I fell in love with the Karoo!


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Africa » South Africa » Eastern Cape » Graaff Reinet
November 26th 2009
Published: December 4th 2009
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So Thursday morning we set off heading for the small village in the Karoo called Nieu Bethesda. I had been told about the place by Andrea in Pietermaritzberg and during a conversation he had told me that the Karoo is his favourite place in all of South Africa and that if I headed that way I should stay at the Owl House Backpackers in Nieu Bethesda. So when I met up with Paula I told her that we were going to be doing a diversion for a couple of days but she was more than happy to join me for the ride.

Initially our route took us north and we motored through Somerset East where we witnessed what seemed to be a peaceful protest outside the local butchers. There was a gathering of people holding up banners and singing/chanting whilst marching on the spot on the boundary of the property and the local police were stood by the side watching with their arms crossed and an armed guard stood outside the entrance of the shop. The town was only small but had a beautiful backdrop of the tree filled Bosberg Mountains and lots of lovely colonial buildings. It made a nice change from the stark dry land that we had come from and that we faced on our drive to Graff-Reinet.

We landed in Graff-Reinet around lunchtime and it was at this point I met a sad part of my trip... I posted my last set of postcards home! After a quick drive around the town we decided it was worth a stop and so parked the car up and had a wander. This was another town that had lots of beautiful colonial buildings (it is said to be the 4th oldest European town in South Africa) and the perfect blue sky made it all the nicer. After a wander around we stopped for a spot of lunch and Paula was more than happy as she was able to have her fill of tea and I was happy as I was able to sample ostrich in a sandwich (much to Paula's vegetarian disgust)!

Having had our leisurely lunch we decided to go in search of Nieu Bethesda unfortunately, unbeknownst to us, we took the wrong road out of Graff-Reinet however we had a nice drive along Nqweba dam and we came across a sign pointing to Nieu Bethesda, this is where we should have learned our mistake as it was pointing to the right and not the left as we had anticipated. Anyway we proceeded along the road and I had full confidence in it as it had told us we were on the Owl Route (Nieu Bethesda is well known due to the Owl House which was the home, studio and life's work of Helen Martins and her assistant Koos Malgas). Anyway with 2km of setting off down the dirt road I had to slam on the brakes (I was only doing 40kmph before you worry Mum!) due to a large tortoise crossing the road under his own steam with no cares in the world. This then became a theme and I often found myself either having to stop or swerve around the many wild tortoises. The road was a pure dirt track that varied in its quality though the little corsa more than managed. Paula however was not too happy and was convinced we were on the wrong road. However me and my eternal optimism just kept on driving and after 35km (we were only meant to be on the road for 30km) we came across a sign that confirmed the road lead to Nieu Bethesda. Granted it was hard to see that a village would exist so far in the middle of nowhere however the scenery was amazing! We did eventually find ourselves in Nieu Bethesda although it transpired we had come the long way around and travelled 70km rather than the 50km it should have been from Graff-Reinet.

Having checked into the hostel we had a wander around the village. It was a surreal place but amazing and I soon fell in love with it. Paula and I stopped in at the only local pub suitable named Pub & Grub!!! We soon made friends with the locals and they tried to get us to join them for their braai however a veggie option was not available so we wandered off down the road to the restaurant opposite the hostel. After a great nights sleep I went off in search of breakfast of museli and yoghurt which according to the sign in the hostel you could buy at the shop/restaurant across the street. After a large struggle of explaining what I wanted I was given a bowl full to the brim of museli and a tub of fresh sheeps plain yoghurt so I duly wandered back across the dirt high street chuckling to myself wondering what I looked like! Ordinarily this would be a strange sight however I soon learned that anything goes in Nieu Bethesda and the locals really wouldn't bat an eyelid!

Breakfast set up and ready to go Paula decided she wanted fresh milk with her tea (I had been issued with a request for this when I went to get breakfast however after my battle to get what I did I gave up asking for milk!). Paula headed off with words of good luck resounding in her headed. She did however duly return with her milk however it had been syphoned into a water bottle! She also came back shaking her headed saying the woman was mad..... it transpired she had had the same conversation as I which went along the lines of “Paula: “Morning” Shop Worker:”Morning, How are you?” P:”I'm fine. How are you?” SW:”Pardon?” P”How are you?” SW”I'm Fine. How are you?”.... believe me when I say this conversation could have gone on like this for days unless you stopped it!

Anyway we ended up sat in the sun on a picnic bench in the backyard of the hostel enjoying a leisurely breakfast whilst watching the local birds go about their business. When we had arrived at the hostel all the local sights had been shown to us on a map (believe me it was only a small village but they did their best to let you know about everything that was to be seen) and we had been told that the cleaner would be in the church on Friday from 9am if we wanted to have a look around. I decided to go and have a look so Paula duly came along. We had a wander around and then wandered around the rest of the village and had a chat with the local post office owner come shop keeper come restaurant owner come chef...... We also went into the Bethesda Arts Centre where they were selling locally made crafts and it transpired that it was a project run by 17 women and 2 men from the local township and they were all learning new crafts in order to earn money. The centre also ran a cafe/restaurant. Having bought some things from them and met the people who made them we wandered back to the hostel and sat out in the back garden. When it came to lucnh we decided to take the post office ladies offer up of making us a salad so Paula went off to collect one whilst I got the tough job of going across the road in search of homemade bread and local cheese (once again as advertised on the board in the hostel!). I came back empty handed and more confused than ever as whilst I had understood that the bread was in the making there was an issue with the cheese in that they wanted to charge me the equivalent of £10 for 3 small pieces of cheeses that were in oil in a jam jar (the prices was £10 for 1kg and a jam jar certainly doesn't hold 1kg of cheese!). Anyway I walked back into the hostel and Paula was stood here having been told to go back to the post office in 15 minutes. I explained why I was empty handed so she decided to see what the post office woman could do... I set about setting the table and preparing the fruit and other things we already had with us. Paula duly returned carrying a tray loaded with a large salad, bread, salt and pepper and napkins!!

Lunch eaten and plates washed we decided to go for a walk that was shown on the local map to the canyon so having dropped of the tray, plates and salt and pepper we headed off down the road. Unfortunately it wasn't clear where the path to the canyon was so after a quick circuit around the local township we headed off up a different road and got some great views looking down over the village. Once back in the village we headed over to the Owl House as we had been told the best time to visit was late afternoon when the sun was low in the sky.

The Owl house is an odd place! Effectively Helen Martins was a bit of a recluse and had lived in the family home for a number of years after both her parents had died. She then decided one day she wanted to bring light and colour into her home so set about transforming the house. In transforming the house she painted the windows and she also painted the internal walls and pasted crushed up coloured glass on them. She also then enlisted the help of a local guy, Koos Malgas, and they created cement owls, camels, acrobats, mermaids amongst other things. Helen Martins became blind and crippled with arthritis so in the end she committed suicide by drinking caustic soda! The house was very strange and the yard with all the cement figures was truly, truly odd and even a bit freaky!!!

That evening we went in search of dinner and ended up supporting the Bethesda Arts Centre and had a lovely meal. I was able to sample the local Karoo lamb and then Paula and I shared a malva pudding (think of a syrup sponge pudding).

Saturday morning and we were both sad to be leaving Nieu Bethesda if time was on my side I would have happily stayed there another night or two as it was so nice to be in the middle of nowhere, in an amazing setting and with such friendly and happy people. It is one place that if I return to South Africa in the future I will most definitely go back to!

The next part of my tale will show I am in Africa or as we generally say T.I.A (This is Africa i.e anything goes!). Effectively the road, we should have taken originally, to Graff-Reinet had a barricade across half of it and said road closed. However after witnessing various cars going up and down it and after enquiries with the locals we were told that the road was open and whilst there had been works on it the sign had been up for months but it wasn't an issue and to drive down it. So thats what we duly did - drove down a closed road!

Once we reached Graff-Reinet we headed up to Cambedoo National Park and went in search of the Valley of Desolation. The valley is beautiful and affords you views across the rugged plains of the Karoo. You are also witness to the piled dolomite colomns that have naturally been warn away. Once again it is a place where you can spend hours just admiring the view however we didn't have that opportunity as we were heading back down to the coast and Plettenberg Bay via the Outeniqua Pass.

The drive down to Plettenberg Bay was an uneventful one and we eventually arrived at our hostel and made ourselves at home before heading out for some food.......


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4th December 2010
Statues in the Owl House

The Owl House
Totally awed by these pics. Do you have a website or brochure?

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