Hiking, fine dining, surfing… and supernatural encounters? Although the encounters are not a highly sought-after experience, those brave enough may be tempted to visit these haunted attractions that are easily accessible to the public.
The Cape of Good Hope
On dark and dreary days in the Cape of Good Hope, visitors have been known to see the ghostly Flying Dutchman ship, lost in a storm among the coast’s shipwrecks. The oldest colonial building in South Africa, the Castle of Good Hope, is also said to house the souls of victims of the castle’s slavery and violence, including two tall ghosts, a large black dog that lunges at visitors, a self-ringing bell tower and, on glamorous occasions, Lady Anne Barnard, the former colony’s First Lady.
Tokai Manor House – Table Mountain National Park
On a New Year’s Eve in the early 19th century, Petrus Michiel, the son of a Dutch East India Company soldier, was dared to ride his horse up the manor’s steep steps and into the dining room. As Michiel made a triumphant circle around the dining room table, he fell off his horse and tumbled down the stairs, breaking his neck. His horse’s hooves are said to still be heard galloping through the surrounding forest and walking down the staircase.
Africana Library
According to librarians at the Africana Library in Kimberley, when visitors request a book, helpful ghosts have been known to assist the librarians in their search by knocking the book off the shelves on to the floor.
Nottingham Road Hotel
In KZN’s Midlands Meader, guests have encountered the heartbroken ghost, Charlotte, tidying shelves, rearranging flowers and trinkets, and pulling their toes in their sleep at the Nottingham Road Hotel. Charlotte was said to have been in love with a British soldier who died during a battle. In her unrelenting grief, she threw herself off the hotel’s balcony.
Uniondale
One Easter night in 1968, on a lonely road just outside the town of Uniondale, at the Barandas turn-off, a young couple crashed a car. The young man survived, but the ghost of the young woman has been hitchhiking along the highway ever since. The Uniondale Hitchhiker accepts rides from unsuspecting passersby, laughing excitedly along the way to announce her engagement to her parents, before disappearing.
