Good morning, new day! Good morning, sunshine (though not too much today)!
Peace runners, pack up, get ready, and let us go on a new adventure. Oh! It`s always hard to leave the warm accommodation. But we have things to do today: to cover mileage, to meet people, to see new places, to share inspiration, to transcend ourselves … Yesterday we found the water melon, we saw emus… – let`s see what`ll be the newness of the second day of June!
... now all our room keys are collected ...
After the blessingful drops of soft rain in the morning, and once the appointed crew finished the preparation of the lunch for the team – wraps created by Chez Adrien, ably assisted by Bayarkhuu, simple yet satisfying with hummus, cheese, lettuce, cucumber and tomato – the respective captains ‘commanded’ the boarding on our three vans and we went to the starting points of the running legs allotted from beforehand.
Peering into the seething core of one of our older torches, the vehicles which bear the flame of peace, the soul of our Peace Run ... the torch lit, it is time to carry the flame forth on its daily journey ...
Boys team 'A' has the first 57 km out of town, and once again Amalendu leads the way while everyone else is still packing their things ...
Prachar heading out into newly-sown fields of hope and promise ...
Grahak 'cooling down' while the torch continues, ever to the horizon ...
Our champ-Ion takes the torch next ...
... followed by our Van Captain for the day, Steve ...
We couldn't figure out if these were fruits, vegetables, or the eggs of something alien ... ...
Well, the nature we saw the last two days in this part of Western Australia – trees, uphills, downhills – is pretty different from the landscapes we had before – long straight roads, eucalypt trees along them ...
... and is similar to some extent to that of Central Europe, so the European runners could reminisce of their native countries and once more appreciate the beauty, the freshness, and the originality of this wonderful Continent ...
... it must be said that by now there is such oneness between us, that those who came from different parts of the world to join the Peace Run feel like native Australians on a journey to discover their own country ☺
Although the day was not one of the busiest, running however mobilises all your resources – physical, energetic, mental, psychic – and the team members had to be ready for their time to come, as usual.
Further ahead along the road, Boys Team 'B' were by now underway ...
Adrien started our running and got a little wet.
Antara-Prabhat was next cab off the rank and he cranked out 10 km in one hit.
It's always nice to have an excuse for a little break mid-run ... nice car!
What, Adrien, camera-shy all of a sudden?
Drishalu and Antara-Prabhat can be seen here in the van ...
... a lot of time is spent waiting for the runner in the van, especially on a rainy day.
Even further ahead, the girls team were preparing for their own running stint ...
... leaving the familiar marker so the next team would know where to finish their running for the day.
As our first runners took off the rain began ...
... it wasn't the warmest of days so we entertained ourselves in the van today. To do this we started to teach our Mongolian team members some new words. We started with something that had been following us for too many days – rain. When you are teaching someone English you get surprised as to how many words are used for one thing. For example it was raining today, but it was really only a drizzle, or as some would say, it was spitting. Then we explained yesterday that it was heavy rain, and the day before it was a downpour, or "bucketing down" ...
To be fair, it didn't rain ALL day ...
... for much of the time, the running conditions were pretty much ideal.
All in all, it was quite an easy running day, leaving us with plenty of energy for the main goal which had been on our minds now for the past two days – body surfing at Bremer Bay ...
First to get to our accommodation for tonight was Captain Steve's team. Bruce, the manager/owner of the Bremer Bay Beaches Tourist Resort Caravan Park was so kind to provide free accommodation for our entire team. He was very impressed of the endeavour we undertake: to run around the Australian Continent, on such a long journey, is no joke!
Bruce has been unanimously voted by all of us as the nicest Tourist Park owner in the whole world – ably assisted by his two staff, Chen Chun-Chuan ("Jed") and Chang Wan-Chi ("Sheila") from Taiwan, who had been reading about the Peace Run on our website and were eager and thrilled to hold the Torch.
We haver been eager to reach Bremer Bay Beach since a couple of days ago when we first heard we would be visiting this renowned beauty-spot. So, with brief road instructions from Bruce, we made a beeline for the beach ... but took a wrong turn and instead found ourselves face to face with a whole field of ...
... kangaroos!
They were quite fearful but my joy was refulgent, as – after more than two weeks on the road since joining the Peace Run in Adelaide – I finally saw these beautiful animals alive! Thank you, Australia!
The first beach we visited is Blossoms Beach – a hidden place – and so beautiful. The white sand and the turquoise of the water make such a stunning scene – quite unfamiliar to the natives of Austria, Moldova or Mongolia!
For our main destination, we had decided on nearby Native Dog Beach – not sure how this got its name, but it was a surf beach and we wanted some body surfing.
We all clambered down the dirt track ...
... and while some of the boys amused themselves on the white sand beach ...
... under the now-obligatory rainbow ...
... the rest of us found a perfect place for a swim. Not wanting to waste any time we just dove straight on in in our running gear. We had finished all the running for the day and they would need a wash anyway, so why not!
After our swim, we got the bad news that the key to our camper van had broken off in the door. The key was pretty dodgy to begin with and it eventually gave up the ghost ...
... so we were locked out, cold from just a little too much body surfing, and all our dry clothes were on the inside of the locked van ...
... hmmmmm ...
Fortunately our host Bruce, owner of Bremer Bay Beaches Tourist Park, called Jason of Bremer Bay Tyre and Mechanical, and he came out and saved the day – getting us into our van and rigging up a turnkey solution (pardon the pun). This was after Bruce had already offered us the use of his car to drive to Albany tomorrow if we needed it!
There was time to visit one more beach ...
... the renowned Short Beach ...
... where fishermen were reaping a tidy harvest of salmon. For us, it was just a place of stupendous peace and beauty ...
