We awoke this morning to discover that it was not just a dream – we were actually staying in our own individual air-conditioned rooms with en-suites, and a five star breakfast buffet awaited us. The generosity of the staff at the MAC Village, Karratha, has really blown us away. We left feeling refreshed and well nourished ...
Even before breakfast though, it was a 4:00 am wake-up call for some of us with a radio interview in town scheduled for 5:50 am ...
... Anubha, our Western Australia coordinator, was interviewed by Tangiora Hinaki of ABC North West ...
... we really enjoyed meeting Tangiora and being on her breakfast radio show ...
... we were now ready for the road ahead ...
The road ahead was towards Port Hedland, across the plains into a roaring headwind ...
The highway between Karratha and Port Hedland was an interesting experience, being full of massive four-trailer road trains making their way between the mines ...
... luckily there was a wide verge for us to run on ...
... these last few days we have felt a change in the climate and landscape. This is quintessential Australia - hot and dry and dusty, where winter is mild and summer is unbearable ...
... here you can see the horizon in every direction, and every day the sunrise and sunset look like a photoshop lesson ...
... where you can travel hundreds of kilometres and see not much of anything ...
... but the journey itself will seem like a dream.
Many of the rivers are totally dry ...
... but we still find some which are surprisingly cool and clear, offering new life to the weary runner ...
... running quite quickly we were ahead of schedule, so had a short break at Yule River and had a quick dip while Steve continued along the road ...
We all enjoyed the delicious fresh lunches The MAC (our accommodation venue last night) had kindly donated to us!
A big feature of the road to Port Hedland is the massive piles of salt ...
Port Hedland is where the Australian mining boom meets the rest of the world. Road trains dominate the highways ...
... and huge ocean liners dominate the horizon.
The town is like a giant construction site, straining to cope with the sheer volume of minerals pouring through each day. This is the highest tonnage port in Australia, exporting up to 1.6 million tonnes of iron ore a month! In the local Aboriginal Dreamtime legend there was a huge blind water snake living in the landlocked area of water known as Jalkawarrinya, which now serves as the turning basin for large ships that enter the port ...
After completing our running we stopped at one of the beautiful parks in Port Hedland, to relax a while ...
The first 'official' engagement today for our girls team was Port Hedland Primary School ...
... all the kids at Port Hedland Primary were so cheerful and friendly!
The school captains accepted the Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the school ...
... everyone got a chance to touch the Peace Torch and make their wish ...
Oyungerel made some new friends who wanted to hear her Mongolian song (which she sings in the ‘guess the country’ game) again ...
Thank you to Principal Yvonne Denham, to Paul Dunville (pictured – especially for setting up the sound system at a moment’s notice!), and to everyone at Port Hedland Primary: we feel you are all living out the Peace Run motto, ‘Peace begins with Me!’
Helena found a shady spot and a reading companion at the Library next door to Port Hedland Primary.
Almost at the same time, our boys teams met the teachers at St Cecilia's Primary School and headed down to their new hall. The children from years 3 to 7 were present, some of them leading the way with their own hand-made torches ...
The year 3 students have been learning Sri Chinmoy's Peace Run Song and accompanied the team when we sang for the rest of the students ...
While we play the Peace Run DVD, I find the children from every school react in similar ways to the images in the video, reinforcing to me the universality of a child's heart ...
... some of the students had prepared their own Peace-related artwork ...
We all went outside to pass the Peace Torch ...
... and of course, run around the oval!
Our girls team have meanwhile made our way over to South Hedland School where the children were having their sports carnival. The teams are named after birds – Hawks, Eagles and Crows. An enthusiastic mum was being a great cheerleader for her team, the Eagles!
We watched the last few relay races and were so impressed by how fast the kids were and how enthusiastically the teams cheered each other! Despite having done sports all day long they were still more than ready for a dash around the oval with the Peace Torch ...
Two of the students sang the Hawks team song ...
... and accepted the Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the school. Thank you to Rita Eaton and all the kids at South Hedland, we’ll remember your energy and enthusiasm when we need a boost out on the road!
Accommodation tonight for our girls team has been provided by Black Rock Tourist Park. The manager Jane who kindly offered us three lovely rooms was away, so Nora accepted the Certificate on her behalf ...
... we also met their youngest new trainee, Ella, who was working the computer like a pro!
Unsure of what accommodation our boys would have tonight, we headed down to Port Hedland Caravan Park expecting to be camping in our tents ...
We were pleasantly surprised when Manager Tom Whitehouse from King Caravans said ...
... we were all going to have individual units to stay in, and then invited us to eat in their cafeteria!
The chef prepared some extra vegetarian dishes and we enjoyed another great meal courtesy of King Caravans and QSD Works. Thanks guys, the accommodation is great!
On the other side of town, the girls had a special treat in going out for dinner! We were recommended to a Chinese restaurant, Dynasty Garden, who offer a delicious Chinese buffet, which includes a dessert bar ...
... the Peace Run girls are overjoyed – after several hot, windy and dusty days on the road, no limit on the ice cream is a dream come true! Our thanks to the staff at Dynasty Garden for such an enjoyable evening meal.
