The main Nairobi to Mombasa road together with the infamous 'Lunatic Railway Line', cut the two parks of Tsavo East and Tsavo West neatly in half.
Tsavo and the adjacent Chyulu Hills, cover a huge area of uninhabited wilderness, which goes from semi-desert to lush riverine habitats. Elephants can be seen in herds of over one hundred and you could be forgiven for thinking that Tsavo Elephants are a separate species as their skin looks decidedly red. This is just the rich brown dust giving them a photogenic ruby colour.
Tsavo is an impressive place, whose rugged rocks and mountains are pitted with dark volcanic lava fields, and altitudes range from 1,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level.
Tsavo is best known in history as the place where several lions - coined the 'Maneaters of Tsavo' - devoured 140 railway workers during the building of the 'Lunatic Line' railway in 1898. Lt. Col Patterson finally managed to kill the Lions, and wrote the book which was made into a successful Hollywood film, 'The Ghost and the Darkness', which starred Michael Douglas.