The leopard is one of the world’s most stealth hunters, creeping inches from his prey, without being detected. This solitary cat knows the value of dead silence.

Maybe the phrase ‘speech is silver and silence is gold’, was coined after him. I never, however, quite appreciated the leopard’s stealth until I heard, first-hand, a story that left me with jitters for a week.

A buddy of mine, Martin, had gone with some of his pals to a login in the Maasai Mara for the weekend. It was martin’s first time to spend the night in the wild.

Weeks before the trip, Martin could not shut up about it. The day came and they all left for the trip. Little did martin know, what was going to happen, to him.

Once at the login, everything was going smoothly, they were having the time of their lives. Partying, game drives and scary stories around the campfire.

This was the best holiday he had ever been on. This went on for 2 days and the night before they were to return, martin had taken one too many beers.

He had caused a row between his friends and they had chased him to his room. As mike staggered to the direction of the cottages, he suddenly heard a snarl in the bushes. He thought nothing of it, being under the influence, and continued on his way.

When he heard another one followed by a twitching in the bushes, it got his attention. All the alcohol in his system suddenly disappeared and he was as sober as a formula one driver on the last lap.

He froze in fear knowing that the inevitable was going to happen. Karma had come to bite his behind, a huge chunk of it. For a minute he stood there but nothing happened.

It appeared karma had no interest in his behind after all. Still frightened, he slowly turned back and started walking to where his friends were.

Nothing happened but he could still not shake the feeling that he was being followed. Those few minutes seemed like a lifetime. Once he got to his friends, one of them let out a sharp scream and a shadowy figure scattered into the woods – it was not Martin.

As game wardens rushed in to answer the distress call, they were met with a group of screaming ladies and frightened men. The wardens called for calm and minutes later, the group was narrating how they had seen Martin walk in with a leopard behind him.

Martin had been selected, snarled and stalked by a wild cat but was still breathing. Although the game wardens assured them that this kind of thing usually happens, Martin knew that if karma was a ‘female dog’, he would have gone out without swinging.

What kinds of strange encounters have you had with a Leopard?