When you drive up from the nature reserve, there’s a little table of plants in front of a polocrosse field. I often get strawberry plants and other little flowers from there to spruce up my garden. They have labels with a price or just a sign that says R10 or something. And you put your money into the honesty box that’s on the table and then go home with your beautiful plant.

The boys even bought a little strawberry plant the other day for a local Gogo’s birthday. Their dad helped them deliver it to her door, and the next week she had two fresh strawberries in her pot. They also bought me a blackberry bush so that we can grow our own sweet berries to eat. It’s very prickly and I haven’t found a good place for it yet. Didn’t Farmer McGregor have a blackberry hedge that Peter Rabbit hid behind? Maybe I’ll try that.

If I’m Honest, There’s So Much To See In Oribi Gorge

The honesty table even had a geocache by it a while ago! The boys were very excited to spend an afternoon doing that with their cousins and have found all sorts of little treasures in our area here.

Plus, if we drive slowly enough, we can see the ostriches that live at the polocrosse field, a sight that really excites little imaginations. They’re spectacular birds, though it seems odd to call them that.

They’re nothing like mannikins or the lovely sunbird that’s back making her nest on my porch this year again. They can’t soar over the deep gorge and farmlands like the majestic vulture colonies we adore here. And they don’t sit still in the shadows and blend in with the green like the gorgeous Narina trogons, either.

In any case, seeing ostriches in Oribi Gorge shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s a place that takes your breath away for many reasons, including the beauty of still being able to have an honesty box in the neighbourhood.

Don’t forget your R10 notes next time you come up here. You might get a flower or shrub for your garden to remind you of this beautiful part of the world.

Published here.