Water the colour of coffee, the rich smell of wet mud, singles and doubles, the splashing of water as a paddle cuts through it, the adrenalin and the anguish - this is the face of the Dusi.
Sitting in front of his computer in Vancouver, Canada, Nick Brampton discovered the thrills of the Powerade Dusi Canoe Marathon and decided to come to South Africa to ride the rapids.
A lawyer by profession, Brampton researched the topic through the Internet and even discovered a website for a canoe-manufacturing factory - the Pope's Canoe Centre in Pietermaritz-burg, owned by Dusi king, Graeme Pope-Ellis. From this website he contacted Owen Hemingway, a Dusi veteran who designed the canoe he wanted.
In Canada he paddles "a kayak - which looks like something Hiawatha would have paddled in".
An adventurer by nature, the idea of paddling a new shape in unknown surroundings appealed to him.
But, when he arrived in South Africa, Hemingway decided to join him in a doubles canoe rather than sending him down the river on his own.
"You never know where he might land up," laughed Hemingway. His first trip down the river nearly resulted in a dislocated shoulder after he tipped out at the first weir.
"You cannot Eskimo roll a two-man canoe," said Brampton, referring to the kayak's flexibility in rolling. Not many international paddlers take on the Dusi as the route is so treacherous. It takes a canoeist who knows every rock and every weir to navigate the course safely. Nonetheless, 31 international entrants will be participating in this year's event.
Dusi spokesman Ray De Vries explained that the interactive website gives international paddlers insider information, previously only gained by first-hand knowledge.
Webcams will be set up along the route, recording the Dusi live for an international audience. A radio station, Powerade Radio, will be broadcasting over the Internet during the three-day race, which starts next Thursday.
"People can sit in London or Milan and be able to hear what is happening in the valley," said De Vries. South African embassies and ex-pats living overseas will be informed, he added.
Issues of safety, security and health have dogged the event, but De Vries said everything possible had been done to ensure safety.
He said the South African National Defence Force had not been called in to help protect paddlers in the lower Inanda area.
"Yes, one paddler was mugged and his watch taken, but this is one incident compared with the three leading up to last year's Dusi," said De Vries.
"This area is part of South Africa and is no better or no worse than any other area," he added.
Another incident, he said, involved a group picnicking in the area and had nothing to do with the marathon at all. Paddlers have been warned to travel in groups and be aware of their surroundings.
During the 50-year history of the race, three people have died. The last 22-year-old Shaun Manion, who died after he was trapped in debris on the first day of the race last year. But Manion did not die in vain - the KwaZulu-Natal Canoe Union made a ruling that tougher entry qualifications were necessary.
Health risks have also been a worry this year, but, as microbiologist Ian Bailey and medical co-ordinator Pippa Rowe explained, the paddler has more chance of contracting Dusi guts and tick-bite fever than cholera: "A paddler would have to ingest more than half a litre of contaminated water in one sitting to become infected (with cholera). It is more than just a splash and a gulp," said Bailey, adding that the river was an organic "soup".
Rowe said paddlers should be inoculated against tetanus and Hepatitis A, either before or after the race.
Paddlers have also been warned not to trail their drinking hoses in the river water and to make sure they are hydrated constantly during the three-day period.
"We are prepared for any eventuality," concluded De Vries.