Our new three-night immersive safari in the Maasai Mara launched in May 2026, honouring Sir David Attenborough on his 100th birthday.
Why We Created the Century Safari Experience
A hundred years is a long time to look at anything closely. For our family, it has been spent in the Maasai Mara - watching ecosystems shift, species adapt, and the practice of conservation grow up alongside us. For Sir David Attenborough, it has been spent bringing the wild into the world's living rooms, and reminding all of us what we stand to lose.
On the 8th May 2026, Sir David Attenborough turned 100 and it felt only right to mark the occasion in the way we know best: out in the bush, around a fire, under the wide African sky - connecting guests closer to nature, conservation and community. So we have created something new - the Century Safari Experience, a three-night immersive journey at our award-winning Cottar's 1920s Camp, shaped by the themes that have defined his work and by a century of our own time in this landscape.
A safari built around three ideas
The itinerary is structured around three threads drawn from Sir David Attenborough's life of storytelling: the relationship between indigenous communities and the wildlife they live among; the patient, slow work of field observation; and the predator-prey balance that gives the Maasai Mara its particular character.
Each is explored in the field, with our award-winning guides, alongside conservancy rangers and visiting specialists. It is part reflection on what the past hundred years has changed - and part commitment to what the next hundred must protect.
As Louise Cottar, our CEO and co-owner, puts it: "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. This experience draws on a century of guiding, a lifetime of natural history storytelling, and a shared belief that the wild is worth protecting. We think guests will find it both deeply engaging and genuinely transformative."
What's Happens During the Three Nights
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 three-night Century Safari Experience is available throughout the year from US $3,450 per person, based on two adults sharing, including full board accommodation and all activities.
How to Book the Century Safari Experience
For the full itinerary and to book, view the Century Safari Experience on our Safari Portal (LINK https://travel.safariportal.app/Century-Safari-ExperienceCottar-s-SafarisAttenboroughPress-Release?id=11899227&type=agent )
Important Note on Sir David Attenborough
"The Century Safari Experience is Cottar's Safaris' own tribute to Sir David Attenborough, created in admiration of his lifetime of work. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sir David Attenborough, his representatives, or any of the broadcasters or production companies associated with his work."
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