Team A

The first event of the day was the meeting with the representatives of All Souls St Gabriels School in Charters Towers, who gladly ran with us from the top of Towers Hill down to their school (a 6 km run).

Once there, we had the chance to address the students during the assembly and had some fun involving a few of them in our singing performance.

Later on we met the Mayor of Charters Towers, Ben Callcott and offered him the Torch.

Following the meeting we made the most of an exquisite lunch provided for us by the Council!

The rest of the day was a nice afternoon spent running our section towards Townsville.

We also want to express our gratitude to Janice and Chris Jones who most generously hosted us in their house, granting some relaxation and comfort after many days of camping.

 

After many long days running across the Outback, today finally we reached Townsville!

And along with Townsville we reached the sea again – from now on we will be running along the coast almost all the way.

With only a thousand miles left until Brisbane and ten days to cover the distance, the team is cruising towards the end, and we could feel the more relaxed atmosphere.

– Sandro Zincarini (Italy)

Team B

We started our running today from the Mingela turnoff on the Flinders Highway, 48 km out of Charters Towers. The landscape was a joy to run through – green grass, butterflies and birds, waterways powerfully flowing with water (not to be taken for granted when you’ve seen as many dry creek and river beds as we have) and trees everywhere.

Mountain ranges rose majestically to the left and to the right of us. “It’s just like looking at the Swiss Alps except these are green!” exclaimed Elke, one of our German team members.

Ian, a pilot from Darwin, stopped to let us know that he’s been travelling around Australia for work and has seen many of our runners along the way. Ian was very happy to hold the Torch and offer his support for the Run.

We arrived in Townsville in the afternoon and were greeted enthusiastically by Sharon Fry, Assistant Manager at the Townsville Showgrounds Caravan Park, who wished us well.

We then headed out to the impressively landscaped Townsville waterfront

for a quick swim in the rock pool

and the nearby surf beach. The ocean was sparkling blue. Magnetic Island is just off shore and looked magnificent.

In the evening we were treated to a most delicious meal by Janice – team-member Rathin Boulton’s mother, at her beautiful Queenslander-style home in South Townsville. We are looking forward to visiting the Primary School tomorrow morning at which she teaches.

– Bernice Matthews (Australia)

Team C

We left Charters Towers on another clear fine day, with a light cool breeze and a cloudless sky.

We passed this flood levels marker and as you can see the water as recently as 1998 was extremely high.

Heavier traffic was evident as we were nearing Townsville and travelling through verdant, rolling countryside and even a few corners, as opposed to long, long, long, straight roads disappearing into the heat haze.

Occasionally we even crossed rivers with actual water contained in the banks, a nice change from the arid Barky Tableland – but no rain today, yesterday or since I joined the Run in Darwin. Will I ever get to use my new running rain jacket? ...

After our running we made our way to the coastal city of Townsville.

On arrival in Townsville, two of us visited the Reef HQ Aquarium and were treated to a great visit including the shark feeding at 3 o-clock. One of the sharks was named Cuddles!!! The Aquarium showcases the diverse ecosystem of Australia's Great Barrier Reef – including not only fish in multitudes of shapes and colours but also a living coral reef!

Our next trip was to the summit of Castle Hill for fantastic 360 degree views over the city, out to sea and Magnetic Island, and back to the hinterland ranges.

Then on to the Showgrounds and the night's camping area, dinner and a close to another great day. We met Doris and Derek Forsyth at the Showgrounds. They told us they had been travelling the length and breadth of Australia for four years.

– Nick File (New Zealand)

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Team Members:
Amalendu Edelsten (Australia), Anastasia Aleksejeva (Latvia), Nigel Webber (Australia), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Prabhakar Street (Canada), Edi Serban (Romania), Dima Lehonkov (Ukraine), Bernice Matthews (Australia), Nick File (New Zealand), Noivedya Juddery (Australia), Standa Zubaty (Czech Republic), Prabuddha Nicol (Australia), Runar Gigja (Iceland), Elke Lindner (Germany), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Angela Muhs (Germany), Rathin Boulton (Australia), Misha Kulagin (Russia)

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Gallery: See more images!

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