After spending a restful evening accommodated by good friends in Portsea, the team headed down to the Portsea Back Beach to experience the power of Mother Nature.

The Portsea sand-dunes are famous in running folklore where Percy Cerutty, established a long distance running camp in the town during the 1950's and trained his charges with sprints up the steep sandhills. His eccentric ways were often frowned on by the establishment, but he did produce two great runners – Herb Elliott and John Landy, who went on to establish countless middle-distance world records.

After departing Sorrento we ran up the coast road to Rosebud where we were warmly greeted by Mayor David Gibbs and Deputy Mayor Bill Goodrum at the Mornington Peninsula Shire Offices.

After an infomal chat and a rendition of the World Harmony Run Song, Deputy Mayor Bill Goodrum joined the team for their first steps onward to Korumburra.

While the women's team ran on to Merricks Beach, the men's team headed to Cowes, on Phillip Island, where we were enthusiastically greeted by many locals and visitors to this holiday town.

How could we resist the offer of free chocolate from Paddy's Phillip Island Chocolate Factory?

As you can see, copious amounts of cash were spent in rapid succession, to restock our dwindling chocolate supplies, before heading back on the road.

Our next stop was the Koala Conservation Centre where we all posed for a photo with this giant koala.

Despite the wet weather we were able to find a number of koalas nestled in the in trees, sheltering from the rain. Some of us were also wishing we could do the same, rather than run along the roads through the incoming storm.

During a break in the rain, one of the friendly koalas posed for a photo with the torch.

New found friends!

Park Ranger Daniel Kallstrom and Ingrid gave us all a tour of the Centre and explaining the need for the preservation of the native koala population whose numbers have been dwindling at an alarming rate over the past 20 years. But now, thanks to Centres like this, the koala population is beginning to recover.

Our new team mascot to watch over us on the road. He reads road maps too.

And then the rain really came down.

Not much to see here today.

Finally we concluded our running and headed for accommodation at the Warrawee Holiday Units, Foster, as guests of John & Mohya Davies.

– Veeraja

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Distance: 115 km

Team Members:
Veeraja Uppal (Australia), Apaguha Vesely (Czech Republic), Kallola Brown (New Zealand), Becky Xerri (Wales), Uddyogini Hall (Australia), Varna Schultz (Germany), Urdhacheta Yap (Singapore), Prabuddha Nicol (Australia), Kieren Pearson (Australia), Saranyu Pearson (Australia), Hastakamala Diaz (Australia)

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

Gallery: See more images!

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