%LUGLQJ LQ 'DU HV 6DODDP Discovering Nature in a Bustling City
͞ Ăƌ ĞƐ ^ĂůĂĂŵ ŝƐ ĂŶ ĞdžĐĞůůĞŶƚ ƉůĂĐĞ ĨŽƌ ďŝƌĚŝŶŐ͕ ǁŝƚŚ ŽǀĞƌ ϱϬϬ ^ƉĞĐŝĞƐ ƌĞĐŽƌĚĞĚ ǁŝƚŚŝŶ ƚŚĞ WƵŐƵ ,ŝůůƐ &ŽƌĞƐƚ ZĞƐĞƌǀĞ͘͟ LJ ĞƌĞŬ <ǀĞƌŶŽ Pugu Hills Forest Reserve is located only an hour’s drive from the city center of Dar es Salaam, provided that you drive fearlessly on chaotic and severely potholed roads, of course. Although my wife and I typically leave home for a birding excursion well before dawn, we still encountered some ridiculously congested traffic during a recent trip there while on route to our destination. Public transport clogged the roads as people poured into the city from the rural outskirts; overburdened trucks crashed through potholes and over misshapen speed bumps; pedestrians weaved through moving traffic creating a tapestry as dense as a Persian rug; and streams of men on bicycles commanded valuable space on the tarmac with their teetering loads of charcoal, tomatoes, and eggs. Indeed, leaving downtown by car on a Saturday morning is not for the timid.”
We were on our way to Pugu Hills, where a few hundred hectares of coastal scrub and woodland still remain, more or less in its natural state. Originally, I was hoping to visit the larger public reserve, but after investigating the practicality of both options, I figured it was easiest to book a visit to Pugu Hills, a small private reserve that is adjacent to the stateprotected land. Ultimately, this proved to be a good course of action, as the habitat at Pugu Hills was varied and teeming with birds 50
Dar Life I AUGUST 2021
