Bud and Blayney in the Mathews Range

Blayney Percival, left, with Osa and Martin Johnson celebrating their safari.

There is a reason why we traveled far out of our way to go into the Mathews Range on our way to Lake Paradise and Calvin knows exactly what that is although we’ve yet to really talk about it.

When Osa and Martin Johnson discovered Lake Paradise in 1921, they were led by Calvin’s great uncle, Bud. Three years later, on their way to Lake Paradise for what would turn out to be a four year stay, Bud also headed up that expedition. But mysteriously, he never made it up there with them. Instead, Bud left them near the Guaso Nyiro River and headed back for Nairobi. As far as anyone can tell, that was the end of Bud Cottar’s relationship with the Johnsons, both professionally and socially, despite the fact that he had worked for them on and off for almost two years. Never once in their subsequent books about the expeditions to Lake Paradise do they mention Bud. It’s as if they never knew him.

This bothers Calvin, I know it does, even though he doesn’t like to talk about it. I’ll say something about the Johnsons expedition, how Osa did this or Martin did that, and Calvin will show a tenseness in the muscles around his mouth and say something like, “The thing is to tell the truth about that journey” and I know that what he’s talking about is his great uncle Bud.

Tell the truth about that journey.

The trouble is, nobody really knows what the truth is. Everyone who was actually there has long since passed away, and the only people who wrote about it are Osa and Martin Johnson. So, as is often the case in history, they get the final word.

Here’s what we know for sure: Bud Cottar organized the expedition in Nairobi and got the whole bloody troop, which included 70 porters, three trucks, four wagons pulled by teams of 12 oxen each, and a string of pack donkeys up to a spot near Archer’s Post. Here they camped and waited for the Johnson’s old friend, Blayney Percival, to catch up with them.

Osa waits in camp while Martin and Blayney look for a route through the Mathews Range and Bud Cottar heads home to Nairobi.

Once Percival arrived, there were heated discussions about the best route to Marsabit. Some local guides had told Martin that there was some amazing game to the west of them in the Mathews Range—big herds of elephant and rhino as well as lots of lions and leopards and other animals, and Martin badly wanted to do some filming there. Then, while waiting for Percival to arrive, Martin got it in his head that maybe by heading into the Mathews Range, they could actually cut off some of the distance between them and Lake Paradise and get the filming in as well. It seemed unlikely (and certainly nobody had any clue as to how to get through the Mathews Range). Both Blayney Percival and Bud Cottar were, initially, against it. But when Martin Johnson got an idea in his head, logic went out the window. In the end, he was able to convince Percival they should give it a go. So on or about March 7, 1924, Martin and Blayney Percival set off looking for passable routes through the Mathews Range, no doubt passing right by where Sarara now sits in the opening to the narrow valley, while Bud Cottar turned around and went back home.

Now just think about all this. Bud Cottar was 20 years old when he first led the Johnsons to Lake Paradise in 1921. Like a lot of 20-year-olds he was strong-headed, had a bit of a temper, and thought pretty highly of himself. Blayney Percival, on the other hand, was one of the “old boys.” A mzee. He was 50 years old, recently retired from the post of game warden for all of British East Africa, and a man greatly respected for his knowledge of game animals (he claimed he could smell giraffes at 300 yards).

So what do you think the young Bud Cottar thought when, after doing all the work to get them half-way to Lake Paradise, this old mzee shows up and allows Martin Johnson to talk him into going into the Mathews Range?

I think they had a battle of wills and Bud Cottar said, “Either we do it my way or I’m returning to Nairobi,” confident that Martin Johnson would agree. But he didn’t. And once Johnson convinced Bwana Percival to go along with his hare-brained scheme, Bud Cottar had no choice but to pack up his things and abandon the safari.

That’s what I think. But only Bud and Blayney and Martin know for sure—and they’re not talking.