The Last Continent

92

At Henley-on-Todd, Alice Springs, there is an annual regatta on these lines. This event usually has about twenty teams that take part in a race up and down the Todd river bed. The teams are sponsored by local businesses and they are normally made up of people that work for the company that sponsors them plus other family members. Team members run up and down the river bed carrying a cardboard cut out of a boat with sails and masts. This looks quite a sight when you see boats on a dry river and all these hairy legs sticking out of the bottom of the boats. The final race is between two large boats on tractor bodies. These boats have cannons fastened onto the side of them and large fire hoses joined to water tanks on board these are used to fire flour at the other teams and the crowd. Mix this with water, and it makes a lot of mess and a great deal of fun for all.

Once every seven years or so, it rains, and the event has to be cancelled because the river is full of water.