Team A

The day started bright and early with a radio appointment at ABC Mackay. Announcer Peter Le Page invited us into his studio for a brief interview about the Run and how it was progressing along the road.

Peter himself has worked in a number of remote locations across Queensland and could identify with the experience of vastness that all the runners have felt as they have traversed the continent.

After bidding Peter farewell, we headed out onto the highway towards Marlborough. Today the team welcomed Aaron Carey from Auckland, New Zealand, who is joining the team for the final run into Brisbane. Aaron has a wealth of experience in co-ordinating the World Harmony Run in New Zealand.

As we are now nearing areas of larger population, traffic volumes on the roads are noticeably increasing. However, we are receiving many friendly honks and waves from passing motorists.

After completing our allotted distance we took a quick refreshing dip in the ocean at Clearview.

Interestingly, this area of coast has one of the longest tidal changes in the country. As a result we had to walk for about 200 m across tidal mud-flats just to reach the water and then another 100 m to get waist deep. Still, the water was very refreshing and the perfect tonic after a full day of running.

We were then able to join Team B at their ceremony in St Lawrence to enjoy afternoon tea with many of the town's citizens at the local bowls club.

Many thanks to our kind host last night at the Mackay Marine Tourist Park.

– Veeraja Uppal (Australia)

Team B

Koala – our highlight of the day! I’ll explain, just keep on reading. ☺

We started our day in Mackay at 8 am with 72 km to run. At first we had to drive 73 km out of Mackay to place a 'marker' denoting the finish point for Team A, and our starting point.

Alongside the road we enjoyed nature’s eye-pleasing scenery – mountains, forests, meadows and of course sugarcane fields.

We run in turns, allowing segments of free time that we use for exercising and stretching, reading, writing letters or cards home, learning new songs, just relaxing or any other activities according to one’s preferences...

Myself, for instance – I like to find new objects to photograph...

At 2 pm we had a meeting with the very friendly residents of St. Lawrence at the Bowls Club.

Councillor Geoff Bethel heartily greeted us and accepted the Torch. In his speech he demonstrated a good knowledge of the World Harmony Run, referring to the Run’s website, and expressed his full support for the ideals of world peace and harmony.

As part of the project we were honoured to present World Harmony Run Torch-Bearer Awards to Norm Hannan and Bill Hannan as an acknowledgement of their contribution to the community of St. Lawrence.

In return we introduced members of our multinational team and sang the World-Harmony-Run Song.

The official proceedings gradually moved into informal chatting at the table, laden with home made sandwiches and cakes that we greatly appreciated.

As we parted with our new supporters and friends at St. Lawrence, Bernice noticed a road sign alerting us to the possible presence of koalas during the next 20 km. After intense watching, to our great excitement she indeed spotted a koala high up in a tree. What great luck to see a koala in the wild!

Our day finished at Marlborough's picturesque camping ground.

– Anastasija Aleksejeva (Latvia)

Team C

The road to Marlborough was beautiful – green north-Queensland forests and fields of long grass.

When looking at our team, I sometimes think of one of the teams I liked most in my childhood. As I was not a sports-lover back then, I think of a team with loftier goals: the Justice League, some of the most renowned super-heroes in the comic books. They saved the world (or the universe) frequently, because everyone in the team had different talents that they were able to use for the collective good. No argument, Superman was the toughest guy in that team, but they always saw themselves as equals. Their teamwork was every bit as impressive as their powers.

We might not be superhuman, but we work together as a team.

Dima Lehonkov from Ukraine might be the Flash of our team (the fastest runner), but where would we be without Standa’s and Elke’s culinary talents,

Prabhakar’s and Edi’s photographic skills, or the medical expertise of Misha and Runar? Even though we have leaders (and indeed, we all take turns in this task), and some people might run more kilometres than others, we all work as equals.

It is great to meet with kind people on the road. Mike and Brett Nicolson hail from Loganholme, Brisbane, and are heading to the Northern Territory. They stopped on the way and kindly gave some cold drinks to the team.

Later, Noivedya Juddery chatted with some ladies on their way to Mackay – and they gave him a chocolate éclair. As he doesn’t like to eat and run (not both at once), he ran for the next kilometre with a torch in one hand and an éclair in the other (hoping it wouldn’t melt).

We offer our gratitude to the Marlborough Motel and Caravan Park for their kind hospitality for the team tonight.

We found ourselves sharing the park with another colony of flying foxes which we all found intriguing to watch.

– Noivedya Juddery (Australia)

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Team Members:
Aaron Carey (New Zealand), Amalendu Edelsten (Australia), Anastasija Aleksejeva (Latvia), Nigel Webber (Australia), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Prabhakar Street (Canada), Edi Serban (Romania), Dima Lehonkov (Ukraine), Bernice Matthews (Australia), Veeraja Uppal (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)

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

Gallery: See more images!

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