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Topless Dancers Greet Prince Charles
(submitted by gekkogecko)
Reuters
ALICE SPRINGS, Australia (Reuters) - Topless
Aboriginal dancers welcomed Britain's Prince Charles
in Australia's outback on Wednesday, where locals were
preparing to throw a bachelor party for the newly
engaged royal.
Charles, who is due to wed divorcee Camilla
Parker-Bowles on April 8, was greeted in Alice Springs
with a traditional indigenous dance to wish him a safe
journey in Australia.
Locals at the outback town's Bojangles bar were
preparing to party as the future king of Australia
arrived. Australia is a former British colony which
retains the British monarch as its head of state.
Although Charles was spending less than five hours in
Alice Springs, 1,200 miles northwest of Sydney, locals
were planning to throw the heir to the British throne
an outback-style "bucks night" to celebrate his
impending wedding.
"We won't be shaving any eyebrows, no balls and
chains, no gaffer-taping VB (beer) cans to anyone and
putting them out in the park. It's a bit of wholesome
fun with a bit of cheeky Australian humor," publican
Chris Vaughan said.
Bojangles has borrowed a red carpet from the Alice
Springs council, which is normally reserved for the
mayor.
"It's a distinct possibility that he will come. Even
if it's for five minutes to drop in and say 'g'day',
let your hair down for five minutes, and have a quick
glass of sherry or a cold beer," Alice Springs
Councilor Ernie Nicholls said.
"If protocol won't allow that, they can just do a
drive past. Think what that would do for Charlie's
image in the UK, because at the moment he's on a
rollercoaster ride downhill at a million miles an
hour," he said.
Royal-watchers are aghast at the increasingly farcical
preparations for his wedding, with the venue for the
civil ceremony switched to a local town hall and
Charles's mother Queen Elizabeth saying she will not
attend.
Nicholls said the bachelor party organizers had
received plenty of offers of entertainment for the
event, including naked women jumping out of cakes.
"Women want to do all sorts of things for Charlie," he
said.
While in Alice Springs, where temperatures topped 38
degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit), Charles was due to
visit the Royal Flying Doctors Service, an indigenous
science and technology center, a desert park and an
Aboriginal art exhibition.
Charles's five-day visit to Australia, his first in a
decade, will include stops in the cities of Melbourne,
Sydney and the capital Canberra before he heads to New
Zealand and Fiji.
After arriving in the western city of Perth, Charles
visited the burns unit of a Perth hospital on Tuesday
where he met victims of the October 2002 Bali
nightclub bombings.
"The way all of you cared for the grievously injured
from all over the world and supported, so generously,
their families is humbling. All I can do on this
occasion is salute you," he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Patrick Harrison, a spokesman
for the prince, rejected a British newspaper report
that Charles was planning a speech in which he would
say he might not become king of Australia. "He's not
going to say that at all," Harrison told Australian
radio.
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