“I never knew of a Morning in Africa when I woke up and was not happy.” Ernest Hemingway
The Elephants of Tsavo West Nature Reserve take on a reddish color and the reason for this is they dust themselves by blowing the dust over their backs to coat them with dirt to keep them from the biting insects. The dirt in this area is composed of a high percent of ochre which is red.
The Park is split by the main Nairobi-Mombasa road into Tsavo West and Tsavo East.
Tsavo West is the site of “The Man Eaters of Tsavo”. At the time of the building of the railroad from Mombasa to Nairobi, a few lions got the taste of human blood which spurred their appetite for humans in the Tsavo area. Hostile natives, wild animals and tropical disease took a heavy toll of engineers and their construction workers. Within a period of three month the lions killed over a hundred Indians and African workers until they were tracked down and shot by J. H Patterson, the chief engineer.
Also Tsavo is the site of a huge spring, namely, Mzima Springs. The source of water for the city of Mombasa on the coast. They have built an underwater plate glass viewing area where you can see hippos, crocodiles and other underwater animals that live in the spring face to face.
