Apart from the variety of restaurants, coffee shops and art galleries, Nieu Bethesda also offers activities such as: birding, horse riding, mountain biking, hiking and walking, Climbing Compassberg mountain, eco-friendly 4 x 4 routes, Rock Art, fossils (there's even a hairdresser who attracts clients from around the Karoo!). Strolling around the village at leisure brings its own pleasures . . . spend a little time here and you will be rewarded with rich experiences.

Helen Martins lay ill in bed one night, with the moon shining in through the window, and considered how dull and grey her life had become. She resolved, there and then, that she would strive to bring light and colour into her life. That simple decision, to embellish her environment, was to grow into an obsessive urge to express her deepest feelings, her dreams and her desires.

From the mundane articles that surrounded her, Miss Helen extracted and manipulated an emblematic language of sun-faces, owls and other images. This is all set against a luminous backdrop of walls and ceilings coated with elaborate patterns of crushed glass imbedded in bands of brightly coloured paint.

Over a period of about twelve years, she and Koos Malgas created from her imaginings the hundreds of sculptures and relief figures that crowd the 'Camel Yard' and cover the walls of the house.

The Nieu Bethesda Theatre has been established to provide a place for the local community to share their creative work. Athol Fugard, the playwright who celebrates the Karoo, has said, "At a certain point in my play, The Road to Mecca, when Helen Martins is talking to her young companion, Elsa Barlow, about her work and her passion for life, she says, 'Light is a miracle, Miss Barlow, which even the most ordinary person can make happen.' It was Elsa's lighting of a candle with a box of matches that provoked that observation." 
There is another small miracle that even the most ordinary person can make happen, and all you need for that one is a blank piece of paper and a pen. That miracle is the telling of your own story. It is my passionate belief that that spark of creativity is lodged in every human soul. 
The Nieu Bethesda theatre wants to make the sharing of this creativity possible from stories written with the ink of one's personal experience, to music, and prayers.  The first performance was in fall, 2003 of Athol Fugard's Valley Song in an Afrikaans translation by Idil Sheard. The official opening was in March 2004 by its founders: Marianne McDonald, a professor of theatre and classics at the University of California, San Diego, and Athol Fugard. Both have homes in Nieu Bethesda. This opening featured Eastern Cape voices one week and Nieu Bethesda voices the next. 
This theatre is also a meeting place for church groups and the occasional social function. Anything that nurtures the creative human spirit.

Art, music, dance, theatre... visit the gallery, see a class in progress, take part in a workshop, or catch a performance at the magical open-air theatre. Muller Street, Tel: 049-8411731

www.bethesdafoundation.org

Walk around the peaceful cemetery and see graves ancient and contemporary. Adjacent to a park and the sportsground lies the historic graveyard of this valley. With graves dating back hundreds of years, many of them unmarked save for their beautiful local stone, this is a peaceful and pretty place to spend a quiet time.

There is at least one grave of a British soldier who died in a skirmish during the Anglo-Boer War (a pair of local residents, of British descent, place fresh flowers on the soldier's grave every year on the anniversary of his death), and a number of touchingly small graves for children. There is also the lavish grave of a man very much alive and well and running his business in Nieu Bethesda every day.
The cemetery is divided along the same socio-economic line that divided the families of the village: above the road that leads to the cemetery was the area known as the Bodorp (uptown) where the poorer people lived; below that road, in the Onderdorp (downtown), lived the wealthier people. So it is in the graveyard. English-speaking people were allocated space in the cemetery later.

Make your own goggas from tin and wire. Freddie Jacobs shares his love of nature and its creatures in fun workshops for children and adults of all ages. Participants come away with their own gogga. Contact him on 072 725 3486 (after hours).

Project show groups of children how raw fleece from a sheep turns into a durable felt. Participants come away with their own felt ball. Phone: 049 841 1400 or 841 1671.

With seats for up to 700 souls, this church still hopes to be completely full again one day.Still lit by gas chandeliers that pre-date the arrival of electricity in the town, the imposing white church asserts its presence over all the valley. With a steeple tall and elegant, and a clock that chimes accurately on the hour, this historic church still operates every Sunday for its diminishing congregation. This building was inaugurated in 1905, after many years of services being held in the wagon house of BJ Pienaar. The wagon house (next door to Outsiders in the main street) was then used as a church hall, and as a venue for English church services. To see the Dutch.

Ganora Excursions
Give us a day and we'll give you 240 million years! Guided tours are offered to San and Khoi shelters on the farm where rock art dating back to 10 000 years ago can be viewed.

After the walk we return to the homestead where you can view a collection of Bushman artefacts and fossils in our private museum. Guided Fossil walks possible if booked in advance. Phone: 049-8411302 / 0826980029

www.ganora.co.za

Jakob's Guided Donkey Cart Tours
Let a pair of donkeys and an entertaining commentary introduce you to our village. You can't miss Jakob van Staden  he's riding the most distinctive transport in town. Leaving from the Owl House, Jakob's guided tours of the village and of the township (Pienaarsig) are a highlight of any visit to Nieu Bethesda. Five years ago, Jakob had a dream: a donkeycart that helped him share his love for his hometown. The first, small, cart has grown to the sturdy three-bench model he now drives. And he hopes that a second cart, pulled by horses, will soon expand the fleet. Jakob is also available for special trips (such as to Ganora for fossil and rock art tours, before participants walk back to town via the Canyon Walk) and for special occasions he has four summer weddings booked already. Phone: 072 987 9831 (after 6pm)

The Old Mill 
A quaint stone building houses this ancient water mill with a great view.Explore the small water mill that used to grind wheat and might again some day soon   the home-schooled children of Nieu Bethesda are due to start restoration work on the mill as part of a science and technology project. Using the water channeled through the town's ancient system of furrows, this mill was built of local stone in 1860 to service the surrounding farmers. The original farmer of the valley, BJ Pienaar, built the mill on land hired from the Dutch Reformed Church. Today, the property is still owned by the church. The first mill wheel was made of wood but this was later replaced with the current metal wheel. The mill commands a splendid view of Compassberg mountain in the north.

Day trips
Karoo Nature Reserve; Graaff-Reinet, fourth oldest colonial town in South Africa; Valley of Desolation, where columns of rock tower over the Plains of Camdeboo; Mountain Zebra National Park, home to the indigenous Cape Mountain Zebra; Cradock and the Olive Schreiner Museum; Agave Distillers, makers of the only tequila outside Mexico; Aberdeen, sister town in the Camdeboo Municipality; Middelburg, heart of sheep farming country.

THE KITCHING FOSSIL EXPLORATION CENTRE
Is situated next to the world famous Owl House in the picturesque Eastern Cape Karoo town of Nieu-Bethedsa. This centre tells the story of life in South Africa 253 million years ago during the Permian Period.

Discover why the Karoo is an internationally important place for fossil finds and about the extinction event which destroyed most of the Earth's life 251 million years ago. Learn about James Kitching and the other world famous palaeontologists who worked in the Nieu-Bethesda area.

KAROO FOSSIL SAFARI
Take a half-hour stroll with a guide to the nearby Gats River bed to find real fossils then walk back to the Centre via the historical foot bridge. Hats and strong shoes are recommended for the walk.

Note: fossils are protected by law and may not be collected or traded.

For more information:
TEL: (049) 8411 733 OR (011) 717-6685
E-mail: bpipal@geosciences.wits.ac.za

Frans Boekkooi's sculpture studio and art gallery
Frans Boekkooi now lives in Nieu Bethesda where his studio is open to the public and where you can experience the creative process.

Charmaine’s Pottery studio
Charmaine Haines's is prominently established in the South African ceramics scene. Her work forms part of numerous art collections and has been selected to represent South Africa on International exhibitions. 

Working within the realm of figurative clay, Haines uses both abstract and stylised symbols and motives to embellish both her sculptural and utility forms.

Martin Haines