Coloured glass and concrete beasts illuminate your world as you trip through a fantasy, no you’re not dreaming, you’re lost in a concrete jungle which is the testament to the imagination of lonely artist. In the remote Karoo village of Nieu Bethesda is a fascinating world of concrete sculpture, fantastic figures and mythical beasts set around a house decorated with luminous paint and multi-coloured panes of glass. This place is the Owl House, creation of Helen Martins and Koos Malgas in the 1940s.

After a failed marriage, and the death of her parents, Martins discontented with the grey world around her, she began to alter her surroundings, creating her own physical reality. She used commonplace objects in her environment to create interesting fantastical creatures, including her favourite owls and camels.
         
The walls and ceilings were covered in elaborate and colourful glass mosaic. After completing the interior of the house, Martins ventured outside the inner walls with her magic world, inspired by Mystical eastern poetry and biblical texts. In the mid 60’s she employed Koos Malgas, a builder, who began to manufacture cement and glass sculptures. They discussed ideas about each sculpture, and Malgas was mainly responsible for the physical work     
      
For over a decade they created hundreds of fantastical creatures in the Camel Yard and the house. A caravan of camels is lead by wise men and shepherds toward the east, amalgamating Martins' love of the East with Christian beliefs.

Helen Martins suffered intense emotional and physical hardship, including failing eyesight, while fulfilling her creative genius. One morning in1976, aged 78, Miss Martins committed suicide in a most traumatic fashion: swallowing caustic soda. Annual visitors to the Owl House tops
15 000. This has helped with exposure of the village which now boasts 16 guesthouses, two restaurants, and two art galleries.     

The owl House remains a cultural oasis in this desert village. Playwright Athol Fugard also exposed the life and art of Miss Helen Martins to the world in his fictionalised play, The Road to Mecca, later adapted to film (1992) , also co-directed by Fugard, starred Fugard, Kathy Bates , and Yvonne Bryceland.

OTHER INTERESTING SOUTH AFRICAN HOUSES:
The Stamp House
Estimated at about 500 000 stamps, this house is decorated from wall to wall with modest postage stamps. A philatelists’ haven? From about 1900, Abraham Thomas spent fourteen years papering the walls and ceiling in intricate patterns and designs that emulate Victorian wallpaper - all in postage stamps. The Georgian building Bay View House is on the 'historical mile' of Simonstown's Main Road. It was owned by the family since mid-1800s. It is believed that he wrote to people all over the world asking for contributions and, locally, traded them for fish and sweets.