This morning the driver of an enormous truck stopped in front of one of the Peace Runners and beckoned to the runner from his cabin. Opening his window, he handed down a small key; then followed a money box. "These go together", he explained, and drove off...
Today with no formal engagements, we enjoyed a timetable-free run along the New England Highway.
You never know what you might see alongside the road while waiting for the runner to arrive. Here two young bulls were demonstrating exactly what it means to "go head-to-head".
Not sure which one we should be following?
Mixed chorus.
That's it for the men's team's miles for today...
Meanwhile, the women's team had also decided to get on the road nice and early, as we had over 100km to drive before we arrived at our designated start location. Up and out the door by 6.30am, we took to the road travelling down the New England Highway and by 8.15am we had arrived!
The team had about 75km to do today, with the option of doing a few more to help us out tomorrow we all took off running from 5 – 7km to get some of the kms done in the relative cool of morning.
It was such a lovely day out on the road, just driving forward and waiting for our runner to come in. It was a time for reflection and stillness, for taking a moment after the last few full and wonderful days to look up, turn our gaze to this beautiful, vast and varying ancient land of Australia and count our blessings that we were the fortunate Peace Runners to be on this section of the Southern Hemisphere Peace Run.
Each country the Peace Run visits is so unique and wonderful, and running slowly across the country taking time to meet all the peace-loving people in each community, town and city makes you feel such a part of a wider global family…
For the first time all of our international team saw kangaroos, which were met with exclamations of joy – many a photo was taken.
It was a fun-filled joyful day for all.
With time to sit and enjoy the stillness and beauty of nature we made a little picnic for lunch, which after all our running was very much enjoyed and before long all gone!
Still feeling fresh when we made it into Jerry's Plains we thought why not just do a few extra kms for the team for tomorrow, each of us getting out for a quick 2km or so we were able to knock off close to an extra 20km along the Golden Highway.
The men's team by now were enjoying their lunch i a small park in Muswellbrook...
... after which everyone collapsed on the grass in the oh-so-welcome shade.
