Team A

Originally from Argentina, Roland has called Australia home for 25 years. A former long-distance runner, he now owns and operates the Halls Creek Caravan Park, where we enjoyed a wonderful night's sleep after the festivities died down last night. The team is most grateful to Roland and his staff for their kind hospitality.

Halls Creek was quite sleepy this morning after all the excitement of the previous night. We started with a group run through town to a reception and breakfast at the Recreation Centre. Our international runners were joined by Neil Clarke, the local manager of Centrelink and Jo Godfrey, the Youth Services co-ordinator.

At the Recreation and Aquatic Centre we were greeted by former Olympic Swimming Champion Peter Tonkin who, along with his partner Jo Godfrey, now manages the newly-constructed Halls Creek Swimming Pool.

Peter and Jo hosted a special breakfast for the team and told us all about their hopes and dreams for providing recreational services for all the children in the community.

At the age of just 15, Peter qualified as a breast-stroke swimmer for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and went on to win a bronze medal for Australia in the 100m-medley relay.

Kids were arriving to enjoy the Recreation Centre facilities as we were departing for our brief day's running – an average of 10 km each today, another hot and dry excursion, though through more varied terrain.

On arrival in Warmun-Turkey Creek, the team was invited by Ben Smith to meet with some kids at the Ngalangangpum School. Ben, from Kununurra, is running a school holiday program here on behalf of 'Garnduwa', the same organisation thar hosted our memorable visit to Fitzroy Crossing a few days ago.

The kids were delighted to hold the Torch and run a lap of the oval. Some even joined in singing the World-Harmony-Run Song. What seemed to bring them the most joy however, was teaming up with some of the World Harmony Runners for a 'friendly' soccer match.

After the exertions of soccer we retired to the Warmun Road House, where Lionel and Cheryl Sewart would be hosting our entire team for the night. Lionel, originally from Melbourne, greeted us warmly on arrival. The kindness of people in the outback has touched us deeply, just as the vastness of the horizons and the beauty of the landscape has.

– Prachar Stegemann (Australia)

Team B

Children of Halls Creek...

As we leave behind the vibrant community of Halls Creek our journey takes us through the rolling hills of the south-west Kimberley. The green foliage on trees and the long, dry grass show no evidence of the recent fires.

We are grateful for the cool evenings after noticeably feeling the increase in heat, even on shorter running days like today.

Birgette and Inge Marx, and Kim Jenson...

At Warmun-Turkey Creek Roadhouse, where we arre staying tonight, we met up with Birgitte and Inge from Denmark. They are keen marathon runners, both with personal best times under 4 hours and only 2 minutes apart. We hope to see them again on the European World Harmony Run some time. 

Shondean and Sally were keen to hold the torch together.

– Nishima Knowsley (New Zealand)

Team C

After a very good sleep in Halls Creek and a great breakfast, we drove 103 km towards Warmun-Turkey Creek to start our run. After about 26 km of running we met some great kids who ran with Edi Serban, our Romanian runner, for 1 km. They were really enjoying it, with their parents cheering them on!

It was great to see the difference in the environment and to enjoy the sight of some beautiful hills – though not steep, they were covered with bushes, anthills and roaming cattle.

We arrived at our accommodation earlier than usual and met with these great people, Gavin and Lisa from Melbourne, who are travelling around Australia and have been on the road for ten months.

Good luck to you on your adventure!

– Runar Gigja (Iceland)

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

Harmonemail:
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Gallery: See more images!

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