23 Aug 2019: Cecil Kop and into Moz

From Aberfoyle we headed back to the Bvumba Highlands near Mutare, and had an early dinner at the White Horse Inn before booking in at Seldom Seen for the night. Buluwesi, the local guide with whom I birded in January, accompanied us to Cecil Kop to find the Spotted Creeper and Cinnamon-breasted Tit, our target birds for the day. The Spotted Creeper responded well to the call we played, and gave us great photo opportunities. The Cinnamon-breasted Tit, however, remained its elusive self and was a no-show.

African Spotted Creeper, Cecil Kop

Maans & Buluwesi, Cecil Kop

At the border crossing into Mozambique I was ripped off for the first time that day. It turned out, when later we converted US dollars to Mozambique meticais, that I had paid double the amount for the Mozambique third-party insurance. The irony is that I still tipped the self-appointed runner who had done me in.

Later, at a shopping centre in Chimio, Mozambique, I decided to exchange money at a street moneychanger, as the que at the bank was too long. Both Maans and myself watched the moneychanger with undivided attention as he counted out the money, as we knew these street guys were not trustworthy. I then counted out the notes and realised he was short changing me, and he immediately added the missing bills. To show his trustworthiness he then took the money from me, and slowly again counted it so that Maans and myself could verify every note counted. Little did I know that he was skimming notes from the bottom of the pile as he was counting, until I had to pay for diesel and realised that I was conned. While I admired the man’s impeccable technique, I was not very impressed to contribute to the redistribution of wealth in this manner.

Our first night in Mozambique was spent camping on a soccer field at Muzimbiti near Dondo, where dinner was extremely tasty Red Fish, prepared in the Portuguese style. So ended just another day in Africa…