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Cottars
1920s Safari Camp |
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Cottars
1920s Safari Camp Scene |
Hotel Experience |
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 safariexperience.
The Cottar Safari tradition began in 1919. Eighty years on,
Cottars continue to provide an unparalleled safari experience to
discerning AfricanMecca 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.
About Cottars 1920s Mara Safari Camp
• Cottars 1920s Safari Camp, which 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.
Nature Experience and Activities at Cottars 1920s Mara Safari
Camp
• Guest activities include game drives guided by Calvin Cottar
or guides of equal professional standard in either state of the
art modern four wheel drive cars, 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.
Personalities Behind The Cottars 1920s Mara Safari Camp
• 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 also 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 Maasailand, John
brings Sardius Tours clients a wealth of knowledge of Maasai
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 Maasailand on foot. Highly
educated, quietly entertaining and undoubtedly the best Maasai
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.
Independent Reviews About The Cottars 1920s Mara Safari Camp
• In the Architectural Digest (March 2003)- Author Tim Beddow
wrote: Evoking the Golden Age of the East African Adventure.
It's 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 bey ond. It's 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 know-how, 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.
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