Cottar’s Safaris has launched a new three-night immersive Century Safari Experience, their way of celebrating the 100th birthday of Sir David Attenborough on 8 May.
Over a century of safari expertise has given Cottar’s Safaris an unparalleled depth of knowledge – having witnessed ecosystems shift, species adapt, and conservation evolve in real time. Sir David Attenborough, meanwhile, has spent a lifetime highlighting the importance of the natural world to global audiences.
Inspired by his work, and by Cottar’s Safaris’ own 100 years in the field, the new safari experience brings these two unique perspectives together – part reflection on what the past hundred years has changed, part commitment to what the next hundred must protect.
Based at the multi-award-winning Cottar’s 1920s Camp in the private Olderkesi Conservancy in the Greater Maasai Mara ecosystem, the experience is structured around three themes drawn from Attenborough’s work: the relationship between indigenous communities and wildlife; field observation of animal behaviour and ecology; and the delicate balance of predator and prey that makes the Maasai Mara what it is. The three-night itinerary explores each through field-based learning and guided activity led by the award-winning guides at Cottar’s Safaris, alongside conservancy rangers and conservation specialists.
“At Cottar’s Safaris, responsible and meaningful tourism is how we protect wild places – funding conservation, supporting local communities, and ensuring the Maasai Mara endures,” Cottar Safaris CEO and co-owner Louise Cottar said.
“This experience draws on a century of guiding, a lifetime of natural history storytelling, and a shared belief that the wild is worth protecting – and we think guests will find it both deeply engaging and genuinely transformative.”
Experience Highlights Include:
- Female Conservancy Rangers: Briefing with Cottar’s Safaris’ Female Conservancy Rangers – the Maasai Mara’s first all-female ranger unit – covering wildlife protection, community projects and local livelihoods across the Olderkesi Conservancy.
- Birds of Prey Experience: Seven of Africa’s eleven vulture species are now critically endangered. Dawn drives with the Kenya Birds of Prey Trust (KBOPT) offer rare insight into efforts to protect these vital birds, with the opportunity to visit camera-equipped nests and, depending on the season, encounter birds undergoing rehabilitation.
- Bush Walk with Trackers: Walking safaris are not permitted in Kenya’s national parks, including the Maasai Mara. Based in a private conservancy, Cottar’s Safaris offers guests the rare chance to explore on foot with expert trackers – identifying spoor, foraging and reading the landscape at a slower, closer pace.
- Evening Talks and Screenings: Attenborough film outdoor screening and expert-led discussion on a century of global biodiversity change. Gather around the campfire or in the Explorer’s Tent for talks led by guides and visiting specialists on Maasai culture, raptors, pangolins, conservation and the history of African safari.
- Bush Dining and Stargazing: Bush dinners, sundowners and stargazing under Africa’s equatorial skies, led by Doug Nagi – Gold Level guide and Oxford-certified astronomer – sharing both Maasai and Western interpretations of the same stars: one sky, two worlds of knowledge.
- Warrior School, Explorer’s Tent and Village Visit: An afternoon immersed in Maasai culture. Warrior School introduces fire-making, spear-throwing, archery, traditional jumping, dancing and tracking; the Explorer’s Tent offers deeper context; and a village visit explores manyattas, livestock and the community systems that underpin Maasai life.
- Maasai and their Livestock Dinner: An evening meal celebrating the deep bond between the Maasai people and their livestock, with dishes and traditions that reflect generations of pastoral life.
- Predator Tracking: Extended afternoon and evening tracking of big cats and canids, observing predator–prey dynamics into dusk.
- Guided Wildlife Drives: Pre-dawn and daytime drives across both the private Olderkesi Conservancy and the Maasai Mara National Reserve – home to the Big Five and the Great Migration – with guides pausing frequently to observe behaviour, not just identify animals. Includes a picnic breakfast in the field.
- Ecology Sessions: Guided sessions on symbiosis and trophic levels, from primary producers to apex predators.
- Fireside Chat – A Century of Cottar’s Safaris: Sundowners followed by an intimate fireside conversation tracing more than a hundred years of Cottar’s Safaris history in Kenya.
- The Sit-and-Watch Session: Vehicles stationary, radios off – focusing on guided observation and interpretation of wildlife behaviour.
The new 3 night Century Safari Experience is available from US$3,450 (around AU$4,792.40) per person, based on two adults sharing. Includes full board accommodation and activities listed.
