COTTARS 1920s SAFARI CAMP

Cottars Safari Service are proud to have earned the title of longest serving name in the business, and believe that their 80 years of experience handed down through the generations gives them an advantage in providing the adventure, comfort, security and variety that clients expect from a quality safari experience.

 

The Cottar Safari tradition began in 1919. Eighty years on, Cottars continue to provide an unparalleled safari experience to discerning African Spice Safari guests visiting Africa. Extending an era of luxury and quality, Cottars Safari Service returns to the original spirit and essence of 'safari', reminiscent of a golden era an era of romance, professional guiding, adventure and elegance.

 

Cottars 1920s Safari Camp,

• Is situated in the Masai Mara, bordering the Serengeti and Loliondo Ecosystem, in an untouched 200,000-acre exclusive concession providing the discerning guests a guarantee of privacy and an abundance of wildlife.

• The camp accommodates up to twelve clients in authentic white canvas tents, which are spacious and luxuriously furnished and incorporate original safari antiques from the 1920's; private en suite dressing rooms and bathrooms (with old-fashioned styled tubs, showers and flushing toilets), the main bedroom and an outdoor veranda.

• Guest activities include game drives guided by Calvin Cottar or guides of equal professional standard in state of the art modern four-wheel drive cars, either in Cottars authentic and old wooden car or in oxen pulled wagon.

• Alternative to a wildlife watching - a tented reading room with an extensive array of Africana, modern books and magazines or Cottar's natural rock swimming pool with surrounding hammocks are available.

• Because Cottars 1920 Mara Safari Camp is located outside the game parks, guided walking and night drives are also highly permitted and recommended. By walking, guests can get much closer to nature, and if an opportunity to track wild game presents itself, Cottar's trained trackers will take guests even closer.

• On a more self-indulgent note, Cottars masseuse is based full-time at the camp for complimentary massages, manicures and pedicures. Butlers who have been trained to provide guests with discreet, yet attentive service will meet any other needs that guests may have.

• Calvin Cottar: Calvin, a fourth generation Kenyan grew up in the bush, gaining experience with wildlife from Glen, his father and Bajila, his father's tracker. From the age of 15, Calvin began guiding clients on game drives and walks from the family camp in the Mara. Calvin went on to Tanzania as a professional hunter, returning to Kenya after 5 years to set up a wildlife management company that offered services to landowners. In 1993, Calvin joined the Kenya Wildlife Service in the community development department, and initiated five district wildlife associations to help landowners acquire user rights of their wildlife. In July 1995, Calvin rejoined the family company to initiate the 1920's project. Calvin has been voted the best Guide in Kenya. Calvin has passed his silver-level KPSGA exam and has been awarded a position as Honorary Warden for the Kenya Wildlife Service. He lives at Cottars 1920s Camp with his wife Louise.

• John Sampeke: Born and raised in Masailand, John brings AfricanSpice clients a wealth of knowledge of Masai culture and traditions from his personal experience and perspective. John passed the Kenya professional Safari Guides Association with the highest grades in his class. He has fought lion and buffalo with his own hand, drank blood and walked hundreds of kilometers exploring Masailand on foot. Highly educated, quietly entertaining and undoubtedly the best Masai professional guide in the business, John joins Cottar's with over 10 years of experience working with the best safari companies in Kenya.

• Louise Cottar: Born in England, Louise first came to Kenya in 1989 whilst studying for a degree in International Business. After completing both an undergraduate and Masters degree, and after working in Europe, Louise returned in 1994 to Africa to work as the coordinator of a UN program in Somalia. Thrown in at the Africa deep end, Louise spent close to four years in one of the most dangerous countries to live and work and earned a reputation of excelling whilst taking venturesome and calculated risks. Calvin and Louise are co-owners of the company.

• Phil West: Phil is a young and upcoming guide who was born in Kenya and spent much of his youth in the Tsavo bush. Phil was educated in the UK and trained as a guide and tracker in Southern Africa. He is a member of the Field Guides Association of South Africa and the Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association. Phil was head guide at Lewa Downs for three years and is now a freelance guide, particularly specialized in walking safaris. He is a collector of arthropods for the Nairobi Museum and particularly interested in tracking, bush craft and ethno-botany.

• In the Architectural Digest (March 2003)- Author Tim Beddow wrote: Evoking the Golden Age of the East African Adventure. It is no east task these Days to experience an authentic African safari-one with the privacy, splendor and elegance of former times. Too often, lodges are soulless places where the safari consists of game drives in overcrowded minibuses. One very special place, however, aims to give its visitors a unique encounter with Africa. Cottars 1920s Safari Camp, located on a 200,000-acre private concession at the edge of Kenya's Masai Mara Reserve, harmoniously fuses the elements that make for a stylish, comfortable, one-of-a-kind safari adventure.

• In Travel and Leisure (August 2001) Author David Herndon wrote: Calvin Cottar is chosen as one of the top five of a new generation of safari guides in Africa. The Cottar clan is referred to in the book (White Hunters) as The First Family of the safari business. If you want to track bloodline, you go to Cottar's. Today, Cottars camp is situated on the lower slopes of a heavily forested hillside, overlooking the green-blond Masai Mara plains and Tanzania's Serengeti beyond. It is such a classic vista that you expect the title of Out of Africa to roll across it.

• In The London Financial Times Author Lucia Van Der Post wrote: For those who find themselves hooked on Africa, there comes a time when they want something different, something lonelier and wilder...Not every guide can take you there. Some do not have the taste for it and some do not have the expertise, but Calvin Cottar and his 1920's safaris come with the kind of pedigree and promise and promise that is hard to resist.

• In The Tatler Cunard Travel Guide Author Alexander de Cadenet wrote: Nobody knows the bush better or can guide you more safely. Not only were we able to see places of astonishing beauty to which more regular safari outfits never go, but Calvin was able to educate us by sharing his unprecedented knowledge of animal behavior.

• In the Conde Nast Traveler - Best of the World - Top 100 (November 2002) Lisa Limer wrote: Calvin Cottar and John Stevens know something about elephant behavior. They have lived in the bush most of their lives and have developed such a profound understanding of the wild animals and their habits that if academic accolades were awarded for bush craft, they would have doctorates bestowed on them. If you ask Africa hands to name the best guides, Cottar and Stevens appear at the top of every list.