Day 17 - Apartheid Museum

Our final day! Its gone at a great pace actually, not too quick. We feel very relaxed and ready to return to England and then China to see our fluff bags, who we miss very much.

It happens to be our 5 year wedding anniversary today too. 5 amazing years, travelling (and being looked after by) my best friend. I'm very lucky.

We had a later breakfast today, having arranged for our half day tour with Nic to finish with him dropping us at the airport. Its actually been perfect timing.

Our first hour was just driving around the city, looking at various neighborhoods and buildings. Nic knows a huge amount about the city, so it was very interesting.

At 11, we arrived at Constitutional Hill in time for a tour around Block 4, an awful prison for men during apartheid. It was designed to hold just under 1000 men, and ended up with over 2000 living in awful conditions. The men only cleaned once a week maximum, had to use toilets that overflowed into the eating area, and were allocated food amounts/quality based on their skin colour. Lots who were imprisoned there were there as political prisoners. Ghandi was there for 9 months in 1908, sent there because he wasn't carrying an ID card. He had refused to carry one.

There was a group of teenage school kids there, who were very noisy and laughing and joking around the solitary confinement cells. They were so loud we couldn't hear the guide. So disrespectful. Their teacher should be ashamed.

Nelson Mandela was also held here for a couple of years, in and out before his transfer to another prison. He was kept in the fort hospital next door to the prison, because the guards were worried he would try to escape. He was allowed booms and paper and this is where he wrote some of his memoirs. We saw the diaries he kept too.

Interestingly, the fort faces the city, not outside the city. This is because they decided that there was more threat from within the city than without. The fort is unique in this way.

We then headed to the apartheid museum, where we had wraps for lunch with Nic. Our museum tickets randomly designatedvus either white or non white and we had to use that entrance to get into the museum, which was very odd.

The museum had a huge section on Mandela's story, which was very interesting, and then a different enormous section on how the apartheid affected Johannesburg and gge neighboring regions. There was a huge amount of information, perhaps too much. It was one of those places you have to visit in order to acknowledge and respect the place you're visiting. We've done a few; Vietnam, Warsaw, Cambodia. This one was the first to leave me feeling more hopeful than hollow. The country is making huge progress, considering that apartheid really wasn't that long ago. Some of the video footage was difficult to watch, but I certainly understand the history of SA better now.

Now, we are at the airport in the business class lounge, waiting to board our plane. Its been an amazing holiday. I can't wait to cone back to Africa.