Chas Cotter, American Safari guide in Kenya

About a million years ago when I was a kid, my summer time habit was to set up my pup tent in my moms back yard, and live out there for the entire summer. I would spend most of my time in the woods. At night I would stay up late reading books about great Adventurers by flashlight . I remember two men whom I admire for their exploits and courage, both men were always an inspiration to me over the years. Frederic Russell Burnham who was an Army scout during the Apache wars, then subsequently went to africa to be a scout for the British Army there. And, Charles Cottar, from Texas (I think), who was a Big Game hunting Guide in Kenya . I would have loved to have met both of these men. The Cottar family still runs a Safari business in kenya, you can find more info at the link I have provided below.

http://www.cottars.com/

I love this excerpt from the book"The heart of the hunter" by Edison Marshall

"Tha date appointed came at hand, and I stepped down from the railway carrage in Nairobi, the very first English capitol of Kenya. My first feeling was one of profound dismay. Coming to meet me was an old man with a feeble step. Yes, he was Charles Cotter. He had been down, he said, from a bout with blackwater fever complicated by a leopards getting on him, but he was alright now. How could this cripple lead me over the veld, through the grass, and amid the thorn, After big game?

Yet, I soon began to notice the old hunter's eyes as he spoke, and the light in them and the life and change, and they were not the eyes of a dotard. And there were other signs I could not yet isolate, and then a big plain sign, when he began to curse some hotel porters who had picked up my baggage without permission.
His voice had a ring to it. And a western accent still.

All the next day as we assembled our outfit for the trip, He walked and talked with increased vigor. Actually he was well short of sixty, but in town he had seemed much older, and only when he got shed of it did his years peel off, and these were beginning to give way to the mere prospect of return to the velt. This was his stamping ground. He had traded for it his old hunting grounds in Texas and Oklahoma, when these were far from tame, and he had lived by it, and fought it, and loved and hated it for more than twenty years. He was tall, and powerfully framed, and was once a pehnomenally powerful man. His hands were still wolf quick, when they had to be, as I noticed when he drove the lorry to pick up supplies. My recommendation to his was that I was an American, for he had never forgotten,never ignored, that he was one too. And this meant more to him than I could quite understand at first. It was the keynote of his being, an oblation and a great pride.

He had piercing eyes, narrow set, indescribably blue. Still, I did not know then that he was the heir of Jim Bridger and Kit Carson, the very last of that great breed of hunters developed in the American west. A true mountain man born after his proper time, and strangely walking the plains of Africa."


I also enjoy this  1st hand information about Chas Cottar  from ; "Safari guide"; excerpts from Dappled Sunlight, subtitled “Memoirs of a Safari Life” the Late Patricia Mary Cotter memoirs

He arrived in Kenya in 1910 for the first visit then came and went each year until he brought his whole family here in 1914, his wife Annette, and nine children –three boys and six girls : the eldest, a girl born in 1911 Charles registered a company to guide safari’s called Cotters Safari Service in 1919.

He had already had articles published in the “American Field” newspaper between 1914 and 1918 , and had been very involved with making movies of his adventures since his early safaris to Kenya.

These movies were shown in the states throw Chester Outing Films and there is a letter in the family achieves written in 1920 from Mr. Chester to Charles saying how sorry he was that Charles would not be able to send any more films for a while due to his illness….The illness which Mr. Chester refers to was always thought to be a stroke, but in fact Charles had not been feeling well for some times beforehand, and it was while he was guiding a safari that the paralysis began, so he rushed home to Nairobi and a couple of days later could not get out of bed.

Charles had been wounded by leopard twice before this illness

But Charles was not going to kept down by illness, so called his sons Bud and Mike to help him get up and get his legs working again. Today one of Charles grandson who is a doctor, David Stuart sees the symptoms of Lyme’s Disease which Charles could have contracted from a tick in Uganda.

His grandson Glen remembers as being a rather cranky person, but one can only think he must have been so frustrated with one blind eye, and a leg and arm which would not work properly, of course he was cranky! Charles had been wounded by leopard twice before this illness and another time the late 1920s a leopard attacked him and was shot off his back by {his son} Mike.

Tussle;

He also had a tussle with an Elephant but managed to wedge himself between two rocks so the elephant could not get at him…But Charles would not give into his handicaps ,and insisted on accompanying safaris and still taking movie pictures, which he continued to show in the states. He would carry his favorite Winchester rifle while taking movies presumably leaving it in the hands of an African assistant.

So it was that in September 1940s, he was with Bud at Migwarrur, in the Siana hills area of what is now known as the Maasai Mara, not far from Barkitabu, when they sported a rhino in the bush.

Bud was sent by Charles to scout for the rhino which they had briefly seen, and was behind other bush cover some distance away when the rhino charged out of the bush quite close to Charles, but he was not able to get the gun quickly enough, and as the shot went home the rhino gored his thigh and fell on him.

Bud heard the short and his father ‘s yell, so rushed to him finishing the rhino, and tried to make some shade from the hot sun, but Charles refused this, Saying he wanted to see the African sky. The main artery was severed and Charles died from loss of blood an hour later.

Personalities who have made history in promoting tourism in Kenya and in particular investing in tented camps and safari lodges in national parks and game reserves. Some investors have gone an extra mile to ensure that Kenya is one of the best tourist destinations in the world having been declared “the seven wonders of the world” due to its conservation and eco-system efforts in the Masai Mara. Charles Cottar has a safari camp in the Masai Mara which is luxurious named cottars 1920 camp among other personalities who owns tented camps and safari lodges all over East Africa national parks and game reserves.