Which country is home to a boat race without any water?

The Henley-on-Todd Regatta might be one of the most unusual boat races in the world, as it lacks one key element - water. The annual event takes place in Alice Springs, Australia, a remote desert town in the Northern Territory. It began in 1962, as a takeoff on the Henley-on-Thames Regatta.

Every year in the spring, (around September), the town holds a mock regatta, which large numbers of locals and tourists attend. Food and drink are sold at stalls, "no fishing" signs are put up, and the celebration lasts all day.

To be clear, the town technically has a river, the Todd River, but it rarely has any water flowing in it. Instead, teams use large bottomless boats, which are often decorated with banners and advertisements. The “rowers” hold the boats up around their waists, with their legs poking out from under, and run through hot sand to the finish line. Races are also held in washtubs, human-sized hamster wheels, and, as the final event, modified trucks decked out as boats are driven by teams armed with flour bombs and water cannon. (Many bystanders end up as sticky “casualties” of the last event.)

Although the unusual race began as a joke, it now attracts hundreds of participants annually. The 2020 event was cancelled, in support of the Northern Territory Government’s decision to impose a 6-month lockdown, (in order to contain the spread of COVID-19). In its 59 year history, the event had only been cancelled once before, in 1993, when the river had the audacity to flood.