Delayed Dusi to take place end of March

The My Life Dusi takes place this year from March 20 to 22, delayed by a month due to the January Covid-19 restrictions, a three-day endurance event paddling and carrying the boat or running up the hills in the Valley of a 1000 Hills, through the winding valleys of KwaZulu-Natal.

The river race on the UmsinDusi was first run by a group of former army guys, in the ’60s led by Ian Player (Gary Player’s brother) and a group of comrades and has been hosted annually since.

The Johannesburg Canoe Club (JCC), based at Wemmerpan, the first-ever canoe club to begin in Gauteng, hosted a two-day river race on the Vaal before the flood gates were opened in December for training purposes for the Dusi, but their scheduled Two-Day Klip River Race for January was called off due to lockdown restrictions.

With the huge hail and rainstorms in the Alberton and Henley area on February 26, the river was in full flood, with participants paddling over low-level bridges. The running portage took place around the Henley Kidson Weir for safety in grasslands on the banks that were saturated and swamp-like.

While some of the rapids flattened out with no rocks in sight and easier to manoeuvre than usual, others were very challenging with powerful waves tossing the boats up in the air, which resulted in several swimmers, and a few broken boats, a very challenging, exciting river race, perhaps on par with what can be expected from a full Dusi in March since Inanda Dam is full.

The local Heineken factory donated cases of zero per cent alcohol, which turned out to be extremely refreshing for the exhausted paddlers, as well as some promotional corporate gifts as prizes at the race.

While the first and top finisher was infamous Sowetan Siseko Ntondini of movie fame Beyond the River holding on to his seeding as top Gauteng paddler, and the first women finisher was Sowetan-based junior u-18 Tinyiko Mahwayi.

Sometimes it’s the unseen, the invisible hands in the background that make up a success of a race, the marshals waiting for hours at their posts to show participants where to go, the sweeps who wait at the back of the race until everybody is across the finish line, the race organisers, timekeepers, the crew that puts everything together, and in this case, they were the JCC.

Certainly, many paddlers from other clubs step up to provide support and assist as a large amount of manpower is necessary to organise a river race, especially one in flood.