While recently holidaying in the Kruger National Park, a South African couple were caught off-guard, and were at a loss about what to do, when a giant five metre long python slithered up into their car’s bonnet and refused to budge!

Earlier this year Marlene Swart and Leon Swanepoel were holidaying at Hazyview, near to the Kruger National Park. As such, they visited the game reserve on each day of their week-long vacation. On one of these days they received message alerting to a possible lion sighting on the H3 (a road in the park) and headed off to investigate. En route they spotted a group of safari vehicles which had pulled off to the side of the which they presumed had stopped to look for the aforementioned lions. However, soon after stopping, they were told that there was a snake in the grass, literally. What follows is Swart’s account of the events.

While there (stopped in their vehicle), we were informed that there was a python in the grass and while we were searching, the python suddenly sailed out of the grass straight towards our car. I waved to the vehicle behind us to reverse, but he couldn’t understand what everyone was looking at. The next moment the python disappeared underneath our car.

Approximately two minutes later, the tourists in the vehicles around us started laughing – the snake had not come out from under our vehicle. One of the safari operators informed us that he saw the snake ‘going up!’

In shock, and utterly unprepared for the situation, they cautiously proceeded to the next viewpoint, Mathekenyane (Grano Hill). To their detriment it was nearly five kilometres away, still, they set off with a convoy of intrigued spectators in two. They parked on the hill and a crowd soon gathered to get a glimpse of the action. Swart continued:

When we parked on the hill, Leon opened the car bonnet and then asked me to bring the camera. Mr Snake was lying on the engine, eyeballing all the commotion around him. Leon patted the snake, took it by the tail and the snake exited the same way it came in.

The snake sailed away unharmed and luckily there was no damage to the car. Later that morning we received a message that someone spotted a very relaxed python on Mathekenyane!

The lions were forgotten for then and Leon had to drive me to Skukuza so that I could get some sugar water to calm my nerves. I was in shock and terrified while we drove to Mathekenyane (earlier) with the snake somewhere in the car. Leon, a real ‘Ace Ventura’ was extremely excited about the experience.

Later that evening we had a good chuckle about the reactions of the bystanders when the snake exited the vehicle. People were scattering in all directions and I am only disappointed that I was numb with fear and didn’t take more pictures.

The snake [was] estimated to be between four to five meters and we never once imagined the response we would get from this experience.

Marlene and Leon later on mentioned their love of the park and added that they visit as often as they can.

[Source: Daily Mail, Wild Card Blog]