Kenya and Tanzania -- Oct 2012 -- Part III of III

Another wall map from near the reception area. This one concerned the railroad from Mombassa (on the Indian Ocean), across Kenya, to Uganda between about 1896 and 1902. At the time of the constuction of this railroad, what is now Tanzania was a German colony.

After returning to the US, watched a Michael Douglas movie from around 1996 called "The Ghost and The Darkness." It was about two male man-eating lions that preyed on workers building that railroad (The Ghost was the name given to one of the lions and The Darkness was the name given to the other, while they were both still active). After these lions were killed, their hides were preserved and used as rugs in a home for many years. Later, the hides were sold to the Field Museum in Chicago, where they were mounted and are apparently still on display there.

The lions in this area are a separate species or subspecies where the males have very light manes.

The Tsavo station on the original railroad (shown on this map) was about the ninth station west from Mombassa (on the Indian Ocean coast). The park lodge is below the "T" in Tsavo, about 1/4-th of the way between that "T" and the border with what was then the German colony to the south.