See The Lunatic Line, Tsavo National Park West

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Say the word man eaters and most people wont know what you re talking about. Add in a few more words, mix and say: 'the man eaters of Tsavo'. perhaps this will make sense now. If not, try another combination: "The Ghost in the Darkness," the names of movies have infinite power over our memories: 'ah yes...this was the movie where lions attacked a whole camp of railway line workers and halted the production. But what happened in the end, I can't seem to remember?' Although the movie was thrilling, the real story is far more intriguing: see the lunatic line at Tsavo National Park; the place where it all began. In 1898 the line that now divides Tsavo East and West was where the man eaters of Tsavo struck. 140 bodies later, the two lions that hunted and lived together were shot and killed by the person overseeing the railway at the time, Lt. Colonel Patterson.

Today, see the lunatic line at Tsavo, or take the lunatic express, Africa's most famous train ride, where waiters with white jackets serve gourmet four-course evening meals. As the train slowly makes its way through the wilderness, you have momentary glimpses of giraffes and elands. The 'red elephants' famous in this area, given a red tinge by the ocher dust that is raised by their stomps and that falls in this area, make for fascinating viewing. A the end of the 19th century, when the British East Africa Company announced that it was planning to build a line from Mombasa into the highlands and over the Great Rift valley, into Uganda, skeptics laughed, saying "It is naught but a lunatics line," and so a new legend was born. The railway line, despite a few set backs such as the chilling kills made by the man eaters, eventually reached its target, and the name stuck.

See the lunatic line that is, according to one politician of the day, "Going from nowhere to utterly nowhere," which today, is exactly the point: 'nowhere', but nowhere with elephants, lions, giraffes, majestic sunsets over vast plains that stretch out into, well...nowhere. Brilliant. See the lunatic line at Tsavo to witness history that had been forged with blood, sweat and tears. Or, as one railway report put it, "Man-eating lions, hostile tribes, wild animals that attacked the trains, mosquitoes, flies, locusts and caterpillars that caused the locomotives to slip on the rails."