Team A

Today belonged to Misha Kulagin, our team member from Russia, or rather to Dennis, Misha's son who today turned 21 years-old. To honour the occasion, Misha decided to run a marathon in celebration of his son's birth, a day that Misha fondly declares as the happiest day of his life.

So at 6.25 am, with only Torch light and the faint glow of the rising sun to guide his steps, Misha began his sojourn along the highway from Fortescue River Roadhouse to a nondescript point, 42.2 km further north.

Between him and his goal was a howling 30 knot headwind, temperatures rising into the high 20s, massive road-trains passing within arm's length and absolutely no shade or protection from the elements.

To spice things up even more, after only 5 km he was visited by a helicopter carrying members of the team, who as well as taking fantastic footage, managed to bathe him in copious amounts of red sand and dust.

But onward and undaunted our brave solider marched, battling all man and nature could throw at him, persevering, smiling and striving all the way.

After 4 hours and 56 minutes the goal was won. With 3 helpers, the blue sky and the red Pilbara dust as witnesses, Misha completed his heroic journey. By no means a fast marathon but one hard fought and deeply earned.

But the celebrations did not end there. Tonight Misha with the assistance of Dima Lehonkov from Ukraine, displayed their culinary talents by cooking a traditional Russian meal, borscht, much to the delight of the whole team.

Congratulations Misha and happy birthday Dennis!

– Veeraja Uppal (Australia)

Team B

We are feeling a lot more confident with our skills in putting up tents, because after a very windy night our tents survived better than one of the boys' tents, which ended up as a crumpled heap on top of its occupants!

We started our run as the sun was rising.

First we drove 42.2 km to measure the finishing point for Misha’s marathon.

An hour into our run with little warning the helicopter appeared from behind a hill. We felt like we were in an action movie.

The helicopter was upon us, armed with cameramen.

Three of us tried to run together, keeping our composure and looking dynamic but we couldn’t see anything with the sun in our eyes and helicopter blowing a dust cloud around us. We were running blind and breathless.

As quickly as it had arrived the helicopter rose and disappeared from sight – our moment of stardom over. Wiping the dust from our eyes we returned to the silence of the run a little relieved after all the excitement.

Once again the girls covered the most kilometres of the three teams. (Not that we are competing or anything!) Despite a daylong strong head wind we were finished by 1.30 pm.

We are all very grateful to the Karratha Caravan Park for offering us their few available camping sites.

On the way out to enjoy some free time,

we passed a huge salt ‘farm'.

The girls decided on a change in training – speed training and rock climbing has been included in the program.

Hearsons Cove is a great place to enjoy the surf and explore the surrounding outcrops of rock. It is famous for the natural phenomenon called 'Stairway to the Moon' which happens on three evenings of each month. The low tide mud flats and rising moon create an illusion of stairs climbing up to the moon.

On the beach we met 'old' friends of the World Harmony Run. Virginia and Alex Porteous also ran into some of our team at a coffee shop in Karratha this morning.

Later in the afternoon we returned with our friend Bread (Brad Farmer) and others in the team to explore the prolific rock art in the area. It helps so much to have a guide. Thanks Bread!

– Nishima Knowsley (New Zealand)

Team Chopper

At the crack of dawn, the lucky members of Team Chopper were strapping into our seats and getting camera gear ready for an all-new experience.

Darren, our pilot friend we met last night, was heading to the same town as we were and agreed to take us along for a photographic expedition.

Everything was a go as we lifted gently off into the brisk clear morning air and swiftly banked out over the river for an exhilarating ride to meet up with the teams, earth-bound and and moving at a sleepy step by step trot.

comparatively 

Swiftly we flew at over 200 kilometres an hour with the door off to snap photos and film of our terrestrial friends below, taking in some truly beautiful and memorable views of the vastness and remoteness of the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Flying straight into the dawn sky and exchanging happy and excited looks and laughs we soared over the red dusty earth we had been so bound to for the last 72 days of the run.

The world takes on a totally different impression from this new angle and we all eagerly took in the rich beauty of the earth below.

With the ocean in the distance and the cool air in our faces we spotted Misha and the girls team running first as small specks, then as we hovered nearer we could make out our friends. We started to cover this suddenly 'National Geographic' moment with our cameras slung safely over our shoulders and half-leaning out into open space (don't read the last sentence Mom, or look at the next picture!)

Quickly recording the runners with high speed shutters and digital cameras, circling them in flight and capturing a fresh and completely unique view of the World Harmony Run, Darren softly landed in a field and dropped us off before carrying on his daily job, flying for the Heli West Group.

And for us, after a thrilling flight, plunked down inside a cow field, we rejoined our team that progresses at the pace of feet, slowly and unerringly around this wide and wondrous continent of Australia.

– Prabhakar Street (Canada)

Post-Run Report

Having completed our running for the day, this evening we accompanied our friend Bread (Brad Farmer) to view examples from the most ancient known rock art in the world at Burrup Peninsula.

From here and spread right across the islands of the nearby Dampier Archipelago is a remarkable landscape of boulder-strewn ridges, plateaux and steep-sided gorges. Inscribed on seemingly random boulders of varying sizes, right across this region are up to a million petroglyphs of both sacred and secular representations, dating from tens of thousands of years ago up until recent times. The art is extraordinary in its variety and scope: some simple drawings of animals, fish and birds, along with other more mysterious figures.

This area is sacred to the Aborigines, and is associated with stories of Dreamtime spirits. Climbing through one of these valleys dominated by such unusual rocks, one could easily have been on another planet.

The descent of the sun was like the conductor tapping his baton on the rostrum, commanding our attention, to which the whole ridge of rocks' resplendent response was a concert of glorious glowing carmine.

Silenced by the intensity-immensity of this striking display, we gathered at nearby Hearsons Cove for the next course of Nature's banquet: twilight over the lisping low-tide bay...

This evening rounded off with a Russian feast prepared by Misha in honour of his son Dennis' birthday today. After our hearty dinner and a few songs, we were delighted to present Bread (Brad Farmer) with the World Harmony Run's Torch-Bearer Award in recognition and appreciation of his heart's boundless love and his life's indefatigable service to all.

– Prachar Stegemann (Australia)

If you would like to place a link or a write a story about the World Harmony Run on your website, click here to Link to Us. We'll be happy to place a reciprocal link and list you on our Friends Online page.

– Prachar Stegemann (Australia)

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Team Members:
Prabuddha Nicol (Australia), Kritartha Brada (Czech Republic), Nishima Knowsley (New Zealand), Edi Serban (Romania), Runar Gigja (Iceland), Iva Nemcova (Czech Republic), Prabhakar Street (Canada), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Prachar Stegemann (Australia), Misha Kulagin (Russia), Dima Lehonkov (Ukraine), Angela Muhs (Germany), Veeraja Uppal (Australia), Miro Pospisek (Czech Republic), Elke Lindner (Germany), Standa Zubaty (Czech Republic)

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