Hidden treasure in South Africa's Karoo - the Owl House in Nieu Bethesda

in travel •  7 years ago 

Dear Steemians, it's such a busy time as end of year approaches and I'm finally starting to work on a few proposals (yippee! the promise of paid work), but since I was able to carve out an hour and a half yesterday to have lunch with a dear friend who's bought a small house in the amazing little dorp of Nieu Bethesda in South Africa's Eastern Cape, I thought I'd share a few photos of one outstanding feature of this eclectic place with you.

We've visited our friends in Nieu Bethesda a few times over holidays (they live in Pretoria and use this house as a Karoo pied-à-terre), mostly because it's great to stop off on a long road trip and play Scrabble, scratch the dog's head and have a couple of glasses of wine to lubricate the chatting and catching up, but also because it's a really weird and fun place which always has something interesting to offer the traveller.

Today I'll focus on one of the truly odd and fascinating experiences that Nieu Bethesda has to offer - the Owl House. I had driven past Nieu Bethesda and the signs for the Owl House many times since moving to South Africa in 1997, but it was actually only three years ago that @tim-beck and I took the turn off the highway that splits the twelve to fourteen hour coast to Joburg trip into a more relaxing two-day trek, as well as a journey back in time.

Quick overview of the Owl House

An amazing artist, Helen Martins (who you can read all about in the Owl House link in the previous paragraph), lived in the scrubby little town of Nieu Bethesda which had been formed in 1878 by local farmers who wanted to establish a village and a church congregation closer to their farms than the nearest town, Graaff-Reinet, now only about half an hour away by car (mostly on excellent highway), but you can imagine how long it would have taken by horse and buggy back in the 1870s! Helen was a shy, almost reclusive woman who had quite an unhappy life in our world, but when she moved back to her family house she became inspired over a period of more than a decade to transform her house and garden, inside and out, into a fantastic sculpture garden depicting all sorts of creatures heading to the mystical east. She wasn't a trained artist, rather an "outsider artist", as explained on this page of the Owl House website.

The sculpture garden

These pilgrims, camels and other creatures were all headed east on some pilgrimage Helen Martins understood best.


Here's a look more head on - those colours have survived decades in the harsh Karoo sun.


Mermaids, stars and flowers....



The mermaid on the left seems to be leaping out of ocean waves made from green bottles.

Seen from the other side....


Sphinxes and pyramids!


These owls perched forever on the cistern seem to be watching over bottle-skirt lady.


I don't pretend to understand it all....


But I think you'd agree it's delightful, no?


One of the many owls perched around the garden:


Owls and camels nestling together....


The outside of Owl House

Everything about the house was turned into art.


On the front porch....


And a view from across the road showing the massive owl by the front door (the human is @tim-beck).


A tale playing out on the wall under the vines greeted us as we headed into the house.


The inside of Owl House

She worked hard to transform the interior into a place of riotous colour and playfulness.


A sunny ceiling reflected off a shiny kettle....


The sun on the windows....



If you go back to that photo of Tim sitting on the front steps, you can see that window from the outside on the right.

She transformed all the glass in the house....


Every room has its own charm. I can't remember if this was a guest room or one of the main bedrooms, but the message seems to be that in the Karoo, you all slept in the same room! That rug in the foreground is made from the pelt of a springbok, a medium-sized antelope which you can see throughout the Karoo.


Owls and colour in the kitchen!


It's always a treat to go into an old Karoo house and find tins which we think are quaint but at the time held necessary ingredients for life. And I see there's a tin of Lyle's Golden Syrup at the left on the top shelf - we grew up with that in England in the 1960s and I'm pretty sure it lives on to this day (didn't I see a factory in Zaanse Schans that makes it...? But I digress.)


That was just the Owl House

Nieu Bethesda is home to many artists - painters, sculptors and other whizzes of the arts (including our friend who is an accomplished painter - when she exhibits in Cape Town in March we'll be sure to write about it), and it has the most amazing night sky, with nearly no light pollution. If your interests tend more to the paleontological, the whole Camdeboo area is a feast for fossiling. Nieu Bethesda is well worth a visit - it will steal your heart. The town is like an agate - from the outside it looks like a rock, but open it up and you gasp at the beauty it has to offer to those who look.


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Hi @kiligirl hope you're doing good. Can't comment earlier due to some busy schedule. Anyway once again you proved that you're one of the best writer not only at steemit but overall in the world(In my view point: at least in top 10).I'm so blessed that you're in my life at steemit.
Regarding this blog I have no words. Incredible pictures, accurate sequence of blog and world class words. Everything is perfect. Keep posting and Stay Blessed!

Oh my goodness, @jawad09, you are so very kind. I really don't know what to say, other than I aspire to being the kind of writer you say I am. I'm humbled by your kind words. 😊😊

Well worth a visit. Was there a few years ago.

Indeed! Thanks for stopping by, @capelight 😊😊

the statues are looking very old but beautiful.

Indeed, @ansari222, they are pretty old - Helen Martins worked on them between 1945 and 1976, but as far as I understand she was mostly active in the 1950s on the sculpture garden (I stand to be corrected by those who know better). I'm impressed by how the colours have weathered and wonder whether the museum has a facility for maintaining the sculptures. Will be interesting if anyone who knows more could let us know. I'm glad you found them beautiful 😊😊

thanks for the knowledge.i will try to find more in my free time.

😊😊

Owl House is always an interesting visit... Thanks for the post!

Hi @saafaari, yes, it's delightful, isn't it? As is all of NB. We love visiting there.

thanks for your sculpture garden , wonderful !

Hi, @bxt, I hope that Helen Martin's legacy has brought a bit of shine to your day 😊😊

thank you very much ! you are so kind !

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oh, i see , thanks for your answering , learn more from your post , you are great !

We visited the Owl house about five years ago and as you describe it was an amazing experience. Must say we also had a lovely breakfast at a B&B not far from there. The town is so peaceful that you can recharge in one day for the rest of the year!

So true, @marcel1965! We've been so lucky to be able to stay with friends who know the place well...we go to the local restaurants with their Border Collie tagging along, and nobody minds...we stroll under the stars after dinner...have a solid night's sleep, then go out for a great morning walk followed by a Karoo breakfast. As you say, recharge for the year in one day!

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A very nice post! Thanks for sharing this with us :)

A pleasure, @hanen! Thank you for your kind words and for stopping in! 😊😊

an excellent post! Thank you!

Thank you so much, @johncobra!

Upvoted and RESTEEMED :)

Thank you, @opc! I appreciate your support! 😊😊

Ha! I got "transaction broadcast error" again when I posted this in Opera, but didn't get fooled this time. It posted anyway, and I didn't get caught double posting. Happy days!

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So nice that you wrote about the owl house. I played Helen in Athol Fugard's "The Road to Mecca" for my final performance in Matric at National School of the Arts. Loved reading this, it took me back to my own experience of Helen and her owl house. Xx

The things I learn about you through Steemit, @lynb. Wish I'd seen you in that play. I'll bet you slayed! For what it's worth, I have to see an Athol Fugard play or even read one, although Tim and I did see a TV version of one of his plays starring Freddie Highmore which was pretty interesting - can't remember the name now. Anyway, glad you liked it 😊😊

Congratulations @kiligirl, this post is the seventh most rewarded post (based on pending payouts) in the last 12 hours written by a Hero account holder (accounts that hold between 10 and 100 Mega Vests). The total number of posts by Hero account holders during this period was 245 and the total pending payments to posts in this category was $2927.21. To see the full list of highest paid posts across all accounts categories, click here.

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Yeah..exactly..Nieu Bethesda had stolen my heart.. It has such beautiful paintings, sculptors, art of the sun in the windows, the garden areas full of owls and pyramids, the kitchen areas etc. All these shows that the owl house was very artistically made..giving each and every corner an owl touch...
Thanks for sharing it ...I enjoyed reading it a lot.
I am resteeming it.. Until next time, have a good health and happiness ...

Thank you so much, @momi5! I'm really glad you enjoyed it and I appreciate your support as always. Wishing you also good health and happiness.... 😊😊

Thank you friend ...have a wonderful weekend....

And you as well 😊😊

What to say :) anyone who plays scrabble drinks wine and scratches animals heads well they deserve my interest, i once played swear word scrabble for cake on facebook while drinking wine, I digress, So what did i think of the post,well my friend killigirl what an amazing place the two owls with the camel is certainly my favourite picture, for me it sums up the entire post, it just looks so right as do most of the pictures, its all quite surreal we can all see that these things don't occur naturally except they actually do there and don't look out of place at all \o/, a kind of melding of fantasy art and real life and so much a credit to the artist as i think the work is neither but rather balanced on a fine knife edge, i have enjoyed this post immensely thankyou for sharing \o/

Ah, thank you, my friend @coindevil, it's such a treat when you come by. I swear you would LOVE Nieu Bethesda, and I'll bet they'd enjoy you too. Glad you enjoyed this post 🙃🙃

\o/ big hugs, i already love that place just from your photos thank you for taking us there with you Iv'e been on so many holidays this year but never left home smiles

Wow! The Owl House sure is beautiful. Fantastic photography. Thanks for sharing this post. :)

Thanks, @firepower! It was such an experience being amongst those statues. I wonder whether she felt like they were company for her.

Hi my friend Kiligirl, what a delightful place to visit. I could spend all day looking at her brightly colored sculptures. It is rather amazing that the colors are still so nice. The windows are like she just painted them. I can see why you like to take a little time to enjoy.

Glad to hear about your future work. Your friend Ellie Mae🐓🐓

Never been to Nieu Bethesda and will certainly make a plan soon. I love small quaint towns... before Pam Golding opens their local estate agency... (Quoting a friend of mine who settled in Riebeek-Kasteel).

Well, @sea-cottage, if you love small, quaint towns this one takes the biscuit. It's definitely not as, er, trendy as Riebeek-Kasteel, and now that everyone knows Jacques Pauw likes in Riebeek-Kasteel I can imagine the visitor numbers will go up there! Sorry for your friend who lives there....

Interesting!

Glad the post interested you, @arzt 😊😊