Like the aurora borealis in the arctic, Aurora on the Cape West Coast is best experienced after dark. Established in 1906, the town was named after the Roman goddess of dawn, presumably not for its spectacular dawn light, but the night-time stars that makes it appear as though morning is around the corner.

Remote and inland, Aurora has all the attributes you might look for in a stargazing location. The area is so suitable, in fact, that the French astronomer Abbe De la Caille used the spot to determine the shape of the earth in 1751. De la Caille went on to describe Aurora as the “center of the universe”, to go along with his somewhat controversial finding that the earth is shaped like a pear.