Nieu Bethesda, Karoo, Eastern Cape

The Aandster Guesthouse is situated in Cloete Street, Nieu-Bethesda.

Sunshine pours into this spacious self-catering house with a view of Compass Mountain during the day and at night the stunning Dutch Reformed Church looms in the background. This spacious self-catering guesthouse has a large, fully-equipped open plan kitchen, dining room and lounge area. It sleeps up to 12 people and is thus ideally suited for bigger groups and families. All meals can be arranged with Ian and Katrin at Outsiders B&B, which is a stones throw away.

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 " Owl 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.