The 2023 Dusi Canoe Marathon which starts on Thursday has changed its starting points. The paddlers will set off from the Bishopstowe Country Club and not the traditional start at the Camps Drift canal.

#sabcnews #sabckzn The Dusi Canoe marathon 2023 briefing to paddlers at Camps Drift in Pietermaritzburg. This year, the race will have a portage start at Bishopstowe CC due to high e-coli levels in water. pic.twitter.com/dn4qJyTKQm

— Nonkululeko Hlophe (@Leko3) February 15, 2023

Chairperson of the Dusi organising committee, Steve Botha says the changes were necessitated by several factors including high e-coli levels at the Msundusi River through Pietermaritzburg.

“We made some changes this year as most people are aware we had huge storms this year in KZN and its done a lot of damage and there has been a lot of destruction to water pipes not just water pipes, the sewage works and the municipalities are just battling to cope. There’s been too much destruction because of all the rain we have and the rain we are going to have we thought it was safer because the levels of e-coli in this part of the river were just too high and we had to take the interest of the paddlers at heart we moved downstream and we found that the conditions are much better there.”

The 2023 Dusi Canoe marathon briefing to paddlers at Camps Drift in Pietermaritzburg. This year the race will have a portage start at Bishopstowe CC, due to poor water quality.#sabcnews pic.twitter.com/lbqhtsVQuA

— Reneé Heine (@reneeheine1) February 15, 2023

Botha further explains why he expects certain areas of the race to be particularly challenging for the paddlers. “We are expecting more water down the valley there are some rapids that we deem to be dangerous. I must say dangerous not for people that had been in paddling for a long time or for the top guys they can all get down that rapids but we have a fear for a 450 paddlers that we have to look after there are a couple of rapids that we made compulsory portages then again the top guys understood and said we will run those portages because we understand it is safety for everyone that about the major changes we made the couple of major rapids that the guys we made to get out and portage around.”