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Adam relates a story that happened to him back in 1971. He was in his late 20s and staying at his folks’ place in Rose Hill, Mauritius. His father came home one day with a South African couple tagging along. The two were tourists, and his dad invited them to stay at their place for a few days.
To accommodate the guests, the family organized a weekend camping trip in Flic en Flac on the west coast. When Saturday came, the group proceeded to Flic en Flac and set up camp. The family and their guests spent the day catching fish and crabs, swimming, and feasting on barbecue.
At around nine in the evening, the group was huddled by the campfire and staring at the stars. Suddenly, a strange noise ripped through the air. It sounded like a woman wailing. At first, they thought that it must have been some kind of animal. The sound came and went for some time, increasing their unease.
In the darkness, a figure mysteriously appeared in the water about thirty or forty meters away from them. It was a woman with long, black hair dressed in a flowing, white dress. She was walking from the sea to the beach. Once the woman got to the beach, she kept walking until she vanished into the trees.
Everyone saw her but couldn’t explain what had happened. Adam finally got up to check on the woman. After a bit, he walked back to the group, slightly unnerved. He told them that he hadn’t seen anything out there: No houses, no lights, no woman.
They all sat in silence. Their senses were on full alert. Suddenly, they heard flapping sounds from a nearby tree. Birds or bats were flying away as if someone or something had disturbed their slumber. The group sat still in fear. The feeling that something was wrong tingled against their spines. In the eeriness of the night, they couldn’t shake the sense that they were being watched.
The South African couple started looking around when something heavy fell in front of the group. Adam stood up to see what it was. Again, there was nothing. The rest of the group stood up and joined the search, but they all came up empty handed. Worry wormed its way through their stomachs. They wondered if they should stay and sleep the rest of the night, or if they should just leave?
They were trying to decide what to do when a piercing scream filled the air. It was as if a woman was being attacked somewhere near them. The group instinctively packed up their things. Coconuts started falling and rolling towards them like they were being deliberately thrown. The fear in the air was almost tangible.
Frightened beyond words, no one dared to talk. That was when they heard something: footsteps. Someone was running on the beach, and then the sound shifted as if it were coming from the woods. Everybody frantically gathered their things and climbed into their car. Screams swirled all around them.
Adam took the wheel. When they were about to reach the lane, they saw a woman standing a few meters in front of the vehicle. It was the same woman they had seen earlier. They froze. He didn’t want to drive further and close the distance between them and the strange woman. Suddenly, there was a loud bang! Something hit the car. Everyone instinctively looked behind them. Nothing was there.
When the driver looked forward, the woman was not in front of the car anymore. She was standing just outside the driver’s door. It was dark, and he couldn’t see the woman’s face. He let out a scream and tried to drive away. The car choked! He turned the key, frantically. As soon as the engine revved back to life, he drove away as fast as he could. When they reached the main road, everyone sighed in relief.
They reached the edge of town just as the car broke down. The South African couple and Adam’s mom walked the rest of the way while he and his now-sober dad stayed behind to watch the car. His mom called a friend of his dad’s to pick them up and tow their car. They got home around 11:30 in the evening.
After sitting down to coffee, they told the family friend about what had just happened. He confirmed that they weren’t the only ones who had experienced something horrific in that place. Flic en Flac was haunted, and many visitors had seen the woman in white.
While they escaped this traumatic experience relatively unscathed, there were others before them who hadn’t been so lucky. People had actually died there. Stories of people being hypnotized, walking towards the sea in a trance, and never coming back were aplenty. Some say they were hurt by things being thrown at them. There was even a pregnant woman a few weeks away from giving birth who lost her baby while visiting the haunted location. She was rushed to the hospital a few hours after seeing the woman in white and had to undergo emergency surgery. Unfortunately, the surgeons were unable to save the baby.
Adam later found out that there was a cemetery near the beach. The woman was probably walking to where she had finally been laid to rest, but—as Adam found out first hand—rest, she did not.
