Nieu Bethesda, Karoo, Eastern Cape

The Owl House Backpackers offers you a clean, bright, welcoming home from home in the heart of Nieu Bethesda. It is on the main street, a five-minute walk from the Owl House.

Sip sundowners in the garden and watch the sky fill with stars; curl up next to the wood-burner and enjoy the carefully selected backpackers' wines; treat yourself to the home-made bread and cottage cheese, or braai some delicious Karoo lamb; pick fresh herbs from the permaculture garden; take a dip with the goldfish in the dam; hire bikes and explore the Karoo; book tours to Bushman Paintings, Fossil walks, The Mountain Zebra Park and The Valley of Desolation; and, if you decide to stay for a while, catch up with the outside world every now and then on the Internet...

If you don't fancy cooking, Ian and Katrin, the well-travelled owners, can provide breakfast, a pack lunch and dinner of home-made food and home-grown veggies - or point you to the best eateries around town. They will pick you up or drop you off in Graaff-Reinet for R50, and you can buy your bus tickets from them.

Life in Nieu Bethesda potters along much as it did 130 years ago, when the village was founded. Stone water furrows still line the wide, dusty streets. Night skyscapes are unpolluted by streetlights, and the air is still fresh and clean. Compassberg watches over the village, as always, and Nieu Bethesdans still while away the hours on their stoeps, watching village life go by.

All around stretches the arid expanse of the Great Karoo, "where the land meets the sky". This is a nature-lover's paradise, a high altitude semi-desert that is home to the largest variety of succulents in the world - as well as eagles, hadehas, sacred ibises, secretary birds, blue cranes, flamingoes, otters, lizards, snakes, tortoises, bat-eared foxes, kudu, springbok, reedbuck, wildebeast, wild cats, ground squirrels and aardvarks.

In times gone by, agriculture was the driving force of Nieu Bethesda's economy; the region's Angora goats and Karoo lamb are famous. Nowadays much of the industry is based around art. There are craft shops and galleries, potteries and sculpture gardens - most famously, the late Helen Martins' extraordinary  Öwl House".

Whether your interest lies in art, bushman paintings, fossils, climbing, hiking, bird-watching, mountain-biking, horse-riding, game-viewing, star-gazing or stoep-sitting, you'll never be at a loss for things to do in Nieu Bethesda.

B&B, double en-suite: from R370/night including breakfast
B&B, single en-suite: from R260/night including breakfast
Twin room, en-suite: from R290/night
Double room, en-suite: from R290/night
Single, en-suite: from R220/night
Twin, sharing bathroom: from R220/night
Single, sharing bathroom: from R160/night
Dormitory bed: from R85pp/night
Camping: from R55pp/night
children under 12: 50%
Discount for groups larger than 10, paying in advance