Team A

Today our vans became time machines, as we voyaged from the verge of one of earth's last great remote wildernesses and ancient cultures – Arnhem Land – to the verge of Darwin, modern capital of the Northern Territory. Sometimes, we wonder whether 'progress' is leading us in the right direction...

Taking a brief pause from running, we met with Team B at Mamukala wetlands. While the water levels are much reduced now from their wet season heights, it is ever-amazing to witness the complete dominance of water over landscape, terrain and life. In Kakadu, everything either is, or is defined by water. Water rules.

The thickets of pandanus spiralus surrounding the wetland offered another ancient-new environment for a quiet walk, as we discovered ourselves in yet another of the myriad worlds of this one wondrous continent.

The sign in English, German and Japanese was quite direct, though our Misha would have liked it in Russian also.

In this quiet, humble waterhole (observed from a discreet distance), life and death, beauty and ugliness, sport and sing as one.

The sublime beauty and delicacy of the lilly floating serenely in such innocent ease in the ambit of one of nature's most feared killers: such is the mind and purpose of the spiritual warrior, the seeker of peace in the midst of a troubled and sometimes hostile world.

Edward was happily directing traffic through a section of roadworks along the highway. He had seen us at the Katherine rodeo a few days earlier and was only too happy to participate in the World Harmony Run by holding the Torch, at least until the next road train approached and he was called into action once more.

– Prachar Stegemann (Australia)

Team B

This was my last night in a tent on the run. I’ll miss settling down at the end of the day under just the inner lining of the tent and looking up through the netting to the galaxy of stars and full moon – heaven on earth. Last night we did take an extra precaution by putting the rain shield over the tent after Jabiru had 2 inches of rain the previous night – the first rain since April! … we still could see the Milky Way and moon.

After collecting our enormous lunch bags today we started our run in relatively ‘cool’ conditions. We were thankful for the cooler breeze from the south, dropping the temperature a little.

Herman from Holland is travelling around the Northern Territory.

Danny from the Hash House Harriers and his three sons Thomas, Dylan and Jack are generously allowing us to use their home in Darwin while they attend a rally in Alice Springs with a vintage fire engine. We have gone from tenting in the bush to motel-style accommodation with a lot of thoughtful touches – thank you!

I wasn’t going to mention crocodiles in this report – but look who we found beside the Mary River coming into Darwin!

– Nishima Knowsley (New Zealand)

Team C

After farewelling Jabiru and our hosts at the Kakadu Lodge who most graciously accommodated us for the evening, we headed west toward Darwin, the largest city we have seen since Perth, almost one month ago.

At our starting point for the day we came across a pretty unusual site ... even for here in the outback.

Along the way we could not resist stopping to admire the sight of thousands of magpie geese and other birds that flock to the Mamukala Wetlands – and this is the time of year when the bird traffic is not busy!

After this brief visit, it was into the radiant sun for our 80 km leg into the small township of Humpty Doo, which sits just outside Darwin.

Today was the last substantial running day for Miroslav Pospisek from the Czech Republic, who has been with us since Perth.

To honour our Team Captain for the day, and the completion of his last longer run on Australian soil, an impromptu finish line was set up for him to cross. Miroslav later thanked the team by buying us all ice cream...

– Veeraja Uppal (Australia)

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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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