk to building materials had to be ferried over from Cape Town Harbour. Robben Island generate it's own electricity and obtains its water from nine boreholes.

It was a very eventful morning and thereafter we headed back to the mainland and got some of the most spectacular views of the city of Capetown with some of the elite hotel properties dominating the coast of the V&A waterfront including the Table Bay and the Cape Grace Hotels. Not forgetting the spectacular backdrop of the Table Mountain which dominates the entire city of Capetown.

We halted for lunch at 'De Goewerneur” which is home of the traditional cuisine of South Africa located at the Castle of Good Hope. We tried typical South African cuisine comprising of Cape Malay Bobotie, Tarragon Chicken and Mushroom Pie and topping it with the traditional Malva Pudding. We also witnessed the changing of the guards and this included a quick tour of the Castle as well. The castle of Good Hope is the oldest colonial building in South Africa and was built by the Dutch East India Company way back in 1679. The Castle of Good Hope was the regional headquarters of the South African Army in the Western Cape and houses the famous William Fehr Collection of historic artworks, the Castle Military Museum and ceremonial facilities for traditional Cape Regiments. The Castle of Good Hope was walking distance from our Hotel at the Strand.

Later in the afternoon we visited Signal Hill. Signal hill separates the suburbs of Green Point from the City Bowl and one can access this extension of Lion's Head Mountain from the city via Kloof nek Road. All along the route you get a stunning view of the city, the Table Bay and the Table Mountain. At the top there is a wonderful picnic spot and it is a popular place to see the sun set over the Atlantic. The main attraction of Signal Hill is the battery with the Noon Gun positioned just below the mountain top. Here a cannon shot is fired every day at 12 noon sharp to uphold an old Capetonian tradition and it's a good way to check whether your watch is accurate enough.

Late in the day we had ample time to visit Canal Walk - one of Africa's most exciting shopping and leisure destination and is part of the Century City.

To find out more about Canal Walk and the visit to the southern most tip of the African continent you would have to wait until the next issue of Opportunities Today.