Pirates, Vikings and a dry-river regatta — nowhere but Australia

ALICE SPRINGS, Australia — For 60 years, Australians have gathered in the Outback town of Alice Springs to cheer on one of the oddest events on the planet: a dry river race called the Henley-on-Todd Regatta.

The name is a not-so-regal knockoff of an annual royal river boat race hosted by the British town of Henley-on-Thames. The Australians’ competition takes place in the waterless Todd River.

“They only have sculling,” Peter Mostran, the dry regatta’s “commodore,” said of the more staid British version. “We have everything.”