CAPE SWIMS

ROBBEN ISLAND

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GENERAL INFORMATION

For nearly 400 years, Robben Island, 12 kilometres from Cape Town, was a place of banishment, exile, isolation and imprisonment. 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 institutional 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 beliefs. Those imprisoned on the Island succeeded on a psychological and political level in turning a prison 'hell-hole' into a symbol of freedom and personal liberation. Robben Island came to symbolise, 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.

For 18 years from 1964 to 1982, Robben Island also served as a prison for Nelson Mandela, Nobel peace prize winner and living legend who eventually served as South Africa's first democratically-elected president from 1994 to 1999. Today the Island is a World Heritage siteand one of the world's greatest symbols of freedom and liberation.

ROBBEN ISLAND SWIMS

The first Robben Island swim was recorded swim in 1899 when Henry Charteris Hooper swam from Robben Island to the old Cape Town harbour. Since then nearly 300 individuals have done the crossing from or to Robben Island and various other distance swims in South Africa. It took Hooper over 9 hours to complete the swim of approx 11km; today a time of 3h30 would be average. Despite the relatively short distances (the main swims between Robben Island and the mainland are 7-11km) swimming Robben Island has become a nemesis to many accomplished swimmers, mostly due to the cold water temperature. The swim remains an ideal to many swimmers worldwide, because of the physical challenge, as well as the historical significance of the Island.