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SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- It was a throne of a different kind.

Britain's Prince Charles had a close encounter with an Australian "Bush Toilet" in the outback city of Alice Springs Wednesday.

In the sweltering heat, Charles dutifully inspected the loo, which is the pride and joy of the city's Center for Appropriate Technology, and is odorless, fly-less and waterless, according to The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

He also tried some traditional desert fruits such as bush banana and bush tomato, but declined the witchetty grub -- fat moth larvae usually eaten alive.

Earlier, a group of Aboriginal women performed a traditional indigenous dance for the Prince, to kick off his whirlwind five-hour stay.

Just as notable was what was not on the Prince's itinerary.

A group of locals came up with a novel way to mark Charles' upcoming nuptials to long-time companion Camilla Parker Bowles.

They held a right royal bachelor bash for Charles' at a local pub -- and were not deterred from partying when the guest-of-honor failed to show up.

Party organizer and Alice Springs alderman Ernie Nicholls had earlier promised that the stag party would not be too wild.

"Look, I'm not going to chain him to the traffic lights naked or anything like that," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Nicholls had also turned down offers from some local women to take their clothes off at the stag party, telling the Australian media there would be "no funny stuff, no strippers, no shaving cream".

Despite the assurances, the Prince, amazingly, did not attend.

All in all, it seemed this visit was more successful than Charles' previous visits to the city.

In 1977, Charles reportedly suffered food poisoning at an official buffet and spent his 29th birthday on a different kind of throne.

Bad luck continued to dog him when he returned in 1983, when the town was ravaged by floods.

Charles is in the midst of a five-day, five-city tour of Australia. His next port of call is Melbourne.

Charles' last visit to Australia in 1994 was marred by an assassination scare when a man stormed a Sydney stage and fired two blank rounds from a starter's pistol as the prince gave a speech.

The student, David Kang, has since become a Sydney barrister.