When Swiss tourists Rico Beltrame and his sister Angela flew to South Africa's Hluhluwe Umfolozi Nature Reserve last month, they were hoping to see some wild animals. However, they never expected to see one this close!

On that fateful day in March, the two decided to tour the Safari Park in a rented Volksvagen Golf, instead of going with the other tourists in a safari vehicle.

As they made their way through the reserve, they spotted a group of elephants on the side of the road and stopped to take pictures. Suddenly, one of the elephants started to walk towards their car. At the advice of a park ranger, they shut the engine off and waited for the elephant to pass.

However, to their horror (you can see their expressions in the photo above), the elephant decided to take a closer look at their car and rested his humungous trunk and tusks on the roof of the car. After doing this for almost five minutes, he decided he didn't really like the car and moved on.

Needless to say Rico and Angela will never forget this Safari! Looking back, they are thankful to escape unhurt and that it was an elephant they encountered and not a cheetah or lion hunting for a snack.

Sources:DailyMail, Telegraph