Team A

We began our day by once again exploring the water’s edge at our Bridgetown accommodation where gorgeous weeping trees shared the view of the morning’s spectacular pink dawn.

We left this oasis to begin our day with a ceremony at Bridgetown Primary School, where the morning light was just starting to warm the crisp fresh cool air.

Principal Mike Fletcher greeted us warmly and began rounding up classes from grades 4 to 7 to participate.

These children were very enthusiastic even at this early hour on a very cool morning outdoors. When given the option of first each holding the Torch or running with the Team they all started chanting, “Run, run, run, run” and eagerly jumped up to run with the Torch around their oval. Later when we made a circle and passed around the Torch to every individual, I overheard this wish as a 10-year-old boy closed his eyes and fervently promised with much sincerity: “I will hug you and I will tuck you in and I will take care of you for the rest of my life.”

The World Harmony Torch often invokes feelings within individuals reminiscent of times when they felt completely peaceful and in harmony with their world around them.

Thank you Bridgetown Primary for embracing the message of the World Harmony Run so completely: the running, singing, chanting, laughter, joy and experiences with the Harmony Torch were magical for us to be part of.

A teacher at Bridgetown warned us of the upcoming hills we would soon encounter running out of town…

We enjoyed running through Dalmarup Nature Reserve – a beautiful forest along the Brockman Highway with a myriad of trees and winding hills.

After covering 45 km we arrived in Nannup. Running to the Shire Offices, I looked up to see 3 police officers waving at me! I stopped here at the Police Station and chatted with the officers. They all wanted to hold the Torch and have photos, so an officer used his camera and emailed the pictures to us. Thanks! Another motorist pulled up and said he saw our boys' team running 40 km away into another town. I guess we are getting pretty easy to spot!

At the Nannup Shire Building we met with Shire President Barbara Dunnett and Councillor Carol Pinkerton. Barbara’s kind words included, “I commend you on what you are doing. Within the local government your Run can start at the council level and then spread and link to the wider government … I congratulate you and welcome you to Nannup.”

Media correspondent Maggie Longmore was there to take photos and do articles for two local newspapers: ‘Donnybrook-Bridgetown Mail’ and ‘Nannup Telegraph’.

Thank you to Nannup Shire for the spectacular array of vegetarian savoury treats dished up for lunch. We will never forget that minestrone soup – and the salad wraps, fresh fruit salad and quiche were to die for. Delicious!

Like full round wombats in the sun, we ran from the Shire Office to Nannup District High School for a ceremony with 4 or 5 classes on the school oval.

This of course led to a lap around the oval where our team members were still feeling their full tummies protesting a little! The children made up for our lack of speed by passing the Torch between themselves and running with much vigour.

Thank you to the Principal and staff who accommodated us magnificently, especially since they had tomorrow’s date for our arrival. We didn’t think we ran that fast to arrive a day early!

Now with all our day’s allotted running completed, we headed off for a long-awaited side trip to Augusta. A week or two ago, a friendly lady told us to visit this spot and we couldn’t wait.

Today in Augusta, at the most south-westerly point of Australia, our Team observed the meeting of two of the world's great oceans – an iconic point, well known for a wide variety of sea creatures such as dolphins, seals, fairy penguins and whales.

Here we were again fortunate to spot whales. One Humpback in particular caught our attention, absolutely frolicking in the sea with so much dynamism. He was just playing continuously, thrusting the entire length of his tail out of the water, waving it all about and then slapping it onto the ocean’s surface with a crash of waves visible from miles away. Many, many times he played like this, over and over with tail slapping and waving effortlessly in the air. It was an incredible experience to feel the joy, strength and magnificence of these actions from shore, far away (too far for our cameras to catch clearly).

We continued driving along this stunning coastline towards the lighthouse at the tip. Paul, the Lighthouse Supervisor, kindly gave us free entry into the Lighthouse grounds where we had a good look around amidst strong winds!

Paul told us The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is still an operational lighthouse, complete with the lighthouse keeper’s cottage. It was built in 1895 at the most south-westerly point of Australia with an important role of safe-keeping bestowed upon it.

We could really feel a difference in the moods of the Southern and Indian Oceans as they appeared visibly different on either side of the rocks that lay at the dividing point. We are most grateful to bring the World Harmony Torch here and explore this amazing place.

– Kylie Willams (Australia)

Team B

Last night we had a beautiful and peaceful night's rest accompanied by the local denizens of Donnelly River (see Team C report below) but we also had no access to phone coverage and therefore no way to upload our report. So today Team B split into two. Sandro Zincarini (video), Prabhakar Street (report compiler) and Prachar Stegemann (editor) all headed into the nearest town of Nannup to upload yesterday's report while Edi Serban, Standa Zubaty and Dima Lehonkov ran the daily kilometres. None of us knowing how long it would take to upload and rejoin the team down the road. As it turned out the connection was rather slow, so it took a lot longer than expected to finish. We luckily found a comfortable café in town and completed our demanding work while sipping lattes.

Down the road Sandro had a close call with a nipping horse ...

luckily he has quick reflexes.

Daily we are astounded by the variety and richness of the natural beauty surrounding us as we move from region to region throughout the country.

At a runner's pace we really get a chance to see everything around us and as you can tell, take pictures of it ...

– Prabhakar Street (Canada)

Team C

We left the idyllic Shangri-La of Donnelly River after bidding farewell to our feathered and furry friends of emus, parrots and kangaroos, and headed off towards Margaret River.

Our day was relatively simple, just 58 km to be divided between 5 runners, a literal walk in the park really. The roads were quiet and the route mostly downhill as we descended from the hilly regions back to sea level and our first glimpses of the Indian Ocean.

When we reached Margaret River we met with reporter Amanda from the Busselton-Margaret River Mail who met us in the centre of town to take photos for the paper. We were pleased to hear that Amanda was very familiar with the founder of the Run, having participated in the Sri Chinmoy Triathlon in Canberra 10 years ago.

After all formalities for the day were competed we felt obliged to head to the beach to pay our respects to the Indian Ocean.

– Veeraja Uppal (Australia)

Why Kangaroos are just like us:

they like to play at fighting ...

they are curious ...

they get bored ...

they scratch when they have an itch ...

they sometimes feel left out ...

they love naps ...

they like to gargle ...

they enjoy hanging around with friends ...

they love lying in the sun ...

they sometimes turn and hop, errrrr walk away, when you are talking to them ...

they wonder if they are making any progress at the gym ...

they sometimes have a sore leg ...

they check to see if their diet is working OK ...

they ignore the strange mammals in the funny blue suits ...

they like to indulge in gossip ...

they practise yoga ...

they wonder what you think of them ...

they scratch their heads when they are confused ...

they like to be the supervisor ...

they crowd into the van all at once ...

they wish they were older already ...

they sometimes stare ...

they like to day-dream ...

they like to hang out in the street ...

they often wonder if you have any idea what you're talking about ...

– Prabhakar Street (Canada)

Team Members:
Uddyogini Hall (Australia), 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:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

Gallery: See more images!