LOCAL TRAVEL
Where the
KAROO
Whispers
BY BYRON LUKAS
IN THE HEART OF THE EASTERN CAPE, A VILLAGE SMALL IN SIZE BUT MASSIVE IN CHARACTER. BLINK, AND YOU MIGHT PASS IT BY; LINGER, AND IT WILL CHARM YOU. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I GIVE YOU NIEU-BETHESDA.
It is a place where donkeys casually wander the streets, windmills creak in the breeze, and locals greet strangers with easy smiles. Blink and you might miss it on a map.
The Sneeuberg Mountains rise like silent guardians around the village. The landscape is classic Karoo theatre. Endless skies, burnt-orange earth sunsets. But the real magic? The people and the stories.
THE OWL HOUSE
No trip to Nieu-Bethesda is complete without a pilgrimage to the Owl House. Here, eccentric artist Helen Martins transformed her modest home into a glittering, surreal wonderland of cement, glass, and imagination. Hundreds of owls, camels, and mystical figures gaze eternally eastward, lit by crushed glass that catches the desert sun. Martins’ decades-long collaboration with local craftsman Koos Malgas has created a world simultaneously whimsical, haunting, and utterly captivating.
20 INBOUND SA / MAY 2026