Wow, what a day today! The Henley on Todd Regatta is an annual event consisting of a myriad of boating events held on the Todd River which is a (usually) dry riverbed in the centre of Alice Springs. We found a spot at the Todd St Mall around 10.30am and the street parade went through - it was great and everyone was looking excited for the day's events.

We followed the crowd over to the river and found a good vantage point on the hill - over the next few hours there were a variety of races including the BYO boat race, sand filling race, water-ski race, sled race, bathtub race, tug-o-war to name a few. Around 2pm it was the kids' turn for their 1st event - the beach sprint (~50m). Eamon had a great start in his race and ended around 5th in the U10's. Renee also had a great start, and in a photo finish she was awarded 1st place with a prize of a medal, a $40 voucher and a cap! We loved the smiles on their faces when they came back to us.

Renee & Eamon then went in a 2 team cycle event with a large version of those contraptions that mice use - a spinning wheel. If you watch the video, Renee's a little slow to start, and when she swaps with Eamon he powers home and wins the race - they loved it. Some of the adults doing the race were hilarious in their outfits, and spiralling out of control - lots of fun for us in the crowd! The final event for Renee & Eamon was the lolly hunt which was a mad scramble in the Todd River for lollies of course!

The grand finale and highlight of the day was the battle between the 3 big boats: Navy, Pirates and Vikings. The battle went on for a good 10 minutes with lots of gunpowder exploding and them driving around the river and pelting each other with water, etc - it was great fun and Eamon wants to come back next year to see it again!