Clemson football's Dabo Swinney had 1 goal on South African safari: Don't 'get eaten'
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney recently went on safari during a vacation in South Africa, but he had to return to Clemson to see a tiger. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
“We saw no tigers, just lions,” Swinney said.
Tigers in the wild are confined to nations in southeast Asia for the most part, so Swinney and his traveling party instead focused on the region’s “Big Five” – lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos and buffalo.
Swinney and family were part of a 30-person group of “Clemson people” who spent eight days in the country. The contingent spent a day-and-a-half in Cape Town – the legislative capital of South Africa – before heading to Durban, a coastal city of 3½ million people that overlooks the Indian Ocean.
“Then we went ‘into the bush,’ as they say,” Swinney said.
No rifles were allowed. Only cameras.
“You couldn’t shoot anything,” Swinney said. “We were just trying not to get eaten.”
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Swinney, who will kick off his 15th full season as Clemson’s head coach when his team plays at Duke on Labor Day night, said he was amazed by the wildlife they encountered.
“It was wild, an amazing experience,” Swinney said prior to greeting fans at Tuesday night's Prowl and Growl gathering at the Greenville Convention Center. “It was all cool. To see those lions up close, to be in their habitat was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, for sure.”
While Swinney was roaming the countryside snapping photos of animals, his ACC coaching brethren were gathered at the annual ACC spring meetings in Amelia Island, Florida. He laughed when it was suggested that perhaps he purposefully scheduled his vacation to coincide with the meetings.
“No, this was something we had planned for a long time, long time,” Swinney said. “So they knew since last August that I wasn’t going to be there. But I communicated during the meetings – and sent them some fun pictures, too.”
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney recaps South African safari
