Awaking at the Bremer Bay Beaches Tourist Park, our first instinct was to head back to Native Dog Beach, where we had enjoyed such a wonderful swim yesterday evening ...
Mmmmmm ...
... the beach was just perfect at 7 am, and after a brief meditation, we found the water and waves more perfect still ...
... sadly we could not take the camera into the water, so we will leave the amazing body surfing to your imagination!
Bayarkhuu was meanwhile making some new friends near our accommodation ...
Bruce, our magnanimous host at Bremer Bay, personally farewelled each of our teams on our departure ...
... in Bruce we feel we have found a true friend: his heartfelt appreciation of the Peace Run and sincere encouragement of our efforts lightened our mood and made our running today even easier.
Before we could leave Bremer Bay we had to visit one more beach ...
... this time the famous Town Beach at Bremer Bay itself.
After talking with Bruce we found out that the warmth of the water at Bremer Bay is due to the warm current that flows down from Asia. They have even had some Asian items wash up on these beaches over the years!
Bremer Bay is also a haven for whales and over the next few months they will have their regular whales come up to spend time rearing their young before returning to the Antarctic.
Our girls team had the first leg and even though we had low milage today, with one of our team nursing a small injury we were all still able to run a good 10 km each.
While our Mongolian runners may not speak much English, some things are the same the world over and need not be translated ...
Hastakamala after a particularly gut-busting 5 km sprint ...
As we pulled back onto the road after picking up one of our runners, we ended up behind what looked like REALLY large insects. These are the widest and slowest vehicles we have come across on the road so far. It looked like a car could go right underneath to overtake ...
The flowers are certainly flourishing after all the rain ...
We noticed what looked like smooth boulders positioned so neatly on the side of the road. Once I noticed one too many of these it was time for a closer inspection. To an Australian you would know what these are straight away, but to an untrained foreign eye they were not the norm. Our Australian team member informed us that yes, these were ant homes, and yes, they were but really small compared to the ones we will see as we travel further north ...
On our run today there were many a burnt out tree that still had some life in them. From the hardened trunks and blackened bark there will be the green of the leaves stretching to the sky awaiting the rain and sun to nourish it back to life. To see the trees in different stages of life and death made you reflect on scenery of our own lives – we all have our own burnt out trees with all our failures in life, but these so called 'failures' are only making the scenery of our lives more interesting.
We sometimes focus too much on our burnt out trees in life and forget to see the wider landscape of our lives that bring together all of our experiences, success and failure to make a unique, full and perfect life on this beautiful planet of ours.
All too soon we found our finish point left by one of the other teams. We finished in Canberra West – this confused us a little as we left Canberra over 5 weeks and 5200 km ago, and seem to have only travelled to Canberra West!
Boys Team 'A' had indeed started earlier in the day from "Canberra West" – a long way from "Canberra East"!
We thought we had only 41 km to cover today ...
... but due to a navigational miscalculation by the team ahead, who therefore started running earlier than planned ...
... we ended up running even less – only 34 km!
Adrien commented that the scenery here reminded him of some rural parts of his native France.
The scheduled distance for Boys Team 'B' today was just over 40 km, the smallest running day since we left Adelaide. It was probably one reason for the leisurely start we made in departing our accommodation. It may also be because we enjoyed the place, and its owner, Bruce, so much ...
Our team, under Grahak's leadership for the day, drove to within 45 km of Albany and commenced the run into Albany.
The terrain was undulating (some would say hilly) through farmland and forest.
Ion fuelling up ...
... for another tilt on the road.
Even all the passing motorists were cheered by the more promising blue skies and warm sun, resulting in more waves and hoots than normal as we ran and waved our way along the road.
There was time for a few photos of nature as we waited for our runners ...
Our girls team had meanwhile arrived in Albany (the oldest permanently settled town in Western Australia) and met Colette who is kindly hosting our entire team this evening at My Place Colonial Accommodation. She quickly showed us the most luxurious of rooms for the team to stay in. We are being housed in three of her wonderful self-contained apartments. What a treat for the team tonight!
As we were getting our photo taken their friendly dog came over for a pat. And who could resist! She got many a rub and scratch before we departed for a 4 pm meeting ...
Also arriving in Albany ahead of schedule, Boys Team 'A' made straight for the lookout on Mt Clarence for a panoramic overview of this truly magnificent harbour.
Several folks who we met there were most helpful with suggestions of how we might spend our afternoon in Albany ...
This fellow – whose name unfortunately we did not get – suggested we head to ...
... 'The Gap' ...
... a place of astonishing power and beauty along Frenchman Bay Rd, in Torndirrup National Park ...
... where the full force of the Southern Ocean hammers against a mighty fortress of granite ...
With our running done for the day, we could afford to fully enjoy this awe-inspiring place ...
The rock formations here are like nothing we had ever seen before – and after some investigation we found out why ... this part of Australia was connected to Antarctica and broke away many many many millions of years ago. Each year Australia 'drifts' further and further away from Antarctica but with this granite, a part of Antarctica will always stay with it ...
Just along from "The Gap" is "The Natural Bridge", which will one day fall into the Ocean.
Our torch-holder on the bridge today ...
... stood in almost the same place when we last visited, in 2008.
Steve on the other side of the camera for once ...
Michael and Virginie from Perpignon in France, have been seeing our runners along the road ever since Adelaide! They were thrilled to finally have the chance to hold the Peace Torch, and also to have a good chat with our French mascot, Adrien.
While some of our team were exploring the coast, others were at a scheduled meeting alongside the Albany Peace Pole in the beautiful park next to the Albany Library ...
A number of local people approached the team, recognising us from an article in the Albany Advertiser ...
Kate and Robynne were extremely pleased to hold the torch. Kate, originally from Auckland, was a frequent vsitor to the Blue Bird Cafe there, where one of our runners works.
Sim and Lindy Clappin, family friends of Grahak, also came along from seeing the newspaper article.
Garth Manning was another enthusiastic supporter, very appreciative of what we are doing.
With fading light, there was time for a brief visit to the lighthouse above Cable Beach ...
... while gazing out to sea, we were treated to a frolicsome display from some passing whales!
(sadly, this one image from an iPhone is our only record of the whales' presence!)
Driving back to our accommodation and evening meal ...
... twilight alongside Lockyer Bay ...
