Rio ao lado do acampamento

There is an impressive array of scientific expertise present for these biodiversity surveys in Chimanimani. We left with the birding group at 4.30am, which, based on how we felt by late morning, was a brutal start. The two American ornithologists who are teaching the students are phenomenal in their knowledge of bird calls and ability to ID, and I was even more in awe when I realised they're not even Southern Africa specialists; they do gigs all over the world from Guatemala to Alaska to Mozambique.

We're in miombo woodland habitat, which covers a broad band of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia and the southern bit of DRC. The leaders confirmed that the birds spotted constituted a very good count for this habitat, including some rarely seen species such as the African spotted creeper and the miombo rock thrush. These got the scientists all of a tizz.

One of the mammalogists present is someone I collaborated with a little when in Swaziland between 2007 and 2008. I didn't blip as at the time I was resisting bananablip's lobbying. I regret this now of course, as I'm very fond of the country. The mammalogist was also the PhD supervisor of a friend from work. Conservation can be very incestuous sometimes, but it's always nice for me to be reminiscing with someone about Swaziland, as very few people seem to have been there.

We're staying at a campsite next to this river, which is an idyllic spot and has just enough space for the 25+ of us. Lots of interesting characters to interact with over the coming days. I've been hanging out with Douglas who is here from our partner organisation and spells his name the Mozambican way: Daglasse. It makes me chuckle for some reason.