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You don’t get past it without noticing. New Bethesda or Nieu-Bethesda in Afrikaans/Dutch is all about the Owl House which gives the small little town in the middle of the dusty veld of the Great Karoo its fame. Even a fifty kilometer road through the Sneeuberg mountains with the endpoint at the well-known Owl House in New Bethesda was named Owl Route.

Helen Martins Ties To New Bethesda

The fame of the remote town sparked with a woman, born in New Bethesda in 1897. She became a teacher in Transvaal, married a colleague and traveled with him acting in theater productions around the country.

The entrance gate to Helen Martin’s World

The marriage was short lived. She gave up her dreams of traveling to take care of her elderly parents. Her demanding authoritative, most probably abusive father outlived his wife by four years till 1945.

Nieu Bethesda, South Africa

After his death she found her vocation in art. The house became a kaleidoscope of colors with exception of the room of her father, which windows she bricked up, painted the walls black, and put a sign reading “The Lion’s Den”.

Fairy Tale Sculptures And Owls

Maybe to escape the geographic constraints Helen Martins immersed in a devotion to create a fairy world of her own in and around her house. As the projects became more complex she had a few talented employees to help her out. It must have been an exciting experience to see new works emerging from the intense collaborative process.

Helen Martins invited wanderers to enter through a wide porch into her dreamworld. The yard filled with oriental paravanes of nomads with camels, fairy tale sculptures and owls which observe the fantasy land with their overly bright, glassy eyes.

Nieu Bethesda, South Africa

The Artist In Her Later Years

As the years went on in this secluded hand-made paradise in the middle of nowhere Helen Martins preferred the seclusion and closed the entrance for public and drew back to a life in solitude.

Nieu Bethesda, South Africa

Tragically her art caused her eyesight to fail as her preferred material had been fine crushed glass to decorate the walls and ceilings. Baring this handicap she lost sense of life and attempted suicide. She died 1976 at the age of 78.

Owl overlooking fairy tale land

Owl House Museum

As per her wishes, her house was opened as a museum. Fortunately wanderers can enjoy Helen Martin’s art once again. It’s a treat to visit the Owl House, to experience the magic and story this place has to tell.

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New Bethesda - Owls And Camels In The Backyard #travel #southafrica You don't get past it without noticing. New Bethesda or Nieu-Bethesda in Afrikaans/Dutch is all about the Owl House which gives the small little town in the middle of the dusty veld of the…

#art #Eastern Cape #Karoo #new bethesda #Nieu Bethesda #owl house

“Is the town still coming or are we wrong?” The tar turned into a bad dirt road, so the question of George was eligible. I’d been here about four years ago but it looked even more backwards and abandoned now as we jolted and navigated around the many potholes.

New Bethesda (Nieu-Bethesda), Eastern Cape, South Africa

My favorite tree, weeping willows, line up along the gravel road leading up to New Bethesda. Surprisingly the valley is contrasting green to the surroundings as water isn’t scarce, despite being in the middle of the semi-desert of the Great Karoo.

Church in New Bethesda

An old man in rags with a weathered face watched us absentmindedly as we drove past. After a few hundred meters we saw the church, the center as it is common in all old towns of the Karoo. A viable sign that we finally arrived in New Bethesda.

A town, forgotten in time

The most famous OWL HOUSE in New Bethesda

The place is famous for its artist Helen Martins whose fabulous chimeras are exposed in the Owl House. But I want to dedicate a entire post only to these creatures and the story of the artist at a later stage. Just bare with me.

Fabulous chimeras in the Owl House

The place of flowing water in the middle of the semi-desert of the Great Karoo

New Bethesda isn’t overwhelming, just a few bashful white houses in the old-dutch style and dusty roads in between. It’s Afrikaans and dutch name is Nieu-Bethesda which means place of flowing water, well chosen as the tall trees prosper in this little town of the Eastern Cape.

Place of flowing water

The place appears uninhabited, almost ghostly, but that impression is deceptive. An estimate of more than 1.5 thousand inhabitants live here.

The quaint town center of New Bethesda

The quaint town center with its few restaurants, pensions, a tourist office and a heavily barbed-wired police station is home to just a handful of people preferring this remote lifestyle. I wonder if the police station is so heavily protected to keep delinquents in or out.

Farm Stall in Nieu Bethesda

“Lets park in front of the tourist information,” I suggest as that seems to be a safe place to leave our car. “Let’s walk first a bit through the town to get the stiffness out of our bones after the long drive.” George agrees and we walk leisurely around the corner.

Horses browse on roses

“Oh, my …! Look these horses walking freely and eating roses out of that garden. Such a shame!” George is reminded of his own horses who liked to annoy him by eating everything possible he had just planted in his garden. “I’ve never seen horses eating roses. That must be something special of African horses to eat just anything!” I teased him.

A Swiss in the remote vastness of the Great Karoo

Opposite of the garden, where the horse indulged in some beautiful white roses, a neatly dressed older man with long trousers and hiking boots emerged out of his garden. “I’m Bruno and I’d like to invite you to a cup of coffee. I don’t see people very often, so I take the opportunity to invite strangers as they walk past.”

The Alfresco Pizzeria

Amazed we agreed and entered to his masterpiece of a rose garden, one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen! We sat down while he introduced us to his life and his work of the past seventy years or so.

Converted barn to restaurant

Bruno’s Pizza oven

He’d come as a young man and award winning hairdresser from Switzerland to South Africa and went from vintner to other occupations till he lost his heart to New Bethesda, where he wanted to spend the rest of his life with his wife.

Bruno’s roses

A hairdresser with surprising ambitions

His wife died unexpectedly after only three months living in the small Karoo town of a very fast developing cancer. Bruno didn’t give up: He renovated the existing house and extended it. In the barn he opened a Pizzeria and the best of all, he built a underground wine cellar as big as a church only with the help of a few locals. No crane or digger, only bare muscle power and wheelbarrows!

Bruno’s masterpiece of a wine cellar

Bruno’s wine cellar

A wine cellar as gigantic as a underground church

We walked through the house, the wine cellar and ended our tour in his rose garden. With lots of affection and tenderness he touched his roses which were more than just a hobby to him. He’d put an ingenious irrigation system in place which allowed him the freedom to leave now and again for some time if he had to.

Bruno’s masterpiece of a wine cellar

It was a coincidence to find a compatriot in the middle of the remote Great Karoo. Knowing the Swiss as quite industrious it still amazed me how Bruno had built it all without any architectural education or the help of an engineer.

‘Heavenly’ support for the vault

Two tourists from Switzerland who’d heard of his project from the local guide had helped him spontaneously for a couple of days. They’d resolved the problem by welding a framework of steel with whose support Bruno was able to lay the bricks for the vault of his wine cellar in the upcoming weeks.

Bruno interpreted this help as a sign from god. He’d been stuck for months not being able to find a solution for the building of the arch on his own before the Swiss guys arrived, surprisingly enough, turning out to be a tunnel engineer and an architect!

Two Swiss in the Karoo: Bruno shows his rose garden to Marcelle

A man with a big portion of optimism and stamina

The hour with Bruno had been a great pleasure to us. We think back with admiration for this enterprising man living in the sticks with a big portion of optimism and stamina. We hope that he will invite many other visitors for a cup of coffee, he having company and the joy of telling his life story and visitors enjoying a most interesting character with extraordinary skills.

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New Bethesda - The Owl Town At The End Of The World #beautifulplaces #southafrica "Is the town still coming or are we wrong?" The tar turned into a bad dirt road, so the question of George was eligible.

#great karoo #helen martins #Karoo #new bethesda #Nieu Bethesda #owl house #semi-desert