South African celebrity designer Gert-Johan Coetzee was on an adventure in Mauritius when he almost drowned in the Indian Ocean.
South African fashion designer Gert-Johan Coetzee has a picture postcard memory of his trip to Mauritius.
A warm sunny afternoon on Albion beach on the west coast of Mauritius, palm trees swaying in the gentle sea breeze, and dolphins bobbing about in the water.
A restful, peaceful day in the lap of nature, far from the teeming crowds and the scorching fashion runways of Sandton in Johannesburg.
Except that this was the day Coetzee almost drowned.
On holiday with his partner and friends aboard a yacht, it was a beautiful day for a swim and a round of snorkeling in the salty waters of the Indian Ocean.
Little did Coetzee know what lay ahead, in the deep blue sea.
It was the first time the 31-year-old designer was going to snorkel. Two days after his arrival at the Club Med Les Villas d’Albion, he had practiced scuba-diving on the beach.
But on this day, he was actually about to be thrown into the sea.
“I thought it was funny because I jumped in, I didn’t fall backwards [as I should have],” says Coetzee.
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