Johannesburg - Real life ghost stories unfolded during the mystery ghost bus tour around Pretoria on Saturday night.
The bus took brave souls to some of the spookiest and darkest places around the city, such as the Jan Smuts Museum, Erasmus Castle, also known as Die Spookhuis, and Ou Raadsaal, ending with a walk through a haunted forest and a chilling cemetery.
It was a dark and gloomy night, a perfect time to go hunting for spirits and visitors from beyond the veil. The tour started at 7pm on Saturday and ended at 1am Sunday.
It featured a dark candle-lit haunted room in the Smuts House where statesman philosopher General Jan Smuts lived many years ago for over 40 years. The house is known as Doornkloof and is now a museum.
However, people have reported seeing an old man floating around on the grounds, sporting a Kruger-like moustache. Many believe him to be the protector of a hidden Boer fortune somewhere on the property.
Throughout the tour, there were dramatic studio-recorded radio-type stories, with haunted music and terrifying sound effects, plus the history of the paranormal and a little touch of history and interesting facts.
Participants got goosebumps when the bus stopped outside the Erasmus Castle, referred to as Die Spookhuis of Haunted House, in Erasmuskloof. Rumours of ghosts and supernatural encounters in and around the residence are plentiful. Paranormal activity includes lit windows in the uninhabited mansion, and moans at night.
Tour guide Mark Rose-Christie, said: “This is the one of the oldest cities in South Africa. We get some of the oldest buildings and they've gathered some of the oldest ghosts as well.”
Rose-Christie performed para-psychological demonstrations such as dousing rods to test extrasensory perception, summon the spirits and mind-reading.
There were stops at Church Square and the old Capitol Theatre. At midnight, participants ended off at the Smuts House cemetery, where they huddled around the 13 graves of past employees. Legend has it that a ghost woman in a white dress comes at night to visit the children's graves.
Sakhile Ndlazi,
The Star