Halloween 2011 will most likely go down as my most memorable yet. I’ll tell you exactly why later on.

Halloween in South Africa basically consists of watching scary movies. There are no trick-or-treating (unless a small neighbourhood decided otherwise), creepy pumpkins or any other decorations. A few shops will however try and score some money by selling a few Halloween themed goodies.

So after spending every Halloween watching a blood-smeared bucket load of horror movies, I decided to spice things up a bit this year by joining Bloemfontein’s own paranormal investigators on a tour of the cities haunted spots. I’ve joined them on quite a few occasions, but again decided to make things a bit more interesting. More on that later.


A photo of our Halloween tour group, which was quite large.


Except for dark blue clouds hanging over us and thunder lining the horizon, the tour started out like any other, by visiting the haunted observatory/theatre on Naval Hill first. We recently found out the story behind one of the ghosts trapped in a very small room. Apparently he was working on some construction job when he was locked inside the room, which has absolutely no circulation, and suffocated.

The small room.


I went inside the room with one of my friends and closed the door behind us. We both felt dizzy almost simultaneously and I could feel a presence close by. Then my right arm slowly rose to the side. My arm felt like it was floating, yet heavy at the same time. I felt his hand touching my arm. Half an hour later my arm was still tender where he had grabbed me.


One of the many creepy images plastered across the floor of the Naval Hill observatory/theatre.


After that we visited the haunted house on Naval Hill, where the satanic rituals used to take place before the police and a couple of churches chased them off.


This is the building where the human sacrifices were made. The tree outside has been said to be cursed. As you can see all the grass (as well as trees) in the surrounding area was burnt earlier that week. The tree remained untouched.


Seeing as we were such a big group, I decided to stay outside to give the other people a better view of the inside. I was gazing down at the city lights when goose bumps slowly made their way up the left side of my back and over my shoulder. That’s when the ghost of a man breathed in my ear. Yes, it was a man. Don’t ask me how I knew it. I just did. It sounded like when a person blows their breath against a window to see it fog up. Let’s just say after that the chills quickly spread from my shoulder to every other part of my body.

This is where stood when he breathed down my neck.


I later learned the name and story behind the man who breathed down my neck. His name was Eddie Greene, a man who caught his wife/girlfriend cheating on him. He killed both her and her lover right there on Naval Hill. According to police records, it happened right beside the haunted house about fifty years ago. Stephan Verwey from the Bloemfontein ghost tours actually made an evp recording of Eddie. You can hear his voice as well as a replay of the murder in the background. If you have the guts to listen to this recording, just go to my Picture Gallery, you’ll find a link to the Youtube video down the left side.

There is another satanic alter just a bit up this road. You can see the cross shining high above, placed there to keep satanists at bay.


After that we left Naval Hill to visit a few other spots, including the area known in Afrikaans as ‘Dam van Trane’ and ‘Bron van Herinnering’. A direct translation would be Dam of tears and Source of remembrance. This is where South African woman and children were held captive during the Anglo-Boer War. I will post a detailed blog about this place and its history early in 2012.

Now we come to the highlight of my Halloween weekend. The part I’ve been making you wait for the entire time – The Ramblers Sports Club. If you haven’t read any of my blogs on the extremely haunted Ramblers Club, I suggest you click here if you want to know more about its ghosts.


The back entrance to Ramblers.




Our tour group on the balconies of Ramblers.



A haunted passage where a nurse was believed to be murdered by a patient. She still walks this area in search of her killer.


In a previous blog post I mentioned everyone sitting at the bottom of the stairwell and placing the emf meter on the steps. The reason for this was the fact that the stairs are the haunting grounds of three ghosts – a small girl and a nurse on the bottom staircase and a large man on one of the top staircases. For those who don’t know, Ramblers used to be a field hospital during the War, and this specific section of the building had a huge fire in 1903, killing several people, including the children of the on-duty nurses.


A photo similar to the one mentioned in the next paragraph, except the girl is not visible in this one.


On a side note, someone did snap a photo of one of the little girls that frequents the balconies. Unfortunately the photo got lost or deleted. Luckily I got a chance to look at it. I could clearly see the girl standing between two people, a grey shadow dressed in an old buttoned up dress.

So this time, as part of trying to spice up my Halloween experience, I decided to sit at the top of the first staircase while they were doing the emf session. I pulled a chair closer and took my seat. It was so dark I couldn’t even see the people at the bottom. Only the moonlight shining through a window above me gave some illumination to my surroundings.

My view from the top of the first staircase. You can see the other people sitting at the bottom. The evp meter is lying on one of the bottom steps.


The emf meter was placed on the steps and everyone waited in silence. The meter didn’t pick up anything. Dirk Van Wyk, one of the paranormal team members, started calling the little girl to come and play on the steps. Nothing happened for the next few minutes.

All of a sudden I felt that strange yet familiar sensation of a ghost close by. My muscles tensed. The hair on my legs rose as I felt her walk past. Again, I just knew it was the little girl. I told the others that she was coming, and a few seconds later the evp meter, which picks up the residual energy from spirits, starting sounding its eerie alarm.

Dirk then asked the girl to step back and allow the nurse to come through, and every time they called and talked to the ghosts I could feel them walking past me from the right side, taking turns. I felt them looking down at me while they floated past, just imagining what they were thinking. I have seen and felt the presences of quite a few ghosts in my time, but that was the best and most exhilarating paranormal experiences of my life so far. I was sort of scared, but it was more like a thrill ride than anything else.

This is where the large man is said to lurk.


The scariest moment came when both the nurse and the little girl were on the bottom stairs. All of a sudden I felt something to my left, the staircase of the construction worker who fell and died there while doing renovations on the burnt Ramblers Club.

He stood beside me, watching me. And for the first time I really felt fear. It was almost as if I was a small boy being intimidated by a big bully.

Just after he disappeared, another sense of mine picked up something. A sound. I called Stephan Verwey to come and listen, and we both clearly heard the sound of water cascading. This was well after one ‘o clock, and we were the only people there. The sound came from the rooms to the left side of where we sat. It sounded exactly like someone getting a sponge bath: Water being squeezed out of the sponge running down their bodies and falling back into the tub or bucket.

Although none of my experiences were caught on camera, everyone there had no doubt of what had happened that night. And everyone fully enjoyed it. So if you’re ever in the area, make sure you go on one of these tours. There are a few ghost images available on my Picture Gallery if you want to take a look.

See you next Halloween.

All the best.