When one goes on a safari, one longs for an up-close encounter with a wild lion. But Hannetjie van der Westhuizen couldn’t have dreamt of a more personal experience as this lion climbed on the car’s window!

When you ask frequent Kruger Park goers what the top road for lions in the park is, they will most likely answer “the S100.” It is an open road with lots of open plains, attracting lots of prey, and thus, lots of lions.

On the 14th of August 2018, the S100 didn’t fail to deliver.

Hannetjie explains the whole event: “There was a sighting of a pride of 5 lions, but, this pride in Kruger is famous for “interacting” with the cars. There was a young male who was especially curious.”

“We were very excited and scared at first, but then we realized that lion was more curious and playful and was just merely investigating a strange object.”

At the beginning of the video, you can see how this lion finds the mirror to be a very nice chew-toy. But after getting bored of that, it suddenly sees the people inside and almost looks like it is waving at them. He climbs onto the window with two paws, and tried to bite the glass!

“He was seriously chewing on the tyres, and I thought those sharp teeth may damage them, so we decided to move one.”

In the park, tourists are allowed to drive with the windows open, and it is actually recommended since you can hear the sounds of the bush. But… If you get to a lion sighting, where the lions are really close to the road, it is recommended to keep the windows closed, in case, well, this happens! This sighting could have ended quite differently if the windows were open.

Hannetjie commented: “Most of my 48 years of visiting the park, I have had to use binoculars and a lot of imagination to spot a lion, never ever had an encounter like this!”

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