This was our highest mileage day yet – 209 km – with a few schools, visits with Mayors and media engagements as well: a challenging yet rewarding day in the life of the Peace Run. Our girls team started this morning with a quick visit to the Blue Lake in Mt Gambier, the town's water supply which is in the crater of an extinct volcano...
... meanwhile, the Mayor of Wattle Grange Shire, Peter Gandolfi was meeting our boys team at the Council Chambers in Millicent.
The Mayor very cheerily greeted our runners and wished us all the best on our journey, exchanging also letters of greeting for us to bring back to Canberra.
The sky foretold more 'blessings' ahead ...
Our boys team then hit the road ...
Our girls next visited Mount Gambier North School.
The Principal of the school happens to be Jane Turner who received The Peace Run Torch Bearer Award last night at the dinner with the Mayor.
We were also blessed with the attendance of Mt Gambier’s deputy mayor Byron Harfield.
This school was great as they are living proof of peace and harmony between nations.
Thsi has been the most multicultural school that we have come across yet.
Abhejali and Harita had a great time live on ABC Radio. A big thank you to Tash the ABC Radio reporter and also to Georgia the photographer from "The Border Watch" newspaper who had also come to the dinner the previous evening with the Mayor of Mt Gambier.
Then our girls team were also ready to run!
Stretching! A crucial part of a runner's daily routine.
While our boys team continued running past the turn-off to Beachport ...
... our girls team headed into the town ...
... and were met by the cross-country team for the final km into ...
... Beachport Primary School!
This school visit was a lovely experience. With 50 students the gathering had a very sweet family feeling and we could see a lot of kindness and care among themselves.
The 'passport game' was met with a lot of enthusiasm ...
... and afterwards the children spontaneously offered three very fitting songs, one about the seven continents and two about sports.
Our South Australian uber-coordinator, Sipra Lloyd, attended a few of the ceremonies today and checked in with all our runners on her way back to Adelaide where she is preparing for our arrival very soon!
Our boys team meanwhile had reached Kingston with 3 hours up their sleeves ...
... so naturally they found their way to The Big Lobster – a 17 metre tall hint as to what the main industry in these parts might be – where proprietors Murray and Jane Pitt were only too happy to accept the Peace Torch in front of "Larry" (he's the big red guy) ...
... and provide us a space with free wifi to catch up on some work from home ...
... and to finish collating and uploading yesterday's report "Live from the Road."
Nick Brown, CEO of Kingston Council gave our runners a warm welcome down the road in Lions Park, right on the foreshore, and accepted our letter on behalf of the Mayor of Kingston.
Our boys team then headed to their accommodation for tonight at the Coorong Hotel Motel at Policeman's Point, where our kind host Rod greeted the team on arrival.
By now it was 4pm, and our girls team found we still had 70km to run to arrive at Salt Lake. We all enjoyed the running while feeling much evening peace in the air. We had to do triple leap frogging for a while but fortunately it was not a busy road so we didn’t mind this increased intensity.
Zina was ‘fortunate’ again to run through heavy rain but even though she was soaking wet, she remained cheerful throughout the whole run.
We didn’t expect the evening to come so soon so we had to finish our mileage at dark, of course, safety came first.
It was a real delight to reach the Meningie Hotel whose chef likes to invent new types of vegetarian dishes. We found out many similarities in our activities, for example the chef and his wife are also involved in various yoga activities, including a new programme for primary school children called “Peaceful hearts, peaceful hands“ which aims at bringing the message of peace and compassion to schools and the whole community. We are most grateful foir their kindness and wish them good luck in their future endeavours.
Back at Policeman's Point, Shay – Rod's partner at the Coorong Hotel Motel – who has never cooked a vegetarian meal in her life before today – cooked the boys team up an absolute gourmet feast, which our hungry runners enjoyed immensely!
After such a bonanza dinner, an enthralling New Zealand vs Mongolia tussle kept the team entertained ...
Our entire team would like to take this opportunity to express our immense gratitude to "Recochem" (Melbourne) who have supplied us with the fuel which is used in our torches. This amazing fuel – similar to lamp oil – burns in pretty much any conditions – rain, wind, hail – playing the crucial role of sustaining the all-important Peace Flame in its journey around the continent.
