mystery ghost bus tour

Celebrating 10 Years

Johannesburg - Pretoria - Port Elizabeth - Cape Town (rarely) - National Arts Festival (Grahamstown) - Opening soon in Durban & KZN Midlands

"I have to admit that even this hardened sceptic got a shiver down her spine" - Tracy Melass, TNT Travel Magazine, London

Internationally & Nationally famed, Mark Rose-Christie, is an historian, entertainer and scientist - who combined the concepts of the London Ghost Bus and Jack The Ripper murder tours he attended in London in 1988, to bring this 'theatre-on-wheels' cum historical tour to South African as of 2001. He first rose to fame in 1984 when he staged the South African National Premiere of "Jesus Christ Superstar" at age 24, and then again with "Magic Of The Future" - yet another pioneering feat for his home country, South Africa, as he wanted it to enjoy the same epic David Copperfield type illusion shows that were performed world-wide. With his autographed picture hanging in Hollywood's international home of magicians, the Magic Castle's Hall of Fame, and his name in the London Magic Circle's "Who's Who of Magic in the World", having also performed for no less than presidents like George Bush Sr. for one - to date, no one else can truly lay claim to being "The Magician of the 21'st Century", because of Mark's illusion concepts of the modern idiom. Before he could live out his media announced return abroad in the 1990's, he suffered a severe road accident, and thus (albeit prematurely) launched the ghost bus concept to South Africa. Read more about Mark by returning to the Home page, and going to his Magic & Illusion site.

(Left to right) Deanna Kirby (Joburg), Brian Jackson (Port Elizabeth), Michael Makin (Cape Town), Jaco Hough-Coetzee (Pretoria)

Top Row (l to r): Prince Victor's grave (Pretoria), Cemetery (Joburg), Corporate Group (Port Elizabeth), Die Spookhuis (Pretoria).

Bottom Row (l to r): St. Aidan's Tower (Grahamstown), Ghost on Stairs (Mike's Kitchen, Joburg), Dowsing Rods, Orbs (Cemetery, Joburg).

3 haunted Pub & Grub stops, History & Science of the Paranormal, Live & Recorded Stories, Dark Mystery Room, History with a difference, audience participation with Dowsing Rods (to detect energy fields), many haunted & murder Venues, climaxing with free entry to Historical Cemetery ... at Midnight ... of course.

R 295 p.p. for Public & Group Tours (all tour cities except Port Elizabeth R 265)

Meet at 6.30 pm at Starting Pub (listed in 'Tour Routes' section below). Depart 7pm and returns just after Midnight to Starting Pub - safe & secure parking.

Take a Public Tour, or Groups can have the Bus to themselves for the same price p.p.

GROUPS (30 or more persons) Corporates, Year End Functions, Private parties, Tourism groups, Team Building

Pound & Penny Pub at Sunnyside Hotel ('off the bus' Starting Pub Stop) with History & Science of the Paranormal, Zoo Lake ('off the bus', dowsing rods audience participation), Motorcyclist Road Phantom, Eikenlaan / Mike's Kitchen ('off the bus' pub stop, and dark mystery room), Old Transvaal Children's Memorial Hospital, Woman's Prison (poison murderess Daisy de Melcker), Constitutional Hill, The Fort, Supreme Court, Bertrams Murder (Body in the Lake murder), Jeppe Boys High, Kensington Castle, Roberts Avenue Poltergeist house, Troyeville Hotel ('off the bus' pub stop), Braamfontein Cemetery ('off the bus' stop, ending).

The Dros on Atterbury (Road) next to Town Lodge ('off the bus' Starting Pub Stop), Erasmus Castle / Die Spookhuis ('off the bus' stop) with History & Science of the Paranormal, UFO of Erasmus Kloof, Huckleberry's Pub ('off the bus' pub stop, and dowsing rods audience participation), Breytenbach Theatre, Poltergeist at Mea Vota, Pretoria Station, Victoria Hotel, Capitol Theatre, Die Raadsaal, Nederlandse Bank, Place of Justice, Church Square ('off the bus' pub stop, dark mystery area - The Pangaman Murders), Pretoria State Theatre, the Compol Building (poison murderess Daisy de Melcker), Church Street Cemetery ('off the bus' stop, ending).

Ferryman's Tavern at V&A Waterfront ('off the bus' Starting Pub Stop) with History & Science of the Paranormal, German Lutheran Church, Little Theatre, Good Hope Seminary (poison murderess Daisy de Melcker), Percy's Tavern ('off the bus' pub stop, and dark mystery room - The Scissor's Murder), The Castle of Good Hope ('off the bus', and dowsing rods audience participation), Poltergeist of Fenton Road, Ghosts of District Six, Ghosts of Groote Schuur Hospital, Drie Koppen, the Saints, Sinners & Students of Rondebosch, SAC's School, Hidingh House, Ghost & Spy stories of Alphen Hotel ('off the bus' pub stop), Tokai Manor ('off the bus' stop, ending).

34 Degrees South at Boardwalk Casino ('off the bus' Starting Pub Stop') with History & Science of the Paranormal, Old South End Museum, Opera House, Maritime Club ('off the bus' pub stop, and dark mystery room), PEMADS Little Theatre, Fort Frederick, Knockfierna / St. George's Prep ('off the bus' stop), Mannville Open Air Theatre, Old Park Drive Hotel, Richly House, Provincial Hospital, Mount Croix Poltergeist, Fernando's Grill ('off the bus' pub stop), Grey High School, Target Kloof Phantom Hitchhiker, Essexvale ('off the bus' stop, and dowsing rods audience participation), Coach House, Harding Murder, South End Cemetery ('off the bus' stop, ending).

Edward Hotel ('off the bus' Starting Pub Stop') with History & Science of the Paranormal, Grey Lady of Addington Hospital, Rosey Dry's Brothel, Winder Street (Sailor Murder), Victoria Mansions, Point Yacht Club or Royal Yacht Club ('off the bus' pub stop, dark mystery room, and dowsing rods audience participation), Playhouse Theatre, St. Andrews Hotel, Old Berea Nursing Home (poison murderess Daisy de Melcker), St. Augustine's Hospital, Durban High School, Cottam Grove Hotel ('off the bus' pub stop), Poltergeist of Campbell Road, Soldier of Campbell Road ('off the bus stop'), City Engineer's Department, Old Durban City Police, Highway Sheila, Old Fort ('off the bus' stop, ending). Coach then returns you to the Edward Hotel.

Hotel to be advised ('off the bus' Starting Pub Stop'), History & Science of the Paranormal ('off the bus' on lawn of the Hotel), MacCrorie House Museum, Governor's House, Polo Tavern, Diamond Jim, Hilton College, Howick Concentration Camp, Howick Museum (Woodhouse Ghost), Mystery of the Howick Falls, Forest Gate Manor, The Aftan Restaurant, Decadence House, Hebron Haven & Karl Preller's golden treasure ('off the bus' pub stop, dark haunted room and dowsing rods audience participation), Blackbeard of the Dargle area, Caversham Hall and the Woodhouse Falls tragedy, Caversham Mill, Old Halliwell, Michaelhouse or Rawdon's Hotel, Fort Nottingham, Battlefield Ghosts, Nottingham Road Hotel ('off the bus' pub stop, and the hotel ghosts), Dr Robinson at King's School, St. John's Gowrie Church & Cemetery ('off the bus' stop for an Early Death, the Kamberg Ghost, Elizabeth Klarer's Flying Saucer Hill, Dr Robinson, and chilling conclusion). Coach then returns you to the Hotel.

Pick-Up at Drosdty Arch, Stone Crescent Motel, ('off the bus' pub stop), History & Science of the Paranormal ('off the bus stop' on steps of the hotel), Haunted Ruin in Poltergeist Forest ('off the bus', behind hotel), Phantoms of the Passes, Fort Selwyn ('off the bus' stop for dowsing rods audience participation), Fort England's ghost mortuary wagon, Cathgart UFO, A Series of Haunted Buildings in Artificer's Square, National English Literature Museum, Woodville Orphanage, A Host of Ghosts at Rhodes University's boarding establishments, St. Aidan's ('off the bus' pub stop for Tower Ghost), Murder of Little Edith Pinnoch ('off the bus' in St. Aidans attic), One-Legged Ghost of the Manor House, Ghosts of Kingswood College, Grahamstown Cemetery ('off the bus' stop, Blaauwkrans train disaster, and chilling conclusion). Coach then returns you to the Drosdty Arch.

(L to R): The most famous alleged ghost photograph in the world is the Greenwich Ghost (photographed at Queen's House, England, in 1966 by Rev. R.W Hardy). Photo taken with a digital camera - red apparition follows the lady. Is this a ghost of a little girl standing next to the tour guide at the top of the stairs, and something rushing up the stairs (Alphen Hotel, Cape Town). An alleged fast moving orb ? (Church Street Cemetery, Pretoria)

(Left to right) : Kensington Castle in Johannesburg. The Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. Foster's Folly Feather Palace in Oudtshoorn. Tokai Manor in Cape Town.

(L to R): Perhaps one of the most famous alleged poltergeist houses in the world, this home on the left suffered 71 fires in Port Elizabeth.

(L to R): Serial-killer, Blooubaard of the Gourits' Mausoleum in Oudsthoorn. Victim of a Jack The Ripper style serial-killer in Grahamstown. Poison murderess, Daisy de Melcker of Johannesburg, waving like a film star to the crowds outside the court.

BOOKING and TOURISM AGENTS: Apart from our Overseas Operators, some of our national operators / agents are: Absolute Tours, Beachcomber Tours, ICC, Crown Travel, Events Plus, Kwathlana Tours & Safaris, Lafarge, Intuthwane Adventures, Marouchos Team Building, Morula Sun, SA Golf Tours, Spiral Staircase, Sun International, Successful Events, Sure Tours & Travel, Table Bay Hotel, The Agency, Thompson's Travel, Weekends Away, Wild Frontiers Tourism ...

CORPORATE EVENTS: ABSA (repeat client), Accentsure, Avocado Vision, Allan Gray Ltd, Airport Handling Services, American International Women’s Club, Anglo-American (NGS), Acuo Technologies, Axiz, Bentley's Country Lodge, Blick SA, Brandbar Media, Braits, Cellucity, Clientele Life, Cape Times, Corporate Lawyers Association of SA, CPB, CSRI, Damelin, De Beers Group, DVR Properties, Ebucks.com, Edgars, Egoli Gas, Expose, F.H. Bertling Logistics, Finovest, FNB, Forever Young, Future Growth, G.I.B.S., Genop Healthcare, Gerling General Insurance, Global Village Leisure Retail, HCV Underwriting Managers, ICAS SA, Imperial Holdings, Idata Services, ILAB Protection Services, KAB Instruments, Investec (repeat client), KCS Architects, Knowledge Factory, LA Accounting, Landrover, Leader Underwriting Managers, Legelela, Liberty Life (repeat client), Manson Venter Attorneys, Material Handling, Media 24, Metropolitan Employee Benefits, Mitsui & Co, Mondial, MLCB, MTN, Multinet, Nedbank, Nova Group, O’ Keeffe & Swartz Consultants, Outsurance, PAAB, Panasonic, PPC Cement, Precision Digital, Primedia, Pristine Financial Services, Profile Media, PWC Banking & Capital Markets, Redenvelope, Regent Insurance, Research & Planning Intelligence, Road Accident Fund, Rush Trading, SA Breweries (ABI), Sanlam (repeat client), SA Underwriting Agencies, Scatterings of Africa, Slabbert Burger Transport, Space Age Technologies, Standard Bank (repeat client), Stanlib, Steiner, Stockwell, Swiss Precision, Sybase, TG Workshop, Torange, UUNET, Westcon AME ...

PRIVATE PARTIES: Cape Town Girls Rugby Group, Cuore Sportievo Owners Association, Durbanville Teacher’s Outing, German Club of Johannesburg, IPIP Photographic Club, Nicola Belle Psychic School, Rotary Club of Johannesburg, SANCA West Rand Clinic, The Writers Circle, University of Pretoria Social Club, Voortrekkerhoogte Teachers Assoc., Wilgers Hospital, and many 21st's, 40th's, 50th's, bachelor, bachelorette and other private parties ...

Port Elizabeth: Rose Trehaeven's Haunted Walk : Call Bay Tourism 041 - 585 5427 or Rose Trehaeven on 041 - 583 2584

Pretoria's Sammy Marks Museum Ghost Evening with Dinner : Call Sammy Marks Restaurant 012 - 802 1485

Kimberley Ghost Trail : Call Tourism Office 053 - 832 7298 or Dirk Potgieter on 083 - 265 4795

For Information or Reporting UFO's in SA contact SAUFOR : Cristo Louw 084 - 302 2660 or www.geocities.com/saufor

Our thanks to our National Arts Festival and KKNK corporate sponsors below ... really getting you into the spirit !

Terms & Conditions: Tours are presented at your own risk, and therefore Mark Rose-Christie, The Magic of Mark Rose-Christie cc and The Mystery Ghost Bus Tours of South Africa cc, and their associates, members & staff, do not accept liability of any nature whatsoever. Our coach companies do however include public liability on their coaches. Tour Routes & Prices are subject to change without notice. No refunds.

Chantal Hanslo of City Parks says she was content to make a decision on behalf of the City of Cape Town that it will become the only city in the world to charge an entry fee to any commercial tour operator entering 'their' (sic) cemeteries at night, even though entry is free during the day. This was confirmed in writing by Johan Herholdt, despite our appeals to the Mayor of Cape Town. However, we refuse to pay a fee, as this will set a precedent, which may result in massive repercussions as regards all tour operators (local & overseas), and at the highest levels of government, plus Tourism in general - as tour operators, and hence the public - would have to pay unnecessarily increased ticket prices to visit any "open public spaces". Our prices comprise only the coach & guides' fees, and not any visits to public (free) sites, which are a bonus. Tour Operators take the public to several sites in any given tour, and it would quickly become ill-affordable - for both the operators and the public - to visit places of interest / "open public places" - such as public libraries, Table Mountain, Lion's Head, The Gardens, beaches, places of worship, historical schools, hospitals, Rhodes Memorial etc. in Cape Town, should fees be charged at such public sites. We insist that we shall therefore not increase our ticket prices, as all people have the same right in our country (as well as do overseas visitors) to see these "open public spaces" for free.

"We are not other cities in South Africa or in the world, we are Cape Town".

We, as others worldwide, have always been able to visit the Plumstead cemetery at night for free in Cape Town in the past, as do many other tours in any other public open spaces, even those not similar to ours. Nevertheless, in order not to disappoint local & overseas visitors, who have entered cemeteries worldwide for free on Ghost, Murder, Jack the Ripper and other night tours of any nature (some completely different) - we have especially created a new ending for the Cape Town tours. Regrettably, councillor Carol Bew - in an email we have on record, and despite the fact that we have told her the following is not true - insisted in her email that we supposedly "dress in black robes, come in the dead of night, MAKE A SMALL FIRE at certain graves, make soft music to create an ATMOSPHERE. Atmosphere for what I asked. And then claim that all this is for historical purposes. And if [he is] an ILLUSIONIST, then surely this is a SHOW!!!! It’s all rather ODD and I do have residents who are DEAD against it - excuse the pun".

We pointed out to Carol that we do none of this; that such allegations are detrimental to our image and that of South Africa in general; and that she could confirm with her co-councillor, Owen Kinahan, who joined us on opening night of the tours in 2002 - who would confirm that he witnessed none of this ... nor "a coach being made to disappear into a grave". How absurd, and why would we do this ? Mark Rose-Christie gave up 'illusion' in 1999 when he suffered a severe road accident, and he has suffered enough in this regard as it is, in his claim against the Road Accident Fund, in what is a fiasco of a case that has also been held in Cape Town, and may need further investigation upon its conclusion. As if this were not enough already, as a result, he (prematurely) opened the Ghost Bus Tours for South Africa, so that his home country could enjoy the same concepts as those overseas.

"I have no idea where Carol's and Chantal's ideas come from. In a modern and internet world, the tours are not a bad idea when it comes to preserving culture I feel. Carol said her City Parks people told her this nonsense about fires and Satanic worship (thus, NOT any residents, who she said may be of 'supposed' concern - yet over the years we've had no complaints at all - since nobody even knew we were even at the cemetery). We do of course use a coach to explore the historical aspects of the city, under an exciting label - for which the original City Parks, Mayor and Tourism congratulated us upon, on opening night. Why we would make it disappear into a grave I have no idea, unless they think it is a real Ghost bus".

"However, the only thing that is now being driven into the grave, is the public's right to see historical graves of real interest, with a dash of entertainment - otherwise the public might not ever even see them, or enjoy the wonderful stories that enrich our past. Oddly, these same officials' previous bosses said this was a wonderful way to promote Cape Town ... a city which deems itself as the 'Mecca' of tourism on the African continent. If that is true, then why create a Mecca Mountain over a very Grave Molehill issue. There are thousands of these tours worldwide - and City Park in Cape Town now denies this once great attraction !", Rose-Christie explained.

We have asked the media, tourism and government, plus overseas markets - to step in. All tours shall continue to enjoy FREE ENTRY to the cemeteries in SA and the world over !!