Friday 5 May Nagykanizsa - Siofok, 104km

The International Team caught up with the Hungarian runners at a small town called Zalakomar, 18km from Nagykanizsa. There the runners were applauded by more than 150 children. The atmosphere was simply fabulous and the runners freely mingled with the children. The Hungarian runners handed out leaflets, stickers and balloons to all the children. Then the children all ran together with the torch, spanning over 100m and forming a veritable ocean of children.

The Hungarian landscape is in sharp contrast with Croatia. Here we have expansive fields, with bright yellow flowers of rapeseed plant. The Team has noticed also that mosquitoes seem to respect international borders. In Croatia, not a buzz of a mosquito, but as soon as we crossed the border into Hungary they are all around us as soon as we stop running. The mosquitoes in Hungary are very hungry. Already a few of us have had some nasty bites. The Team ran along the shore of Lake Balaton.

Roberto, our German runner, took the plunge and tried to run with the torch in the Lake.

The Lake was very high, as this area has had a lot of rain recently and some of the shores.

At Fonyod we had a ceremony with a mayor and some local children.

Our third meeting of the day was in Balatonboglar, on the shores of Lake Balaton. This small town has a population of 7,000 but swells to 100,000 during the summer. We were kindly received by the vice mayor and a local schoolteacher. The schoolteacher is an athletics coach and she used to compete in the 400m and was able to run the 400m under 60 seconds - quite impressive!

At Balatonfoldvar we met children from the local football club and the mayor. The town may be small but it has a great sporting history and has produced many national sportspeople. The mayor ran rather fast with the torch and the children energetically followed. One young girl was struggling, but as soon as we handed her the torch, she got a spurt of energy and continued right to the very outskirts of the town. We waved them goodbye and headed to our final destination of Siofok under the fabulous evening sunshine. At the local refreshment station Mark and Sebastian tried to get some water, but didn't have much luck.

The run into Siofok was really vibrant and many children joined us.

In Siofok city square we handed the mayor the torch and were treated to some marvellous performances.

The vibrancy of the children spilled over into the ceremony. The ceremony began with a choir singing our World Harmony Run song. Extra special were the girl dancers dancing to Irish music and twirling sticks. They were very professional. A run around the square with the mayor and children was a fitting end to the ceremony.

The day was complete with a final run along the shore of Lake Balaton under the setting sun.

The Team's accommodation was in Siofok on the tranquil shores of Lake Balaton. It is currently not the tourist season so it has that sleepy seaside feel to it. And this sleepiness extended to all the runners as the long days, and the late nights of the last week finally caught up with us. A new runner, Frank from Holland, arrived during the night, to join our currently rather small International Team. We are now the Famous Five. We are gradually picking up runners so we hope to be the Magnificent Seven in the coming days.

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

Gallery: See more images!