Road trippers, plot a spooky stop in the ghost town of Putsonderwater

Look up “ghost towns of SA” on Wikipedia and you will find four. Ghost towns, of course, are not towns with ghosts in them but towns that have been abandoned and left to rot by once-thriving populations.

It’s no surprise then that the four mentioned in SA are old gold-rush towns: Millwood in the Western Cape, near Knysna; Leydsdorp and Schoemansdal in Limpopo; and Eureka, in Mpumalanga.

Wikipedia neglects to mention another now-abandoned site, the remote Putsonderwater in the Northern Cape. Its two closest towns are Kenhardt, a drive of 80km, and Marydale, about 40km in the opposite direction.

How its name came about is uncertain. One version has it that a well was dug there in the 1800s by a man named David Ockhuis, who struck “gold” when he found ample water in this arid region. Because he didn’t want to share the precious resource, he would always claim when passers-by asked for water that his well had none. Hence Put Sonder Water (well without water in Afrikaans).  

It could also be read differently, to mean an overabundance of water. Another story goes that it once rained here so much that the water rose high enough to submerge the buckets that hung off the oxwagons. These contained tar, which the trekboers used to lubricate the wooden wheels and axles, and they were known as teerputs. Supposedly, the rain rose so much that the buckets were under water. Puts Onder Water.

In the 1980s, Putsonderwater was an important stop on the Cape-to-Windhoek railway route. Even in the 1990s, the town was still operational. Due to a series of droughts, cattle trade in the district dried up. The daily passenger trains and buses running between De Aar and Upington ceased stopping in Putsonderwater. The police station, post office, hotel and general dealer closed one after the other, and people gradually left for other places where they could make a living.

Around 2000, the station was no longer needed either as not even freight trains stopped there. Many of the last inhabitants moved to neighbouring Marydale. The primary school managed to keep its doors open until 2004, but eventually there was no electricity or water. 

Those who venture there today will find nothing but derelict buildings and dust. The station garden — which, with its roses, foot paths and a wishing well in 1989 won the Duncan trophy for the most beautiful station garden — is now overgrown with tall yellow grass. The station building is burnt out; brick walls and remnants of window frames are all that is left.

When I visited, mid-pandemic in 2020, Putsonderwater had one inhabitant who’d pitched two tents in the former general dealer building, and was happily ensconced with his cat, Dorothy. With the help of nearby farmers, he claimed to be fairly self-sufficient.

I never got to ask him whether he’d encountered any ghosts since he’d moved here. He’d booby-trapped the outside of the building against threats of another kind, though.

All I know is that I felt cold shivers down my spine wherever I walked, apart from an overwhelming sadness of what has been, but is no more.