The 69th annual Dusi Canoe Marathon was held from 27 to 29 February 2020. The Dusi is a canoeing marathon which covers roughly 120km between the cities of Pietermaritzburg and Durban and is the biggest canoeing event on the African continent. It attracts athletes from around the world.

The race takes place over 3 days, and is 3 stages of approximately 40km per day of canoeing or portaging (walking / running with your boat) where the rivers are not passable.

Behind the scenes there is always a support team required for each athlete to follow the athlete from start to finish each day, meeting up with them at various places along the route to check they're alright; if they need food or water; if they need their spare paddle; etc. The rivers can be wild so the seconders are vital for the athletes to complete their race.

This year was my 3rd time seconding, with new seconding partner Laetitia. We made a great pair as Leatitia was happy to drive and was experienced in off-road driving, while I preferred to navigate and photograph the journey.

A few thoughts on this year’s Dusi:

I still think it’s necessary to second with 2 people. It’s lovely to have someone to chat to and share the adventure with.
Wellington boots are a very good idea. No matter what the weather report says.
This year the weather was much cooler, meaning less Dusi-guts than usual (thankfully). It was also far more pleasant for the seconding crew. Cooler weather was amazing, and at times even a bit too cool, but I’d take that any day!
It is amazing how fleeting the viewing time of one’s team can be - we drive all this way and follow the paddlers for the entire race, just to see them for a few moments here and there. But those moments are so exciting. It puts one mind at ease that the team is doing okay.
A vehicle with off-road capabilities is a good idea and makes a big difference.
Having seconded before, and roughly knowing where to go allowed us to explore the route further, which was wonderful.
The valley of a thousand hills is so beautiful and so rural.
Water quality information is released for the Dusi marathon before the race every year. And every year I am amazed how bad the water quality is! It is so sad to see what we are doing to our rivers. The water quality change is even evident in my photos - the water colour changes from area to area.
For more information, this is the Dusi website with water quality information, here. The reference table has a maximum assesment criteria of >50 000 E. coli counts per 100ml. At this level, water is considered to be severely contaminated with significant sewage contamination and negative environmental consequences. At this E. coli level, there is a very high canoeing risk, approx. 1 in 2 paddlers may get sick. Avoid canoeing!
And yet, if we have a look at the measured levels, there are two areas which exceed this reading, one at 111 990 and the other at 461 100! And, these levels are an inprovement for the Dusi race, these readings are usually a lot higher.

This year I decided to try my vlogging skills. I’ve put together a little video summary from each day (see below). For photos from this year’s Dusi, click here.