Aus used to be active back in the day when the military was present, in fact, it used to be the site of a prisoner-of-war camp used by the South African army to house German inmates during WWI in 1915. The camp closed in 1919 and was converted into a residential area in 1925. Today, there is a plaque that marks the site and some of the houses that the German prisoners lived in are still standing, although they have been reconstructed over the years.

The town isn’t very active anymore but they still have a hotel called The Bahnhof Hotel Aus for passersby. We checked into the hotel and once we spoke to the owner about the expedition, he offered to take us on a tour of the town’s back roads for a morning drive. We heard that the town is noted for a herd of feral horses that live in the desert, on the outskirts of town, and have been roaming freely for over 100 years. These are horses that broke loose back when this was still a military town, over the years they have learned to adapt to the harsh environment and they go as long as five days without waters. We managed to capture some incredible footage of them galloping about on the open plains.

On the way back into town, we saw a group of kids playing soccer in the river beds. We interacted with them and had a lovely chat about where we were from and what we were doing in town. We gave them some branded merchandise (Mahindra branded soccer and rugby balls) as a parting gift before we headed back to the hotel for rest for the day. Next, we will be heading South on the C13 onwards to Rosh Pinah, a small mining town, to visit a farming community called Aussenkehr, an area that is famous for its table grapes.

Join us in part six of our ongoing blog series as we explore all that Southern Africa has to offer and we Unleash The Explorer In You!