Where Ghosts Linger

The vast Karoo landscape is not only hauntingly beautiful, but it is seemingly also haunted by a great many spirits. Madeleine Barnard went on a ghost hunt.

- Madeleine Barnard

The vast Karoo is a place that has long inspired stories and legends, not only about its intrepid inhabitants but also about the spirits that seem to haunt these parts. They wander aimlessly along deserted roads, lend their sinister presence to living rooms, lurk in hallways and spook anyone having to visit an outhouse in the dark. There seems to be a ghost behind every Karoo bossie.

My mother was raised in the Karoo, so I grew up listening to stories about ghosts; the spirits of the Middelburg district struck sheer terror into me. Years ago, my partner also had many tales to share about the strange events his friends had experienced at Warmwaterberg, the old Victorian spa between Barrydale and Ladismith in the Little Karoo. Mischievous spirits were especially fond of enjoying themselves in the sanatorium. On a particular occasion, one of his friends spent the night there alone and told of how he could hear ghosts splashing about in the Roman bath next to his bathhouse.

Another friend and his wife recall a wraithlike woman in a long black dress arriving at their camp site in search of a drink. And after spending a night at the same sanatorium, another friend stopped drinking entirely and took to attending church again…

In the past, a dominee or priest would be summoned to banish such otherworldly spa-goers, and many of these restless souls did eventually vanish – yet a few apparently still lurk around. If you’re staying over at Warmwaterberg, a polite greeting is the best approach when encountering someone – human or apparition.

We traversed the Karoo in search of stories and tall tales involving ghosts, to get a sense of why this sparsely populated region seems so appealing to wandering spirits.

Ghostly origins