A pleasant alternative for those days on which the Pugu Forest seems too far and steamy but your legs still feel like stretching a little bit we suggest a short hike over the "Pugu Hills" compound. The track we have cleared starts along the road leading to the restaurant at the signboard "Pugu Hills Walk" 1KM and is fun for the kids.

The spaghetti growth of the first bushes is Mpingo African Blackwood, (Dalbergia melanoxylon), in wild search for light, if stand-alone it is a neat straight tree popular for timber.

Around the football field rice is grown in the rainy season. With the groundwater saturating the valley some months of the year, in this area we have been looking hard for our water source. After several failed attempts we were lucky to find a small sand and gravel aquifer at 5.00 meters below groundlevel providing just enough water over the year.

We constructed some 6 extra 10 000 litre storage tanks which are filled with the rainwater harvested in the rainy season. Because the water consumption is still increasing we continued searching for more shallow aquifers. A new ring well was constructed in 2001, which taps water from a water holding sand layer 6 meters under ground level. But water problems still persist which makes it so difficult to operate the swimming pool. We were lucky to strike a small saline water aquifer in 2003 now adding some 1000 liter per day to the pool.

The "advantage" of the limited and saline groundwater in Pugu, we all appreciate, is the exceptional rural atmosphere and bio-diversity still sustained at Pugu Hills, just some few minutes from an urban centre with more than 2 million inhabitants.

Typical birds around the sports ground are the yellow bishop and Zanzibar red bishop. The woolly little colourful birds are easy to recognize with their bright yellow or red black coats. The pin tailed whydah with its exceptional long black tail will be dancing around the female somewhere hidden in the grass just after the rains.

Also hidden there is an occasional puff adder (picture 1) so keep on the track. This slow moving snake is responsible for most of snake bites in Tanzania while people often step on it. Less dangerous but able to spoil the memories of "Pugu Hills" are the pods (picture 2) growing along the soccer field which has hairs causing irritation on the skin. Very common around are the cashew nut trees of which an old specie is seen behind the Goal, cashew was the important cash crop between Pugu and Selous (Kisarawe District), but, although the market price for cashew has become more favourable, the nut, does not seem to be able to compete with the charcoal industry demanding a daily supply of tons of charcoal for Dar es Salaam, which has resulted in the neglect of the Cashew Nut plantations.

Behind the small pump house the bush is regenerating after cultivation and chopping has been stopped on the premises since 1994. The most successful tree is the fast growing Albizia gummifera (picture 3), Peacock flower or Mkenge in Kiswahili. The tree which flowers with the onset of the rains with its pink and white colours can be recognized by the nicely fitting almost rectangular leaves with a diagonal midrib. The tree is however very susceptible to borers.

Pugu Hills' growing popularity among the wildlife because of the protection provided against the village gangs chasing with dogs anything edible, also becomes more popular with poachers. Small traps are removed once in a while sometimes together with the poacher himself or a lucky victim. Though not very impressive (picture 4) the traps seem to have some ancient effectiveness.

After coming out under the Mango tree a brave tamarind (picture 5) (Tamarindus indica) Mkwaju in swahili, is probably planted although indigenous to Africa. Its real origin is not known, the fruits produce a refreshing drink (in the right season, it is available in the restaurant)

Turning to the left after 30 meters crossing the access road, you enter a small valley receiving its water from the Pugu Forest and walk under the giant Mango Tree producing small mango fruits (Kisw. Embe Dodo), very popular with the (picture 6) Sykes' Monkeys or blue monkey (Kisw. Kima) which can often been seen or heard around "Pugu Hills". These days the forest has also attracted some groups of Vervet Monkeys (Ngedere) which probably escape from the pet export farm some kilometre from Pugu Hills along the access road. The original "settlers" were opposing the intrusion fiercely but some truce has been reached. Other frequent visitors or residents are the bush squirrel, the banded mongoose attracted by the left-over of the kitchen and noisily shuffling around in groups of up to 10 or more. Also common but more difficult to observe are the common duiker and the suni, two small antelopes and so far two types of Elephant shrew have been seen at day time.

At night the bush pig and bush baby (galagos) become active and especially the latter is easy to locate being noisy and numerous.

In general wildlife is more easy to spot at Pugu Hills in the dry season when food is limited and around human settlements more food can be found than in the forest.

Spotted hyena's were common some years ago, but become more rare if not completely absent these days. The Hyena you may hear in the early evening is caged at the wildlife farm, some kilometre from Pugu Hills,  which is trading in anything living for which a buyer can be found.

Less vocal but frequenting are the african civets, who a defecate at the same spot (picture 7), side striped jackal and many more creatures whose presence you will only be aware of through their foot prints, like the leopard which used to visit our centre once in the past (probably killed end of 90s).

Climbing up the foot slopes of the Pugu Hills which are kept in shape by the Kaoline deposits, you will see the endemic climber of Pugu the "cork screw" (picture 8) like Millettia Puguenses (Kisw. Mkurubuku). In the Forest mature replicas reach the size of tyre tubes. On the right sticking out of the bush is one of the last surviving hardwoods (Milicia Excelsa, Kisw. Mvule), which (half) survived the attention of the furniture industry. Many young "Mvules" (picture 9) are now sprouting all over the plot.The next forest survivor from the Pugu Forest and perhaps once rubbed by elephants, is the Lucky Bean Tree (Afzelia quanzensis) or pod mahogany (picture 10) with reference to the 20 cm. long pods containing the lucky beans.

The pod mahogany foliage is intriguingly exploding during the dryest of months, making it easy to find in between the wilted surrounding bush. Growing all along the East african coast from Somailia to South Africa, its termite resistant timber is popular and suitable for making tree canoes.

The tree is supporting an other forest tree which collapsed finally in 2001, after fire damage from April 1999 when we tried to remove a bee colony along the trail. A small branch still growths from the trunk remains.

The tube like orange flowers up in the tree (June) belong to a parasite called Phramanthera dschallensis. With the fire we also chased out the Monitor Lizard (Kisw. Mkenge) residing high up in the tree (picture 14).

Crossing the two small dam, two types of bamboo can be seen. The yellow bamboo (Bambusa Vulgaris) of which the restaurant is constructed here represented by a green variety and the Oxytenanthera abyssinica (Wine Bamboo, picture 11) very popular among the Wahehe in Iringa. They are fond of the fluid (Wine) dripping out of the new shoots when cut, after fermenting its alcohol content increases and tastes (with some imagination) like cider. So far the management of "Pugu Hills" has not been successful yet in including the Bamboo Wine (Ulanzi) on its wine card neither have the attemps in Iringa Region to commercialize the Ulanzi (bamboo wine) so far.

The dryer the land the more colorful the visiting birds become. The beautiful Trogon (picture 12) which does not like to expose it self by sound but is unmistakable by its colors is sometimes seen flying away with its reds, blues, purple and greens. Like a bird is supposed to look. Climbing back to restaurant you will see the white flowering (June) Grewia villosa another fast growing shrub.

The dissappointing rains in 2003 and 2004 have not discouraged the planting of some hundred trees on the premises, most are indiginous trees from Tanzania, the most favoured among the planted tree species is the tall sterculia, (picture 13) a giant found along the road to Morogoro and Tanga but stubbornely modest in it growth in Pugu Hills, please feel free to ask for more details if you are interested.