IT SOUNDS like a safari-loving holidaymaker’s dream: cruising on a luxury houseboat, your every need catered to while you survey the lush scenery and teeming wildlife in and around the lake.
For Lesley Millan Schroeder, her time on board the 12-person Shayamanzi houseboat as it drifted lazily down Lake Jozini in KwaZulu-Natal was the experience of a lifetime.
“The crew treated us like royalty and went out of their way to make our trip memorable,” she says.
But barely a week after she set foot on it, the boat was gone, destroyed by fire in a tragic event that claimed the lives of three people.
Among the victims was Michael Mirschel (64), a tourist who’d travelled from Germany with his two sons and their friends to savour the sights and sounds of the African bush from aboard the Shayamanzi.
Guests and crew were forced to leap into the freezing lake – the water was only about 5°C in the middle of the lake – when the fire started. Michael drowned, alongside crew chef Michael Chilizani Phiri (51).
A week later, police divers retrieved the body of deckhand Maxwell Bongani Nyawo (36), who’d also drowned.
His sister, Busisiwe Nyawo, is heartbroken.
“We are devastated,” she tells YOU. “This is the first time something like this has happened – it’s unbelievable. We’re still in shock and have so many questions about what could have gone wrong.”
Lesley is also battling to make sense of it all. Having lost a relative to drowning a few years ago, she takes water safety extremely seriously. “Before we went on board, my husband got a tour of the boat,” she says.
Denne historien er fra 28 October 2021-utgaven av YOU South Africa.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra 28 October 2021-utgaven av YOU South Africa.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
BALLON IN THE BAG
Manchester City midfielder Rodrigo Hernandez Cascante says his Ballon d'Or win is a victory for Spanish football
IT WAS ALL A LIE
A new doccie exposes the Grey's Anatomy writer who fabricated her life story
'I WILL NEVER GIVE UP'
After her husband, anticorruption activist Alexei Navalny, was poisoned and murdered by the Kremlin, she became the public face of Russia's opposition. In this candid interview Yulia Navalnaya opens up about life on the run, her perilous family life and why she's continuing her husband's fight to save their country
AGREE TO DISAGREE
Trevor Noah on how his childhood squabbles with his mother inspired his delightful new book
PAUSE THE CLOCK
Researchers have discovered that the ageing process spikes at 44 and 60. Here's what you can do to slow it down
MPOOMY ON TOP
We chat to SA's most popular female podcaster about love, loss and her booming success
MY BROTHER IS NOT TO BLAME
Tinus Drotské says his sibling, ex Bok Nǎka, is the victim in the brawl with a neighbour that landed up in court
MATT THE RECLUSE
A year after his friend's tragic death, the actor continues to shun the spotlight
A LEAP OF FAITH
After her husband tried to kill her by tampering with her parachute she thought she'd never trust a man again-but now she's found love
THEY'RE MY KIDS!
This West Coast woman treats her monkeys as iftheyre humans and animal activists are not happy about it