Another day on the road, and you sometimes wonder what will lie ahead for you each day. Today was just that day ...
... it was the weekend – a long weekend at that – and we did not have any ceremonies so we only had to run to our next destination. The realisation that we had a light day of running meant we took the day at 'holiday' pace ...
... some days we are packing up camp at 6.30 am to get on the road by 7 am and do some fast turn overs to get to the ceremonies on time. A change of pace is sometimes needed.
After the luxury of staying in a house for the night (for the girls team) or a hotel (for the boys team), the team enjoyed a scrambled egg and toast breakfast before setting out on the stretch of road from Esperance to Ravensthorpe.
We starting to see some blue sky. This is the first blue sky we have seen for as long as we can remember [actually about 3 days] – and it is a welcome sight! After all the heavy rain of the past few days, some promising signs of a break in the weather ...
... though still plenty to smile about for the ducks ...
Our 3 teams split up the kms between Esperance and Ravensthorpe, all of us on the road at the same time to cover the distance more efficiently ...
Amalendu's having a little trouble with his calf muscle so he looks set for a lighter day. He ended up with 12.2 km ...
We noticed a real change in the scenery. The roadside plant life had seen a lot more rain than the places we were in the last few days ...
... lush green plants and red earth greeted us as we ran ...
... we were delighted to find so many flowers and even moss on the side of the road ...
... and a greater variety of trees.
This is the most intensive farming land we have encountered since well before the Nullarbor, about 10 days ago. These newly-planted crops have just been greeted by over a month's rain in 2 days, they'll be loving it!
In addition to the intensive croplands, there were cattle ...
... sheep, and ...
... emus?!
Today we began a new month - June – Summer in the northern hemisphere where our European Peace Run brothers and sisters are currently running with the Peace Torch in Spain.
On Salil's run he found a watermelon. He had to carry it about a kilometre ...
... where Ion received it with – enthusiasm?
Almost as soon as we had started today, Tina (originally from Jakarta) and lan (originally from Bradford in Yorkshire) – now both living in Singapore, though travelling in Western Australia – pulled over to find out what we were on about ...
... then with Bayarkhuu running ahead ...
... 2 more travellers stopped – Nicolas and David are from Brittany in North-Eastern France ...
... so they were able to have a nice chat with Adrien and give him a chance to brush up on his little-used native tongue. David has recently cycled across the continent from Darwin to Adelaide, so he was particularly fascinated with our endeavour ...
There was another phenomenon we hadn't seen for a while – hills, gentle and sometimes not so gentle. Having been on a long flat road for over a week it took a little time for the mind to grasp what it was looking at. The 'folds' in the land looked beautiful and welcoming. As we ran closer to them our bodies started to realise we had to work a little harder to go up and over them. After the fourth or fifth hill our muscles were starting to remember what to do as gravity tries to pull us back down ...
Lush green everywhere ...
There was only a light scatter of rain today. After some very dramatic weather conditions this was a pleasant addition to the run, cooling us down and allowing us to lengthen our stride and quicken our pace to keep from allowing the rain to cool us too much.
Towards the end of the boys' run for the day, Bayarkhuu – who can't get enough kms into his legs – elected to run alongside Grahak for his final 7 km, bringing his daily total to 27 km, following his 30 km yesterday ...
... while the girls team brought us home to Ravensthorpe ...
We didn't see as much rain as yesterday and hopefully when we reach the beach tomorrow the sun will be shining brightly on us!
At the end of the day's running, when we reach our accommodation place for the night, there is always one more opportunity to light the Torch ...
We are all gratitude to Peter and Gaylene of the Ravensthorpe Palace Motor Hotel, for so generously offering us rooms for the night for our entire team. We also had our dinner here, which was absolutely delicious!
We have now well and truly made the re-entry into civilization after the simplicity of running across the Nullarbor. We are now seeing traffic lights, department stores, chain restaurants and other trappings of modern society.
Perth may be less than a week away, yet first we must pass through one of the most beautiful, rich and diverse corners of this vast continent – the amazing, enthralling south-west of Western Australia ...
