Nieu Bethesda

In the Sneeuberg Mountains, in the arid Karoo region near Graaff Reinet, there is a delightful but remote little village called Nieu Bethesda. It was once the centre of the local farming community, but in the 1940s and '50s was eclipsed by larger towns in the district and went into decline. If it wasn't for the fact that it used to be home to an eccentric artist, I imagine few people would ever hear of the place.

But a sad and reclusive woman named Helen Martins returned there in her late forties, divorced and alone, her parents dead. She started building a fascinating world of concrete sculpture, fantastic figures and mythical beasts set around a house decorated with luminous paint and multicoloured panes of glass. She worked with crushed glass, coating walls, ceilings, and virtually everything else that stood still long enough with the brightly coloured glass shards. The Owl House was her attempt to bring light, life and colour into her lonely grey world.

The works created by Helen and her labourer Koos Malgas in the 1940s are now regarded as a masterpiece of visionary art. Every sculpture would be discussed beforehand over early morning coffee in the kitchen and, although Martins seldom did any of the physical work, together they would engineer each new inspiration into being. This process developed into a unique creative relationship that clearly defines Malgas's integral part in the creation of the Owl House.

In recent years, the little village has attracted a growing community of artists, including well known painters, sculptors, ceramic artists, weavers etc. They have brought new life to the town, which has become a major tourist attraction, despite (or maybe because of!) its remoteness.

Many have set up art and craft teaching studios, and are training the local community, to empower them to also make a living from their creativity.

The whole place has a fairytale quality about it, which I think can best be summed up by these two enchanting buildings...

a private home, sculpted rather than built, with a stone turrets on the roof,

and the old grain silo in town which is now a cafe and guest house. The round room at the top boasts a circular bed to match!

It is one of those little gems, tucked away off the beaten track, which is a real pleasure to discover!

Valley of Desolation

Right, we finally get to the stunning Valley of Desolation which I have been promising for absolute ages to show you.

It is a mountain overlooking Graaff Reinet, and perhaps I should have shown you this first, as there are lovely views of the town from the top, and it would have helped you to get your bearings. However, the cool thing about blogger is, you can read the posts in any order that suits you, so feel free to jump around! By the time you have read this, and the previous 2 posts, you will have a good overall idea of the area.

We arrived from the North, after going through 2 mountain passes (the same ones which were covered in snow 2 weeks ago!)

Just on the outskirts of Graaf Reinet is a large lake, and if you turn right, skirting around the water and then up the mountainside,

you get to a spectacular view of a rugged valley.

The mountain is of Dolerite, a volcanic (Igneous) rock. You can clearly see, in places, the amazing patterns left by swirling streams of lava surrounding boulders. As it weathers the dolerite goes a rusty brown due to the high iron content, but when the surface chips off you see the dense black rock inside.

Because it is so hard, it remains relatively un-weathered compared to the softer surrounding rocks, so as they are eroded away, it remains, jutting out in spectacular formations.

This little conical hill is a classic formation seen in this area, where alternating layers of dolerite lava flows,

with softer rocks in between, weather and conical hills form with a hard flat dolerite layer on top, and ridges down the sides showering the layering.

If you click on this you should be able to read up a bit about the area.

A German tourist kindly offered to take a photo of us together at the cliff edge.

On the edge of the cliffs the wind is quite gusty, I really had to brace myself against it in order to look down on the deep valley. Max, who does not have a head for heights, was clucking like a nervous hen while taking this picture of me,

but the view was worth it!

There is another viewpoint with 360 degree views, and a topograph, overlooking the town. When we arrived we had a great time locating all the mountain ranges and geographical features shown in all directions.

While we were there it became apparent that the sun was going to go down in just the right spot, so we had to wait to capture it. Of course it was a great opportunity to kill time taking photos........
We started playing with the wonderful zoom capabilities of our camera. (To be accurate Max's camera, which he generously shared with me, and I shamelessly hogged! Perhaps it was due to this expedition that he ended up buying me my own in self defence!)

Here is the view of the town as seen normally,

here a bit closer. Again, the unusually wide ox-wagon friendly streets are evident.

and here is a real close up of the most notable landmark in town, the huge Cathedral.

and you can see the shadow of the mountain creeping progressively over the town while we waited. It was worth the wait.

On Saturday we looked at the art of Pierneef, so let's end this journey with his painting of the Valley of Desolation, painted when the early morning light was glowing in front of rather than behind it. Cheers!

the journey continues

Hi, welcome back to Graaff Reinet. If you wonder what I am smoking, you need to scroll down and read the previous post first, then come back to this one!

The Graaff-Reinet colony was established in 1786 and is the oldest town in the Eastern Cape Province, named after Cornelis Jacob van de Graaf, former Dutch governor and his wife Cornelia Reynet. From the mid 1800's the town became known as a bustling trade center and it became a certain stopover for travellers to the interior. It has retained much of the character of a 19th century rural town,with its painstakingly restored buildings and monuments. Graaff Reinet is virtually a living museum,and is home to more national monuments than any other town in South Africa.

So today we will visit two museums.


The first is set in a magnificent old building, in classic Cape Dutch style, called Reinet House. It was originally built by the Dutch Reformed Church as the residence for the Reverend Andrew Murray and his family, who arrived there in 1822.

He planted a grapevine which became famous as the largest in the world, click to read more.

I guess even the old minister had a taste for hooligan juice!

What I love about these places is the insight into a lifestyle long gone. Excuse me while I wax lyrical about this, but I find the loving care and attention to detail and craftmanship of those bygone days so fabulous, compared to the soul-less mass produced buildings that are chuned out today. These 300 mm wide hand hewn yellowwood floor planks are the dining room floor, as seen in the basement.

BTW you are not allowed to take photos in there, but I just couldn't resist a quick snap of this for the benefit of those of you who are into your quilting and sewing.....



And the same love and care even comes through in the hobbies and pasttimes.

Look at this amazing house made of porcupine quills!

And this handmade doll's house furniture.

Even these shapes for artists to practice shading are a work of art in themselves!


But life can't have been easy, we take so many of our modern comforts for granted these days...




today we winge if the aircon in our cars is not working.... but these guys used to go all the way to Capetown for a Chuch meeting crammed into this!
And if you were sick, this is how you went to hospital!
The broad streets of Graaff-Reinet are due to the fact that ox wagons needed enough space to turn
I mean just imagine blogging back then when all you had to write on was this...
and you had to cart this around to take your photos.
This leads us to the next museum round the corner, where there is mostly war memorabilia from the Anglo-Boer War, and some fascinating old photos, taken on the huge camera above by William Roe, who lived in Graaff Reinet and travelled around documenting the surrounding areas. In 1869 he took a wonderful series of photos showing the diamond diggings at Kimberley.

These are really worth clicking on, it is incredible how they lived while mining for diamonds.
There was lots more to see but at that point I discovered that they had a whole room full of second hand books which they were selling for next to nothing... so needless to say I went in there to browse, and the rest, as they say, is history!

If, after this small taste of the place, you are interested to know more, try these links:
Click here for a brief history of Graaff-Reinet in chronological order.
For more interesting tidbits on Graaff-Reinet, click here.

We will stick around this area and next time I post, we will see the spectacular Valley of Desolation.