By BBC Travel
5 March 2021
Growing up on a horse farm outside Johannesburg, South Africa, Hanli Prinsloo dreamed of being a mermaid – never mind that the closest ocean was a 10-hour drive away. After a friend introduced her to freediving at university, Prinsloo turned her childhood dreams into reality, plunging 60m into the ocean's depths and holding her breath for six minutes while breaking 11 South African freediving records.
50 Reasons to Love the World - 2021
Why do you love the world?
"Because just before the world got turned on its head, I spent a week in [South Africa's] blue water with wild dolphins at seven months pregnant, and through their echolocation, they could see my baby girl, surrounding me, scanning, clicking and celebrating this new life inside me, reminding me of just how magical this blue planet truly is."