Groendal Nature Reserve, South Africa: Four students see silver object and gliding beings
At 11:15 a.m. on October 2, 1978, four students aged 12–16 from Despatch, Eastern Cape, saw a silver object on the ground in the Groendal Nature Reserve, South Africa, and three beings in silver suits that glided along a fence before vanishing; forest workers later found oval footprints, and police found ground marks on October 18.
Background
At 11:15 a.m. on October 2, 1978, four students aged 12–16 from Despatch, Eastern Cape, South Africa, were hiking in the Groendal Nature Reserve when they saw a silver object on the ground. About 900 feet to the west of it were two beings in silver suits that seemed to glide without walking; a third being joined them holding a silver 'suitcase,' and they glided a short way along a fence on a steep incline before vanishing, as did the silver object. Later, three forest workers found 7-inch oval footprints about one mile from the site. On October 18, three South African police officers and two trackers visited the encounter site and found a large area of depressed grass with 8 symmetrical marks around its perimeter and 4 marks within the oval area. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.