Paddling near Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal

Pietermaritzburg sits in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands and is the spiritual home of South African paddling. The uMsunduzi River rises above the city and, together with the uMngeni, carries the legendary Dusi Canoe Marathon route some 120 km down to Durban — a race first run in 1951 that now draws up to 2 000 entrants. Beyond the Dusi corridor, paddlers work Albert Falls Dam on the uMngeni, Midmar Dam, and Nagle Dam, while the KwaZulu-Natal Canoe Union, administered from Pietermaritzburg, registers the largest provincial paddling membership in the country.