Team A

Our team captain for the day, Dima Lehonkov from Ukraine, led from the front this morning with 15 km directly into a stiff breeze.

After the flat flatness of the Nullarbor, today offered an endless series of rolling hills – up and down, up and down (but mostly up) – into the relentless wind every step of the way.

For the whole 70 km we were flanked by sparse eucalypt forest, a Spartan breed that seemingly prides itself on wresting an existence from the uncompromising dry red earth it inhabits.

 

Long long straightaways beckoned us ever westward across the continent's vast body: for us another day, day 50 of our journey; for the land through which we run, the merest blink of an eye...

 

After leading us so ably today, Dima backed up his effort to team up with Colm Magee from Ireland to produce a splendid meal for the whole team...

 

Our heart's gratitude to Pat and Russell Smith who are kindly accommodating our entire team tonight in their delightful Great Western Motel in Norseman. The rooms are spacious and comfortable – exactly what our team needed for some weary limbs after the crossing of the Nullarbor.

- Prachar Stegemann (Australia)

Team B

Hi everyone from Norseman, it’s great to be in contact with the rest of the world, online again.

Before leaving our accommodation at the Balladonia Motel this morning, we took time to look through the interesting museum there. The world’s 5th largest meteorite landed only 15 km away from where we stayed here.

Our German girls (Angela and Elke) along with Friederike (who was also born in Germany) met with a man who works here and is travelling for a year from Germany. The four had a great conversation in German together.

The soothing part about today’s running leg, was that we were all able to run continuously off the bitumen and alongside the road on soft, even dirt. It felt wonderful.

Once we entered Norseman, we drove for a little detour to the top of a hill to look around at this gold mining town from above. This was the start of a pretty track named the Woodlands Walk and we met Tony at this lookout point. Tony from Quorn (where we passed through back in S.A.) had heard all about the races that the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team put on in Australia and had several friends who had entered the 24 hour Race over 20 years ago in Adelaide! Good to meet you, Tony.

This afternoon, before sunset, we had our first official ceremony in Western Australia! Councillor Amanda Elleson of the Shire of Dundas in Norseman received us at the Tourist Visitor Centre and started off by giving a wonderful speech of welcome.

Veeraja Uppal commented that this was indeed our official welcome to W.A. as we hadn’t had a ceremony in a few days whilst crossing the Nullarbor.

There were a few school children plus the Educational Assistant from Norseman School attending this ceremony and they were so excited to tell us we’d be visiting their school tomorrow morning.

See you tomorrow!

- Kylie Williams (Australia)

Team C

Calm.

Calm was the way our day went today over 70 km to the tail end of the great Nullarbor as we all seemed to run within ourselves and contemplate the experience over the last few days here of wide views and long days.

From the stories and reports we heard in advance, we were all somewhat intimidated by the remoteness and inhospitable nature of the Nullarbor but found the area friendly, fascinating and full of joyful moments that we will cherish.

Edi Serban from Romania ran strong as always today clocking out 20 km early on followed by Misha Kulagin from Russia, myself and Runar Gigja from Iceland.

At one section of the route we traversed a burned out area, leaving the landscape stark and eerie...

We are looking forward to what is to come but also feeling a little sad to leave the solitude and richness of the Nullarbor.

Often as we run along the highway an oncoming road train or other vehicle requires us to move off from the paved, level shoulder down into the trenched ditch full of rocks, stray branches and tufts of small brush.

Today was no exception as not just the passing trucks but the fierce head-wind forced me into the relative shelter of the small brush and trees lining the roadway. I found it soft and mostly level, red soil dampened by yesterday's rain. I began to enjoy dodging around the rocks and jumping the various logs that lay happenstance along the verge and as more brush appeared I was weaving in and out between these small bushes and trees as if I was on a trail in the woods winding along as I did many times in Canada as a boy … it brought to mind my years as a cross country runner and how I loved to run through the woods. How much more alive and immediate it was to run where every step had to be weighed carefully, placed strategically to move smoothly, swiftly across the terrain without a fall or injury ... Even in a car, driving with my family I would look out the window and imagine I was running along the road at full speed, elemental and endless, flying breathlessly forward, leaping and swerving, forward always forward … and here I ran, weaving, jumping and thrilled to feel the call in my muscles to fly … to feel the richness of life in these simple steps across this vast inviting continent, as my smile and sweat mingled with the sun and sky on a brilliant day, foot replacing foot out from the great Nullarbor Plain.

- Prabhakar Street (Canada)

Team D

On the World Harmony Run we cover many kilometres on foot every day so when the opportunity comes to have a rest day it is something to be savoured.

Today Sandro from Italy and I were given the task of driving our motor-home which is affectionally known as the RV (short for Recreation Vehicle) straight from Balladonia Roadhouse to Norseman, a distance of approximately 192 km.

The RV is the Mother Ship of the World Harmony Run in Australia – it is our kitchen producing all our meals, stores all our food and provides an office for us when we are in remote areas. It is the closest thing we have to a home for the next 9 weeks.

Today while we were driving down the highway we came across a turnoff to Fraser Range Sheep Station. I remembered in Eucla some days day back some travellers telling me about this place, so could not resist the opportunity to drive 1 km along a graded dirt road to have a look. Sometimes these little excursions end in nothing, but today we struck gold.

Fraser Range Sheep Station is run by Paul and Teen Ryan (short for Christine). Since Paul is the current President of the Shire of Dundas, both Teen and Paul already knew all about the World Harmony Run and about our meeting later today in Norseman and were almost expecting us to appear.

The Sheep Station is really massive covering 437,000 acres, with a distance of 160 km between the northern and southern boundaries. Although the property could potentially hold 8000 sheep, the lack of rain and the poor quality of some of the fences has restricted the station to 2000 sheep in 3 paddocks of just 30,000 acres each.

If that was not enough to keep Paul and Teen busy, they have also renovated many of the old homestead buildings into accommodation units, surrounded by a lovely native garden.

Paul also took time out to show us around the old shearing shed and even got the old motor going to show us how the best shearers can each shear 100 sheep in a day. They are hoping to restore the shearing shed to its full former glory in the near future.

After looking around the station, we walked up into the hills surrounding the property to pay a visit to the resident emu and kangaroo population.

- Veeraja Uppal (Australia)

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Team Members:
Kylie Williams (Australia), Friederike Makowka (Switzerland), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Angela Muhs (Germany), Elke Lindner (Germany), Shapathanal Daly (New Zealand), Misha Kulagin (Russia), Dima Lehonkov (Ukraine), Standa Zubaty (Czech Republic), Edi Serban (Romania), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Runar Gigja (Iceland), Prabhakar Street (Canada), Colm Magee (Ireland), Veeraja Uppal (Australia), Prachar Stegemann (Australia)

Harmonemail:
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