They Say That Blue Gums is Haunted

I have been told on a number of occasions, and by different people that Blue Gums is haunted by friendly spirits who have been associated with the place at some or other time in the past. There are P.E. Hugo’s horses in the ravine, neighing and stamping their hooves, especially on moonless winter nights when the north-wester is howling and a cape storm approaches. There are the sailors in their hammocks swinging gently from hooks suspended from the living room ceiling, placed there by the late Reverend Green. The Reverend himself has been a resident of the spirit realm for over fifty years and supposedly carouses  every night with his erstwhile guests in the “Good ‘Ole”, which is the name he gave to the very first house at Blue Gums – a hobbit like structure that he carved into the mountainside.

“The Good ‘ole”, as it Looks Today. 

My wife, who is much more spiritually inclined than I am, is convinced that we share our home with these and many other phantoms. I am not sure that she has ever seen them, but like former residents, who are now themselves a part of Blue Gums’ spiritual retinue, she makes them welcome and invites them into our house and into her meditations.

Many people who visit Blue Gums are quick to ascribe a spiritual quality to it. This is not surprising. The sweeping grandeur of the ocean at its feet and the majestic mountain soaring behind it make it into a cathedral of natural beauty.

Blue Gums from the Swartkop Peak

But it is the grove of blue gums themselves that have given some people reason to believe that “Blue Gums” is not only a spiritual place, but a place of spirits. When the south-easter whistles through the tree tops it does indeed sound like the howl of phantoms; while on still, moonless nights the gentle gurgle of the sea against the rocky outcrops some fifty metres below the house can easily be mistaken for the merry-making of departed souls.

While I do not believe in the spirit world myself I embrace the mythology, for it is a wonderful metaphor that binds the dead to the living and populates our present with the richness of Blue Gums’ past.

It is time to get to know Blue Gums’ phantoms a little better, and in the process find out more about its history.

The Rev. Green, First Person to Own a Title-Deed for Blue Gums. Now One of the Ghosts that Frequent it?

Tags: nature