Our morning started with a fond farewell to the Cann River Hotel, who hosted us for the evening.

It was then a very short jog up the street to our first appointment at the Cann River P12 College.

We met with all the primary students of the school, running relays across the oval and marvelling at their extensive drum kit and array of musical instruments. Naturally the students were very accomplished in singing the World Harmony Run Song.

It was then back on the road, but not too far, as our next visit was at the Historic Noorinbee Primary School, situated just 6km north up the Monaro Highway.

Noorinbee Primary School, with just 6 students, would have to be the smallest school the Australian World Harmony Run has ever visited. Thankfully there wss a full attendance at school today, but even so, our running team still outnumbered our hosts.

Varna, from Berlin, really enoyed his time at this place. At 70 years young he has been a real asset and joy to have on board.

Such an idyllic and nurturing environment to spend your formative years in. I think the whole team wished they could have had this experience in their own childhood, even if it was only for a year.

Despite the size of the school, the students were all experts in geography, pinpointing the country of origin of all our runners with great accuracy.

Back on the road, and soon across the state border into New South Wales. Many thanks to Satyakarma Elliott, who co-ordinated all our visits and activities in eastern Victoria for the past 5 days.

As we crossed the border the tall native eucalyptus trees were soon left in our wake, as we entered the Monaro Plains. "Monaro", in the indigenous language of the Ngarigo people, means treeless, and this name is very fitting.

Chandrakanta, our sole USA representative, got into the rhythm of the road.

Our final school visit for the day was in the small hamlet town of Nimmitabel which is replete with statues of elephants and in particular, the Indian deity Ganesh. A very rare find indeed.

Nimmitabel Public School is nestled on the hill behind the town, and while it was small in size, it was big in charm and joy for our team.

On the way we met with the friendly staff of the Library on Wheels...

Veeraja from Melbourne crossing over the Great Dividing Range and the highest point that we are to reach on this year's Run. It is now all downhill to Canberra from here.

Vast open lands and barely a tree in sight. A number of our international runners commented that they were finally seeing parts of the Australian landscape that they had previously only heard about.

To rest our weary legs we arrived at the Marlborough Motor Inn, in Cooma, as welcome guests of Chandra & Saras Singh.

– Veeraja

Team Members:
Prabuddha Nicol (Australia), Veeraja Uppal (Australia), Apaguha Vesely (Czech Republic), Kallola Brown (New Zealand), Uddyogini Hall (Australia), Varna Schultz (Germany), Urdhacheta Yap (Singapore), Hastakamala Diaz (Australia), Kieren Tobin (Australia), Chandrakanta Crull (USA), Anubha Baird (Australia)

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

Gallery: See more images!