Namib Desert Horses, Garub, Namibia

Four lean desert horses kicking up sand on the gravel plains of the Namib near the Garub water point, between Aus and Lüderitz. Few horses anywhere live in a place this dry. Nobody is certain how they got here. Leading theories point to a stud farm run by Emil Kreplin, mayor of Lüderitz, before the First World War, and to army horses scattered when South African forces advanced through the area in 1915. A borehole sunk at Garub in 1908 for the railway kept them alive, and a roadside hide there lets travelers watch the herd come in to drink.