A bloke was left with blood pouring from his head after getting too close to a territorial python who then slapped him.

Joel Herrington – also known as Joey Zayne – was enjoying a stroll on the Behana Gorge trail in Queensland, Australia, when he spotted a python ahead of him.

Dramatic footage shows Joel get an up close view of the giant reptile before turning back to grab some water bottles from the ground he had put down.

Moments later Joel turned the camera on himself with blood pouring from a wound just before his left eye after the snake had slapped him on the head.

Joel said: "I didn't see it coming. It was crazy. It was so far up above us before and then it dropped down and I had no idea that it was that close to my face and then I started bleeding profusely.

“I was at a waterfall and we were walking back up and there was a couple in front of us, they pointed out a snake above us so, we stopped and had a look.

"I saw it and took some photos. Then when I went back down to grab a couple of bottles I dropped, I got a full face slap on the face.

"Everyone's saying all these comments ‘You harassed the snake’, but I didn't do a Steve Irwin.

"When I started taking photos, it started dropping down and I left it alone.

"I took photos, I went back down because I was doing the right thing with the rubbish and the bush and I walked back up - calm and casual like I always am with the snakes - and it decided to go me.

"Minding my own business, went down with the rubbish, grabbed it, brought it back up, and it slapped me in the face and I tumbled down the hill."