The idea of racing down the Msunduzi and uMngeni Rivers was born during World War II when Ian Player, sitting around a campfire in Italy, tired and homesick, came up with the idea of formalising a race downriver from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.

After an initial expedition was planned but then abandoned halfway in 1950, eight paddlers set off from Alexandra Park on 22 December 1951. Six days, 8 hours and 15 minute later Ian Player (pictured) was the only paddler to finish, having survived two days of low rivers and then a flash flood and finally a night adder bite.

The eight paddlers were meant to race in pairs, but Players partner Miles Brokensha quit at Mfula Store on Christmas Eve, so when a “bedraggled and exhausted” Player arrived in Durban he was outside of the initial set of laws, but undisputedly the first person to “do the Dusi”.

Player won the next two races with Fred Schmidt before retiring, unbeaten in the Dusi.

By the 1956 race the entry had reached 48 starters and changes started happening. From a non-stop format the race implemented compulsory overnights stops at Dusi bridge and Khumalo’s Causeway. For the first time the field of six doubles and 18 singles were set off in batches, on what was a desperately low river.

1957s victory for Ernie Pearce and Bob Templeton was due in part to the advent of fibreglass singles. The first K2 won the race in 1958 when Rob Gouldie and Derek Antrobus won in very low river conditions.