[C145]Car Hire The Algarve

Renowned for its wild life and desert plains you will have to travel quite a distance to take in all of South Africa's finest points.

To make your travels a little more interesting between destinations why not use car hire in South Africa, venture slightly off the beaten track and pay a visit to some of South Africa's supposedly haunted hot spots?

Visit the Pretoria branch of car hire to pick up your vehicle and make Gerhard Moerdyk Street your first stop for entertainment. Only a small street, this is home to one of the liveliest, happiest communities you will find.

Historic houses and buildings along with creative shops can help you fill the daylight hours but night time is when this place comes into its own. Jazz haunts, beat bars and ethnic restaurants spill all types of music onto the street including house, reggae and alternative rock. You will feel compelled to join in when every building brings a feeling of festivity.

Breytenbach theatre is a must see for a visit of this kind. It began life as a German club but was taken over in 1907 by Emily Hobhouse, a famous Boer war heroine. Originally used by Emily as a weaving school and craft centre to assist destitute Boer widows, it was later used as a temporary hospital to cater for victims of the 1918 flu epidemic.

Legend has it that the basement beneath the stage was used as a morgue and a nurse Heather that attended the hospital's sick children before succumbing herself, is said to be seen and heard here on occasion.

If you have no luck with the supernatural here, use car hire to escape to Kempton Park where you may have more joy at Avion Park Recreation Centre. A vision of a young man wearing a cricketers uniform is often seen roaming the corridors. It is said that he died after being struck by lightening and has never moved on.

South Africans, in the main, do not believe in ghosts. Any unexplained phenomena is said to be dead people who do not realise they have died and they use a ritual to explain to the dead that they have gone. All this comes despite their reputation for witchcraft and sorcery, which belongs to a few extreme groups around the country.

Making your way down the country, your hired car will serve you well when you visit the famous Golden Gate National Park. With 11,600 hectares of amazing scenery and wildlife, keep a look out for black wildebeest and an assortment of antelope including the springbok which is the emblem of South African rugby.

Bearded vulture and bald ibis are very rare birds but you stand a good chance of seeing them in this part of the world. Ensure your visit keeps you until sunset when you will be struck by the most amazing sight of rainbow colours where the blue and purple hues of the mountain shadows at the parks highest peak of Ribboktop meet the suns last rays bouncing shades of red and yellow from the sandstone walls of the park.

Drive your hired car across to Bloemfontein. This is a city otherwise known as the 'city of roses' due to its ability to grow the most amazing roses everywhere despite the arid conditions. Maybe it is these conditions which discourage many of its inhabitants form moving on after death!

In 1961, a young girl disappeared in mysterious circumstances. Six years later the body of a girl was discovered beneath a newly built swimming pool at Jim Fouche High School. Since the discovery, many unexplained things have occurred including the opening and shutting of doors, lights flickering and the occasional sound of a girl singing sometimes accompanied by a sighting of her.

The Old Presidency is a place to visit for those of rather fainter heart where the feeling of being watched is overbearing and described by many visitors.
Use car hire to then get you down to Gansbaai on the south coast where the white shark cage diving is a must. Shark sightings are almost guaranteed during shark mating season but sea sickness medication is an absolute must!

A short car ride from here is Simonstown. In the Old Residency is housed The Simonstown Musem. This is home to a veritable ghost challenge. This building contains a haunted painting that, when photographed, will never develop. There's only one way to find out.

At Cape Town you will be spoilt for choice when ghost hunting. Cape Town Mine Quarry is said to be most beautiful during the day but at night takes on a whole other-worldly feel with audible sounds of deep, abusive voices and an overwhelming sense of foreboding. Cape Town Castle, built in the 1600's to protect the harbour, is apparently haunted by the slaves and captives held and tortured to death there.

Cape Town harbour hosts the most famous ghost sighting in the world - that of The flying Dutchman. The Royal Navy have, over the years, documented numerous sighting of this ghost ship, said to have gone down around 1640. Stories abound that the captain of the phantom ship will try to pass letters to any sailors it encounters. If accepted, this will mean certain doom.

Car hire South Africa has outlets in Cape Town where you can return your vehicle before making the flight home to develop that film and see what appears, or not.