I finished Day 4, Serially lost, part three with the image of an Harley rider wearing a kilt whilst riding his bike. When I made this image at parade, they were riding slowly and their kilts were not flapping  about. Had they been, the crowd would have found the answer to the classic question, ‘What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt’. It would have been obvious to everyone.

I added that at a later date I’d refer back to the kilted Harley Rider. Little did I know that Day 13 would provide me with that opportunity, so here we go.

It was the Harley Owners Group National Australian Rally that had brought me to Alice Springs.

I’d hoped to get there with plenty of time to find my mates from our Monaro HOG Chapter and I found I did get there in plenty of time.

I was really fortunate in The Alice. Firstly, I found good accommodation not too far from the rally site.

Then, in Todd Mall, dead in the heart of Alice Springs, I found a good spot amongst  the crown to wait for the parade of Harley riders to pass by.

The rumbling sound of Harley exhausts let the crowd know that the riders were approaching and suddenly there they were, to be found behind their obliging police escort vehicle.

As Harleys’ do, they delighting the crowd whom had found time to gather in the mall.

Then, along came members of the Monaro Chapter, resplendent in our bright orange T shirts. The standout colour made them easy to find amongst the other riders.

My Chapter mate in the above image had a look of surprise on his face when he found me, camera in hand, in the Todd Mall crowd. He’d obviously forgotten that I’d told him where to find me.

After the parade was finished everyone moved on to the banks of the Todd River that runs through the middle of The Alice.

The Todd is famous for the ‘Henly on Todd Regatta’, an annual event held in the river. In the river does not mean,’in the river’. It really means, where the Todd occasionally has a bit of water in it or is in flood. For the rest of the time  the ‘river’ is as dry as a bone.

Again, I was able to find a great spot to watch the various Harley Owner Groups( HOG) compete in our own Harley section of the Henly on Todd Regatta.

Scanning the crowd through my 200 mm lens I found my mates lolling about on the far bank. I found it easiest to sneak a few long distance shots of them before I wandered over.

Searching in my camera bag, I found my 24-70mm lens and switched over to it. By the time I’d made the switch I was surprised to find that the group had split up to grab a grab a bit to eat. I have always made it my practice to ask before I take ‘portrait’ style  images of people. This time around, most of the blokes found an excuse and knocked back the opportunity to be recorded for posterity. I found it very strange indeed.

I searched my memory and couldn’t find any other occasion upon which such outrageous excuses had been found by people to avoid being photographed.

Only one couple found the time to be photographed.

After looking at my watch, I found that I had only an hour or so left to photograph the action before I was due to meet up with some long time residents of The Alice for dinner. I thought I’d need a bit of time to find the venue so I excused myself from the Monaro gang and found my way back to my view point from where I made a few images of the regatta  before finding my way back to my accommodation to clean up ready for dinner.

Later, as I downloaded my images to the lap top, I found that I’d misjudged the light and as a consequence, quite a few of the shots found their way into the post process file. I knew I would find them once I got back home.

I hope that anyone reading this will find it interesting and if they look hard enough, will surely find the mistakes I found amongst the images I revived from the posts process file. After a bit of work, they did find their way into the Alice Springs album. All of the images that are follow here I found in the Alice file..

This is the starting gate for the Henly on Todd Regatta. Note the name. I’ve found that things are a lot more relaxed in the Northern Territory. Political correctness is sometimes allowed to take a back seat.

As you can see, even the kids find time to enjoy the Regatta.

The lady members of the Blacktown HOG Chapter put on a sterling show but found the going heavy in the sand and came a cropper. This let the organisers find the grounds for their disqualification.

I found many more images too but on reflection I thought viewers would find too many photos a bit tedious.  As a consequence, what you find here is all you are going to get.

If you find that a bit rough, find yourself another blog to read.

Hoo roo  for now.