The view across the bay to Cape Town and Table Mountain shows just how good a prison Robben Island made. In the twentieth century there was only one acknowledged escape – Jam Kamfer stole a 'paddleski' and set off for the Bloubergstrand on 8 March 1985. It is not known if he was successful.
However, the 7.2 kilometre distance to Bloubergstrand was swum by a University of Cape Town student, Alan Langman, on 11 May 1993 in two hours 45 minutes.