Nieu Bethesda – why it's worth a visit

Nieu Bethesda

These days, Nieu Bethesda is described as a charm­ing altern­at­ive to Graaff-Reinet. But back when I first paid the little town a visit, it was still 'in the middle of nowhere', rather off the beaten track. You went there primar­ily to visit Helen Martin's Owl House.

In fair­ness, things were start­ing to hap­pen even then. There was a little res­taur­ant I remem­ber, called some­thing like the 'wild fig' or 'burn­ing brin­jal', or an equally cre­at­ive name, on the sleepy main road in town (there are but two, main roads that is), the pretty Village Inn was already serving as an inform­a­tion / accom­mod­a­tion / cof­fee shop / tea garden as it con­tin­ues to do today, and Egbert's Coffee shop next to the Ibis Gallery (which I believe has also since closed) func­tioned as the town's water­ing hole of the non­al­co­holic kind ...

It was also February, and hot as hell. But then Nieu Bethesda doesn't lie in the heart of the Great Karoo for nothing.

The Owl House

It's an utterly beau­ti­ful little vil­lage, sur­roun­ded by moun­tains, clear skies and heady breezes, when they blow at all. It's typ­ical of Karoo vil­lages, foun­ded in the mid-19^th cen­tury and filled with what would have ini­tially been coun­try homes, built in dis­tinct­ive Victorian archi­tec­ture, little white­washed houses sim­ilar to the rich spread of houses in the town of Graaff Reinet, not even an hour away.

The quirky vil­lage still has wide, pear-tree lined dirt roads (there is an ongo­ing debate about whether or not to tar) along which stone water fur­rows run to accom­mod­ate the little stream that trickles its way down here only in the wet sea­son (when the vil­lage becomes a gor­geous patch­work of green), and night skies that eas­ily sur­pass those any­where else in the coun­try. Development here has been little, so little that even today there are no street­lamps, bank­ing or pet­rol facil­it­ies (fill your tank before you head here) and veget­ables find their way into town but once a week.

Nieu Bethesda

On the one hand, this lack of devel­op­ment held Nieu Bethesda in a rare state of archi­tec­tural integ­rity, as it func­tioned primar­ily as a 'town that time for­got', but on the other, the local com­munity became largely impoverished.

Today, Nieu Bethesda is the star of the Owl Route, developed as a tour­ist route to include the town in a 50 kilo­metre horseshoe-shaped stretch of road with views of the Compassberg and die tor­ing, a tower like edi­fice that juts out of the sur­round­ing moun­tains that func­tions as a land­mark of the vil­lage. The town is no longer affil­i­ated as a day's out­ing to time spent in Graaf Reinet, but has become a des­tin­a­tion in its own right, largely due to Helen Martins, the reclus­ive, eccent­ric artist of the Owl House.

But in Helen's day, Nieu Bethesda would have been a very dif­fer­ent land­scape. It was quiet to the point of being isol­ated. How many other vil­lages can boast that their roads have been so quiet in the past that they were leased to grow pota­toes! And it was out of this intense isol­a­tion that a reclus­ive artist, with a pre­dilec­tion for owls and camels, evolved and placed the little dorp on the map, so to speak.

Nieu Bethesda

Today the vil­lage thrives – all fifty-odd white inhab­it­ants and the thou­sand or so local col­oured com­munity — largely because of her art, even if they remain some­what divided as to the valid­ity of her work — some think it's art worth pro­tect­ing, whilst oth­ers regard the house as little more than the dab­blings of a mad woman.

Go see for your­self, because the town gains per­spect­ive only after find­ing your way through the museum that was once Helen Martins' house. Her work and her story are both riv­et­ing and enchant­ing. The inside of her house is a lumin­ous tapestry of crushed glass in a myriad forms of sun-faces, owls and other images. It's at once dis­turb­ing and beautiful.

Outside, her yard is given over to a feast of statues influ­enced by the works of the bible, and the poetry of Omar Khayyam and William Blake. It's small won­der that the mag­nitude of her art served as the source of Athol Fugard's play The Road to Mecca or that The Owl House is a National Monument that func­tions as the major tour­ist attrac­tion of the town. Love it, or hate it, her art inspires thou­sands of artists, writers and sculptors across the world.

Outsiders B&B

These days you can ven­ture forth on a day trip to Graaf Reinet, rather than the other way around, as there are a myriad ways in which to keep your­self amused in Nieu Bethesda. Other than the col­our­ful loc­als, there is a fossil museum (to dis­play the rather rich uncov­er­ing of pre-mammalian (those that came before dino­saurs) fossils, there is San rock art on neigh­bour­ing farms, Donkey Cart tours around the vil­lage to take in the 1860 water mill, the Dutch Reformed Church and the old grave­yard, amongst other things, and a local brewer and cheese maker at the Sneeuberg Brewery where you can not only do cheese and ale with a cof­fee on the side (they brew their own cof­fee here) but stop off for a meal.

However, don't visit Nieu Bethesda unless peace, quiet and get­ting away from it all com­pletely are high on your agenda. Things slow down in this little gem com­pletely, and the pace of life, whilst treas­ured by those who live here, might wear on some people's nerves after a while once the town's high­lights (eas­ily done in a day) have been ticked off the list. But if you're even remotely into hik­ing, read­ing and simply watch­ing the world go by, then this is the spot for you...

Nieu-Bethesda Links:
Nieu-Bethesda Attractions
Nieu-Bethesda Map
Nieu Bethesda Accommodation
Karoo Heartland Accommodation
The Owl House: http://www.owlhouse.co.za/