//subdivision

Today I'm in the Drakensberg mountains attending a wedding (this has to be one of the most beautiful spots in the world to tie the knot), watching the clouds change the incredible mountain vista in front of me. This is also the final day of the 2009 Dusi Canoe marathon, set in the same provence, the previous two days of which I was a part of, albeit in a slightly unconventional way.

The Dusi is a cherished event to South Africans, and some of the wedding guests had completed the challenge - one gent 28 times! The range of outdoor challenges in South Africa is huge; from the Comrades marathon to the Argus cycle tour, and many other lesser-known events, such as the Tour de Kruger.

I adore the camaraderie and ‘joie de vivre’ at these kinds of events, having inline-skated the London to Brighton Cycle race in 2008 myself, amongst other manic long-distance skates.

The Dusi is a 120km canoe marathon, run over three days from Pietermaritzburg, down to Durban along the Msunduzi River. Competitors use mainly small K1 and K2 kayaks, which are not really meant for this kind of abuse as the route passes through several rapids and obstacles. Also, the possibility of contracting 'Dusi gut' along the way is sadly quite high from the e.coli in some sections of water. Abby Miedema, the winner of the women's race commented in The Witness that the river hyacinth and reeds also made it difficult this year.

I was there as a volunteer for the charity my girlfriend currently works for; Starfish Greathearts Foundation, an AIDS charity with the belief that helping individuals is as productive as attempting to solve an entire problem.

Starfish Greathearts and the Dusi Committee came up with a great idea back in 2003, to have a 'Charity Batch' of paddlers, who get to leave in the desirable early morning batch in return for bidding on donations to charity. Paddlers today can also choose to donate to DUCT, an organisation aiming to clean the river sustainably, or animal protection charity the SPCA.

The lucky top 60 bidders who donate to Starfish also get their canoe carried out the water by volunteers, made up by a band of boys from a nearby village. And this year, me too.

Another inspiring project which targets individuals is the Change For Life initiative, run by Dusi winner and local legend Martin Dreyer. His aim was to train twelve local lads to complete in the top 50. Today, as reported on Martin's blog, eleven of them finished in the top 43!

Once back in Johannesburg I'll be making use of the Emmerentia Dam nearby the house to explore a new obsession, with the aim of paddling in the Dusi myself, of course helping a cause along the way.

Tagged as canoeing, charity, duzi, kwazulu natal, south africa, sport + Categorized as Blog, Skate & Surf