After a great breakfast outside by the swimming pool in the village of Neuzelle we began our running to Guben, 10km away. Outside the new City Hall of Guben, we met children from the Peace School and the mayor.

We met a boy who was originally from Moscow. Svetlana started talking to him and found out that he was fluent in Russian, German and English.

The sun was very hot and intense as we continued our run to Peitz City Hall to meet the mayor. A few of us tried to seek shade where ever we could find it - a few found shade under the World Harmony Run flag.

The mayor warmly greeted us and provided with some great refreshments and fruit - the melon and ice-tea was especially refreshing. The mayor informed us that this region of Germany is generally the hottest and driest in the country. With the temperature approaching the mid 30s by midday the remainder of the day was going to be a challenge to run.

In Cottbus we held a ceremony at a Children's Festival at Cottbus football stadium. The media filmed our arrival with children running with us and we went up on stage to talk to the children.

We were kindly presented with a figurine of a runner with a torch and a book on the history of Cottbus. After the ceremony the organiser generously provided us with pancakes and apple sauce - it was delicious.

Waving goodbye to the children we ran with three local runners through Park Branitz. It made a change to run on small forest paths rather than road. At certain intervals along the path there were water sprinklers and we got a much needed refreshing soak to cool down. After about 4km we left the park and headed on the road to Dobern. Shortly afterwards we said farewell to the local runners.

At Dobern we met young children at a summer school club who were enjoying a swim in their paddling pool when we arrived. They quickly gathered around us and all of them had the opportunity to hold the torch. We wish could have joined them in the paddling pool, but we were very grateful for some water.

At Weiswasser we met young people from the local school and officials from the town. They enthusiastically and happily ran with the torch.

Along our route we stopped at a shop and two ladies wanted so much to know about the run and hold the torch.

Our final 15 km was run through pine forests fresh from recent heavy downpours. By the time we reached Niesky it felt very humid and the thunderstorm clouds were gathering in the far distance. As we got ready to retire to bed the wind picked up and the thunder rumbled and the flashes of lightning lit up the whole sky. Shortly after the rain came pouring down and we drifted off to sleep to the sound of raindrops on the windows.

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Distance: 143km

Team Members:
Daniel Schenke (Germany), Jadranka Grbic (Serbia & Montenegro), Jarek Werner (Poland), Mark Collinson (England), Marlen Bernhard (Germany), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Petar Mihaylov (Bulgaria), Petr Machacek (Czech Republic), Svetlana Gorshkova (Russia), Valentine Bebik (Ukraine), Zoltan Theobald (Hungary).

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

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