Team A

It was a dry, hot, working-class outback day for our team on this quiet Sunday in the Northern Territory. We had 70 km to cover, so we got out early and just started to run right into the day with the morning cool keeping us fresh.

Everyone was in good spirits today as we coasted through the kilometres, waving to passers-by and taking in the surroundings of a constantly changing world. Standa Zubaty was handed a Pepsi as he ran, by a couple of travellers from Germany. It was humorous to see him finish his run still holding and drinking from it.

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Dima Lehonkov from the Ukraine is our best runner, like a prized stallion that has special capacities and therefore needs the best treatment and conditions. He is a serious runner and follows a rigourous training schedule which he fits in with the daily needs of the team. Very often after the day's running is over and everyone else is resting and relaxing, he and his sister Nataliya can be seen out for an evening run together.

Dima is constant encouragement for his team mates and always, always carries a ready smile for everyone. His temperament is very easy going and flexible. If he isn't running, or talking about running, or joking around,  he is definitely 'Skyping' to the rest of the world who he seems to have on his 'friends' list.

Dima is an excellent team mate who bounces happily along on the road and in the van or tent or wherever we find ourselves. He seems a natural born World Harmony-runner.

This is the dry season and everything is dusty and brittle, but hardy to survive these conditions.

During the day there are very few signs of life other than vehicles moving along the highway and a few birds darting around from tree to tree, but today I spied a lizard who seemed to enjoy being photographed instead of the usual quick sprint into the undergrowth.

Yesterday we said goodbye to two team members and today we say hello to two others from Canberra who have joined us from now until the end of the run in Brisbane, which seems so close to us now. The first is our new Team Captain, Amalendu Edelsten, who has been working all along on the daily schedules and now gets to enjoy actually translating those schedules into action!

Rathin Boulton joins us as well after a few short stints early in the run, and will see us through the hot outback until the blue ocean returns to complete the circle of the continent. He is a superb runner who knows how to get through difficult and challenging obstacles that all runners encounter now and then.

We wrapped up the day early and arrived at our campsite in good cheer, having completed the distance handily and with harmonious hearts and minds.

Special thanks to Mataranka Homestead for their goodwill in offering us space to stay last night...

I would like to send a birthday greeting to my big brother Steve, who today happens to be in Ireland. Say 'hello' to Colm for us bro, and Happy Birthday!

– Prabhakar Street (Canada)

Team B

We began the day with a return to Mataranka Primary School which, we had discovered, was no ordinary school. It takes pride in being the only self-sufficient school in the Northern Territory, with an animal shelter, a tree-planting program and a special program to help Indigenous schoolchildren, which we were told had increased the harmony throughout the town.

The school principal, Judith McLean, has followed a program of teaching good values to children (such as kindness, good health and concern for nature). Don McLean, Judith’s father, dedicated one of their growing forest of trees to the World Harmony Run and its founder, Sri Chinmoy.

We then presented the school with a World Harmony Run Torch-Bearer Award for its inspiring and loving program. As Judith was unable to attend this morning, the award was accepted by two of the students: her children Auryn and Kari.

This was followed by another ride of the balance bikes (erroneously called 'chariots' in yesterday’s report), which are new to Australia, and look set to be the Next Big Thing. They are easy to learn and to control, and heaps of fun. Next time I travel around Australia, I’ll be tempted to go on one of these…

Next, the team visited the Bitter Springs thermal pools. The dictionary gives two definitions of “oasis”: “a fertile ground in a desert” and “a place that gives relief”. Bitter Springs, located in the middle of the dry Outback, is the perfect example of both. Though its temperature isn’t as high as the Mataranka Hot Springs, which we visited yesterday, they are still wonderfully warm. What’s more, they are totally natural.

Take your swimming goggles or your snorkel (or simply look into the pristine clear water) and you can see an underwater world – jungles of vegetation, schools of tiny fish, submerged trees covered in moss – as rich and fascinating as anything you might find on a coral reef. Swimming through this river, eyes underwater and surrounded by warm water, is surely one of Australia’s best little-known sightseeing tours.

The only problem with enjoying ceremonies and visits to natural wonders in the morning, of course, is that the running is left to the afternoon. Whatever the great English wit Noel Coward might have sung, it isn’t only "mad dogs and Englishmen" who "go out in the midday sun!" There was not a single mad dog or English runner among us, yet we ran in the piercing sunshine of midday in the Outback. Happily exhausting as this was, many of the runners have adjusted to the dry heat of recent weeks. A newcomer to the team like myself, meanwhile, felt somewhat sluggish as I pushed myself along the Stuart Highway. As running became a greater challenge, it became an even greater experience.

– Noivedya Juddery (Australia)

Team C

Our team was lucky enough to have time this morning to return to the wonderfully warm Mataranka Thermal Pool for one final swim. According to a sign on the pathway, the hot spring was dammed and made into the pool by soldiers during World War II.

The deep, warm water was extremely soothing to our aching muscles. The volume of water flowing from the spring was impressive and obviously helped to keep the pool extremely clean and clear. We could have stayed there for hours.

We then headed out along the mostly flat and straight Stuart Highway and ran south for 73 km.

It felt hotter than yesterday and, not surprisingly, we drank copious amounts of water. Four of us ran a total of 13 km each with Elke running an impressive 20 km.

Our starting point marker, used to show one of the other running teams where to finish

Elke is in good spirits and applies her special German sunscreen in preparation for her extra-long run

Our all-important support vehicle which carries our tents, spare running shoes, supplies of sunscreen, torch-fuel, water and food

Elke Lindner is from Germany and has been with the team since Melbourne. I asked her about her impressions so far – “Australians seem very open and friendly. I like the way that people are curious about the Run and approach us to find out about it, and they listen so intensely to what we have to say.” She continued: “I’m also impressed that Australians enjoy nature so much. We’ve learned that even Lord Mayors still go camping!”

“One thing that surprised me is that I expected a lot less people on the roads,” she said. “There are also a surprising number of international travellers wherever we go, but it’s nice. I’m really enjoying this experience, and the feeling of vastness in this country is something very special.”

The team arrived in Dunmarra at approximately 5 pm and set up camp at the Dunmarra Wayside Inn, located right on the Stuart Highway. A couple of us braved a dip in the swimming pool which, according to Anastasia, was “colder than the Baltic Sea.”

– Bernice Matthews (Australia)

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Team Members:
Amalendu Edelsten (Australia), Anastasia Aleksejeva (Latvia), Nigel Webber (Australia), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Prabhakar Street (Canada), Edi Serban (Romania), Dima Lehonkov (Ukraine), Bernice Matthews (Australia), Nick File (New Zealand), Noivedya Juddery (Australia), Standa Zubaty (Czech Republic), Prabuddha Nicol (Australia), Runar Gigja (Iceland), Elke Lindner (Germany), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Angela Muhs (Germany), Rathin Boulton (Australia), Misha Kulagin (Russia)

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