Two men had an incredible close encounter with a leopard they found relaxing on the deck of a room in a safari camp in South Africa.

A staff member at the camp first saw the leopard moving between two rooms in the camp at around 10am local time. At the time, the camp's guests were fortunately in the camp's restaurant enjoying a late breakfast, not in their rooms.

The filmer and his colleague opted to go through a guest room as a shortcut to the area on the far side of the building where they thought the big cat might be. But they did not get far, finding the fierce feline just chilling on the deck of the room.

Initially the leopard was very relaxed, perhaps unable to see into the room because of the reflection of the sun on the glass, but then it got up and walked towards the door, very inquisitive.

Fortunately, it soon lost interest and walked towards the pool before finally wandering back into the bush.

The filmer said: "In all my years working in safari camps this was a first for me and definitely the closest I have ever been to a wild leopard."

It was just after ten in the morning when a staff member called me with an urgent tone in his voice. I was informed that a leopard was spotted between two rooms in the safari camp where we all work and host safari guests. All guests have just returned to the camp from their morning safari and were in the restaurant enjoying a late breakfast. Knowing that a leopard was moving around inside a camp full of guests was a concern to us. I made my way to the part of the camp where the leopard was spotted.
I met my fellow workers and they pointed to a guest room where they last saw the leopard disappear around the corner to the front of the room. I was not going to take the chance of walking around the corner to the front of the house and we rather opted to go through the room and go out in the front and try and see where the big cat disappeared to. The only thing one can do in this situation is to keep knowing exactly where the leopard is as we would not want anyone being surprised by the dangerous big cat. We walked into the room with the intention of looking for the leopard out in the front of the house but we got a huge surprise when the leopard was all casually lying on the deck right in front of the glass sliding doors. At first, I thought the leopard could not be bothered by our presence and was totally relaxed for quite some time. That got me a little worried. I realised then that the reflection from outside was very bright and it was hard to see into the rooms during the day. Then all of a sudden it was as if the leopard realised there was something in the room and became very attentive to us. For me it was a nerve wrecking moment when the leopard got up and slowly walked towards the door, looking very inquisitive. We just stood still and it was not long before the leopard lost interest and started walking away. It was a great relief for me but we still had to see where this leopard was going next. I slowly went out the room and saw the leopard at the room’s plunge pool. The leopard then jumped over the rocks and went to the next room. After this encounter we approached the next room in the same way but this time we were relieved to see the leopard was way in front of the room and busy heading out back into the bush. In all my years working in safari camps this was a first for me and definitely the closest I have ever been to a wild leopard.