THE sign was inviting: Riverside Walk. The attraction was not walking, but swimming. It was unbearably hot, around 35 degrees Celsius, the sun blazing from a clear sky. I followed the sign, and there was a concrete path, but no water, not a drop.
There were road bridges, yes, as if there ought to be water, but underneath the arches there was only a dust bowl, stretching as far as the eye could see.
There would be no swim. But the conditions were perfect for the annual Henley-on-Todd boating regatta. Sounds crazy? Believe me, it is.
Nearly the whole population of Alice Springs would turn out for the boat race. And thousands of spectators would travel from all over Australia to this tiny town in the continent's red centre to witness the biggest event of the year.
The locals were almost at fever pitch. The weather conditions were superb. Last year for the first time in decades the regatta had to be cancelled. Rotten luck. It rained! Now you can't expect to have a boat race when there is water in the Todd River, can you? The boats, after all, have no bottoms. The teams would drown. I mean, how can you run through water? There are all classes of boat race on the Todd, but oars or sails would be a hindrance. The crews jump in, hold on to the sides of the boat with all their strength and run like hell through the sand and dust.
Yes, the weather was back to normal now, dry as a bone. Perfect.
