Dusi Canoe Marathon

Dr. Ian Player (1927–2014) was a visionary conservationist whose courage and passion reshaped how South Africans viewed their natural heritage. Most famously, he spearheaded ‘Operation Rhino’ in the 1960s, developing pioneering capture and translocation techniques that saved the southern white rhino from the brink of extinction.

Beyond his technical brilliance, Player was a spiritual advocate for the wild. Creating both the Wilderness Leadership School and the World Wilderness Congress, he believed that personal transformation occurred best in the silence of nature. It was indeed an honor when he agreed to write the foreword to my first book, ‘Manzovo—Place of the Elephants’.

“It is my fervent hope that the rulers of Zimbabwe will read [Gary Albyn’s] poem out aloud in the National Assembly, and in the schools, so that it will touch the hearts and the minds of people and bring about a transition of thought and deed and a realization that we are all children, mankind and animal, of the Great Continent of Africa.”

Besides being a decorated soldier, a Knight in the Order of the Golden Ark, and an international colossus in the field of conservation, Dr. Ian Player was also the founder of South Africa’s famous Dusi Canoe Marathon—a grueling 75-mile event featuring technical river paddling and mandatory portages. Starting in Pietermaritzburg and ending in Durban three days later, the event is described as Africa’s toughest canoe race.

Pictured here in the 1988 Dusi Canoe Marathon, the late Peter (Pod) McLaughlin and I take a moment to consider whether we should shoot the next rapid or take the safer, more time-consuming footpath over the hill. (Little did we know it was actually a compulsory portage). More by good providence than good paddling skills, we somehow survived the treacherous chute.

Pod—loving husband, son, dad, brother, godfather and friend—you are sorely missed.