Photo: gui00878 (Getty Images)
I would like to go on an African Safari someday. But let me make one thing clear: I would enjoy seeing wild animals from a distance, not super up close like this tourist group experienced it.
According to WLOS, Britton Hayes and a group were recently on a Grand Ruaha Safari, and turned their attention to three cheetahs on the hunt in Gol Kopjes of the Serengeti. But this is where things took a turn. Here’s what Hayes had to say:
“We started to notice the cheetahs became curious of the vehicle. But it was too late to drive quickly away or anything like that because you don’t want to startle the animals, because that’s when things usually go wrong. This is not at all a common occurrence.
One of the cheetahs hopped onto the hood and was sniffing around, so we were all focused on the cheetah on the hood that was looking around. While we were all watching the cheetah in the front, one of the brothers had flanked around the back and hopped in back of the vehicle to try and sniff us and make sure that we weren’t a threat.”
Now take a look at the video for yourself:
Incredible video shows a cheetah on a hunt jumping into a jeep to find a better scouting spot. The passenger stayed quiet and didn’t make eye contact so the cheetah didn’t see him as a threat. https://t.co/vQm1lmCLtv pic.twitter.com/mnKugvik4v
— ABC News (@ABC) March 29, 2018
Well I’m sure that guy needed a change of underwear afterwards. Hayes added:
“Honestly, it was probably one of the scariest moments of my life while it was happening. I felt like I had to clear my mind of any thoughts because from everything you’re told about predators like that, they can sense fear and any sort of discomfort you’re feeling and they’ll react accordingly. I wanted to be as calm and as still as possible to avoid a bad outcome.”
I was scared to death, but I’ve never felt more alive…The sheer tension of sitting in a vehicle thinking, ‘I’m going to die,’ and then living. We just, everyone in the car just looked at each other, we paused for 10 seconds as the cheetahs walked away and we couldn’t believe that we got out of the situation, that it was real.”
Well that’s certainly one situation that could had turned ugly, but thankfully all went well. And now to plan a trip to a petting zoo filled with goats instead of a safari.
