SA's Shangri-La
If South Africa had a heart or a soul, and you went off on a quest to find it, you'd eventually land up in this teeny-weeny dorp, all but forgotten in a green valley high up in the Sneeuberg, smack in the middle of the Great Karoo nothingness.
If you feel like you've reached Shangri-La, you won't be the first. It was the naive art of a timid townswoman, Helen Martins, who put the place on the map - or more correctly, Athol Fugard, through his play The Road to Mecca, and its later film adaptation, about the mysterious Owl House and the tormented soul that created it.
But there is so much more to the place than just owl houses and camel yards - although Miss Helen's home must be your first port of call, to orientate yourself in this land where all compasses cease to function. There are fossils and the Kompasberg, the highest and most fang-like peak of the Karoo, as well as other secrets for you to discover.
Although Miss Helen is now long gone, current artist in residence is one Frans Boekkooi. While Boekkooi is neither as naive nor as much of an outsider as was Martin, his sculptures still manage to capture a sense of innocence and inner beauty.
The Owl House
The town’s main attraction is the Owl House, where artist Helen Martins lived as a recluse until her death in 1976. Considered an eccentric by many, Miss Helen - as she was known - devoted much of her life to the 'search for light and enlightenment'. This search is reflected in the finely ground glass of different colours that covers the walls and ceilings of the house, while numerous mirrors reflect light from candles and lamps in the rooms.
Outside in the Camel Yard are hundreds of cement sculptures of owls, camels, lambs, sphinxes, serpents and figures of naked men and women fashioned by Martins and her assistant, Koos Malgas. Helen Martins was largely shunned by the white village folk of tiny Nieu Bethesda, in the shadow of the Kompasberg, After a failed marriage she returned to care for her ailing father, and when he died she painted his room black and wrote 'The Lion's Den' on the step outside.
Then she started painting the rest of the rooms. The house done, she filled the garden with at first crude but, with help from Koos Malqas and others, increasingly competent sculptures. Today her Owl House and Camel Yard are celebrated worldwide as a monument to naive or outsider art, She even,to help the local postman, invented a new species: the camel-owl, which you can look for among the delightful jumble of her Camel Yard.
Camel Yard
Helen Martins' eclectic Owl House has put Nieu Bethesda firmly on the map, But the little Karoo dorp hasn't bought into the glitz of tourist traps; it's a simple place with a tangible sense of power and wonder. Martins' Owl House is a jungle of concrete sculptures’ energy.
Wander through Miss Helen's house and garden, around the Camel Yard, and hundreds of mirrors and candles peek beyond her imagination, into her dreams - 'This is my world,' she wrote on a wall outside her house. She was particularly inspired by biblical texts, the poetry of Omar Khayyam, and the works of William Blake.
Read Athol Fugard's book The Road to Mecca, or watch the film made from it before you visit — the story was inspired by Helen Martins' life. Nieu Bethesda is home to a mix of eclectic characters, It oozes an energy, a strange sense of power, that is difficult to escape, Nieu Bethesda is elemental Karoo dry and dusty, but magical - and good for the soul.
By David Bristow