Aurora

Aurora is a one-horse village off the main trail, with a nineteen-something-or-other church sticking out the middle, a supermarket and a restaurant called L’Aurore. The village also has an information office for the slow trickle of visitors. Aurora takes its name from the ‘dawning of a new day’. Judging by the gentle influx of new residents, it looks like the village may soon start living up to its name.

Things To Do
  • Aurora has little to offer other than an opportunity for a trip back to yesteryear. Pull up a seat at the local general dealer and watch the locals come and go, the barefoot children clutching little fists of copper and saccharine dreams.
     
  • The adjoining mountain, Kapteinskop (most of it private property), has rich fynbos, brilliant views, San art and scope for hiking and mountain biking. For kicks, sneak up to the military tower at the very top and shout ‘Boo!’ – at own risk of course.
     
  • Check out the Maclear Beacon and imagine you are Abbé de Caille, a French astronomer who visited the area in 1751 to determine the shape of the southern hemisphere using trigonometrical measurements. Not sure if he got it right, but he erected a beacon anyway.
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