Jack van der Merwe: orange glowing object on Table Mountain

What was reported

Years after his Durban experience Jack van der Merwe climbed Table Mountain to watch the sunset from the top. Darkness fell, he took the wrong path, lost his sandals and slipped and slid for what seemed a very long time until, cold and exhausted, he felt he was fighting for his life. He then felt compelled to climb a particular rock and had a surge of energy. Looking up he saw an orange, glowing, egg-shaped object hanging in the sky some distance off, which seemed to be looking at him and giving him that energy. The instant he saw the path the object disappeared, and within minutes he was down on the road and home.

What Hind made of it

Hind lists it among the experiences making up Case 40 without separate comment.

In their words

• an orange glowing object in the sky above me, some distance away, hanging right there.

Cross references

• Case No 40 Durban harbour experience

Connected

• Hundreds report object hovering over Table Mountain (Weekend Argus)Case fileSame place

  Table Mountain: the 1992 crowd vs Jack van der Merwe's undated lone night lost on the mountain.

• The Engineer and the Alien (Hind's Portsmouth interview with 'Henry')Case fileSame behaviour

  Compulsion to climb toward the object: Henry 1951 (the rungs), Jack van der Merwe (a rock on Table Mountain). Independent witnesses.

• Transformer in the SkyCase fileSame behaviour

  Voice in the head or surge of energy, both while alone and in distress on Table Mountain (lost at night; fighting a fire).

• In an Altered State of Consciousness: Jack van der Merwe at Durban harbourCase fileSame witness

  07-19-2 (Table Mountain, undated) and 07-19-3 (a Cape road, c.1975) are outside this cluster: the same Jack van der Merwe, a repeat experiencer with an orange egg-shaped object and a vanishing giant ant. Hind bundles all three as Case No 40. A serial witness, so the harbour episode is not an isolated anomaly in his life.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 7 (January 1993), spread 19

Nearby

Stories within 60 km

• Van Hunks and the Devil 1909 · 3 km
• The transformer on Newlands Ravine 1969 · 3 km
• The lights above Table Mountain 2015 · 4 km
• The Castle's regulars 1729 · 4 km
• The monoplane that flew all over the Union 1914 · 6 km