Carmarthen Fire station, where the World Harmony Runners stayed last night is located off Water Lane, and there was water in abundance this morning as the grey skies blew wet and windy. However, the rain could not dampen the spirits of the runners so early in the day, and they headed out to their first event at the Carmarthenshire County Council. The runners were met with an official welcome by the leader of the council, Dewi Enoch who was also going to be present at the next function, at The Botanical Gardens.

The route to the National Botanic Garden of Wales from Carmarthen winds through beautiful country scenery, as befits a National treasure.

The weather gods were still blessing the runners as they arrived and were met by the Director of the Gardens, Peter Hamilton who escorted them by train up to the Great Glasshouse.

Three years in the making, construction of the building began in 1997 and it was opened to the public in 2000. Designed by Lord Norman Foster, the structure is 95m long and 55m wide, and is tilted to expose more glass to the south and west where the sunlight predominates. The landscape architect, Kathryn Gustafson created a Mediterranean landscape which reflects features and examples of that type of climate from various places in the world, like California and Chile.

The runners and local organisers, Charana and Prababhati Evans were given a guided tour by Randall David. The tour showed how much pressure is being placed on large areas of the environment where humanity has a significant presence, and how interconnected the world's bio-diversity is with existence on Earth.

After the tour there were a few moments where the runners gathered around an olive tree that had been dedicated to Peace and Harmony in 2006, for a moment's silence before lunch was kindly provided by the Garden's restaurant.

The rain eased off finally as the World Harmony run said goodbye to the beauty encapsulated in the grounds of Middleton Estate and started making itsway towards Swansea.

First stop on the way was at Caefneithin Primary School, a small Welsh-speaking rural school of 60 children, where the runners were welcomed by children who demonstrated the universal power of enthusiasm.

With a group of little children from Caefneithin we proceeded to the Peace Mala in Morriston, Swansea where Pam Evans has created a Peace initiative that unites many different faiths.

Using a string of 14 coloured beads called a mala, symbolizing different spiritual paths, Pam has been inspiring communities all over the UK since September, 2001. Pam Evans was Head of Religious Studies and her pupils were discussing the terrible events of September the 11 when they realised that something needed to be done to combat prejudice and religious intolerance - and so Peace Mala was born.

These days Pam organizes events that bring people together; next Monday the Harmony Run will be involved in one of Pam’s projects in Cardiff.

The final leg of the day was a run into the centre of Swansea and thence to The Retreat Centre located on Humphrey Street, where we gave a short presentation as a finale to Peace Day, a program of activities that focused on Peace, organized by Sara Dickens.

The World Harmony runners afterwards ate a beautiful meal created by Nick and Denise, who run the wholefood café and Retreat Centre; our hearts' gratitude to them for their kindness and dedication.

We are very, very grateful to Best Western Aberavon Beach Hotel for accommodating the runners. Their generosity and kindness was so appreciated.

---

Distance: 50km

Team Members:
Ondrej Vesely, Rosta Vagner, Katka Prusova (Czech Republic), Balavan Thomas, Roger Chamberlain (England) Abichal Watkins (Wales), Jarek Werner (Poland), Terezia Hammel (Hungary) Ieva Kurzemniece and Anette Klavina (Latvia)

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

Gallery: See more images!

< Wales 20 September

Wales 22 September >