Odd Woman Past Midnight

Many years ago, in fact in 1990, the strangest thing happened to me...

I was driving my female friend home after we had been watching movies at my house and it was way past midnight. In fact it may have been past 1am in the morning! It was bitterly cold as it was around April and edging towards Winter in Cape Town. I drove out of Plattekloof Road in Plattekloof Glen Monte Vista and turned right onto the double carriageway (Rothschild Boulevard) that leads up to the Panorama Medi Clinic Welgelegen, Panorama, to drop my friend in Welgelegen, a few minutes away.

Way at the bottom as we turned into the road, there was a drunk coloured man staggering along the road, heading in the same direction that I was driving. About a minute later - which may have been 1 kilometre further up, there was a woman walking down the road, she had white clothing on. Nothing exceptional, just seemed to be a short sleeved shirt and a gypsy type skirt, also white. She however did not have shoes or a jersey nor handbag, although I only realised this later on. I turned and said to my friend that the drunk person was heading staight for the woman and they were going to meet and being as drunk as he was, that he would surely interfere with her!

I carried on driving thinking that I could stop if I got back and saw trouble brewing! The road has double lanes going both ways and has wide islands, the width of a car perhaps with shrubs or bushy trees planted on them, surrounded with grass.

I left her house a few minutes later after dropping her and turned back into the same road from the top - coming down just below the hospital. As I drove down again, looking out for the woman, I noticed the man and he was crossing over at an angle towards the centre, as was she! It looked like she started walking at an angle to the centre still heading down to avoid him and that he saw it and was walking at the same angle to get to her! If they both continued, they would meet at the point of triangle shape that they were walking! I thought to myself "This is exactly what I was afraid of!" However I was now on the wrong side of the road so I sped down to the bottom of the Island to the break in the road and made a U-turn to come back up on the side that they were!

I have no idea what I thought I was going to do, perhaps stop or just scare him off by another person being around, I dont't know! However, by the time I turned around and was heading up the road again, a Police Van had stopped on the other side (they must have been a little behind me before I made the U-turn). There were 2 policemen and the one was talking to the drunk man on the grass Island and the other standing near the back of the van. I assumed that the other one was with the woman, talking to her but I could not see her as she must have been behind the van! Obviously as I was no longer required, I drove to the top end of the Island and turned around again to head the way I was going, which was home.

As I reached the Police van, I looked just to see if the woman was ok and sorted out and I could not see her - in fact there was no woman in sight, not anywhere near the van, nor either side and both policemen were by the man now! I looked and looked but she was nowhere! This is a really wide open clean road and there are no houses facing the road, all the houses along the road at that point and for a long way up and down are backing onto the road, and they have 6 foot cement slabs (vibracrete as we call it) walls. As I drove away I was trying to figure it out and as I know there are one of 2 garden gates in the walls, I convinced myself that she must have just popped into one of the gates quickly! BUT in my mind I was questioning it, as it was a matter of half a minute between me seeing them and turning around. If I can explain the time frame here, I made the U-turn to drive back up to them, and it was that quick, it was like changing gears in your car - first gear, into second and into third and I was alongside where the Police van had stopped! And she was gone!

As I continued driving I was thinking about where she was and then realised that she had no shoes / back / jersey and there I was freezing in the car with the heater on! Weird! Then I started getting the creeps and thinking to myself that this is one of those situations where you look behind you and someone is sitting on the back seat, as you had rescued them! I at that stage was so terrified and my hair was standing up on the back of my neck and I was cold with sheer terror! I refused to look in my rear view mirror as I was really scared! So I leaned forward towards the steering so I could not look by accident! I had a packet on my back seat with magazines and I am so sure it was my imagination but I could swear the packet rustled! I got home, turned into my driveway, locked my car without even looking at it, I was terrified, I ran into the house, locked the door, fled down the passage and blasted into my bedroom, I literally flicked the light off as I leapt right onto my bed almost from the door and just lay there, heart beating like a drum! Too terrified to open my eyes or speak!

I went back the next day to prove to myself what she must have popped into a gate along one of the back walls... To my sheer horror to find that in that immediate area, there were no gates! It is 21 years later and the road has changed a little bit but those walls without gates and the island are still there and I still to this day look and look when I drive down that bit of road and I still have my hair stand on end when I tell this story!

I have googled to see if I can find anything on this to no avail, and would love to know if anybody knows anything about this or has experienced something on this road!