This morning the Peace Run bid farewell to Coral Bay, which was a perfect spot to regroup after some long km days. Today was a short day ("only" 199 km) and the teams split the kms evenly between the three vans.
Today was mostly uneventful running. We like uneventful. 😀
Granted the landscape was beautiful and the sky was vast!
The marker tells the other teams where to finish running.
The sun was shining, a gentle breeze kept us cool, and spirits were high as we covered the kilometres along the vast stretch of Highway 1.
Controlled burns are a common sight on the desert plains. Today, the wind obligingly blew the smoke away from our route.
Holding up the world, Atlas, could it be that you?! (spoiler alert: it is actually our resident Latvian, Edgars...)
Problem? Sore feet. Solution? Put them up!
Looking around at the landscape you could see the red red earth in all directions with termite mounds, tufts and shrubs scattering the earth.
As we have passed the Tropic of Capricorn the other day, as the day goes on we start to feel the temperature rising.
Not everyone felt 100%—a couple of us were under the weather—but the beauty of our team is how we lift each other up. Those feeling strong gladly ran extra kilometres, embodying the spirit of unity and support that fuels our journey.
The second semi-functional phone Atulya has found on the side of the road. Does he have a knack... or are they following him?
With a few solid km's under our belts, we met the Onslow Gazelles who joined the team to run with the Peace Torch all the way to our camp for the evening.
And this is how we finished the km’s for today, with one Onslow Gazelle and one Peace Runner taking to the road.
It was time to enjoy the rhythm of running, sharing stories, sharing love for peace and sharing time together in the vast open land of Australia.
Renee Elliott was the inspiration behind the Onslow Gazelles joining the Peace Run team for the afternoon. She is a driving force for good and a powerhouse in the Onslow community. She has a love of people and an inner drive and determination to make a difference to the world. And she very much makes a difference in the lives of those she touches. This was evident in the conversations each of our team had while running with her and fellow Gazelles Scott and Eugene.
At Peedamulla Campground the Peace Run team all formed to sing the Peace Run song and offer Renee, an incredible soul, the Peace Run Torch-Bearer award.
Renee is a most deserving recipient. She has created an environment to inspire the community to stay healthy. She organises free groups and classes most days, with the intention of including all, from interval training to ultramarathon training, and family running/walking days.
Renee also organised the Highway Hooters, a 309 km non-stop charity relay from Karratha to Onslow, running 32 hours to raise money and awareness for breast cancer.
Their fabulous bright pink outfits and tutus increased our visibility on the road today. Perhaps the Peace Runners should take a leaf out of their book and get some tutus of our own?
Renee's son Ryder and Eugene's wife Liz came along and supported today.
We heard that in the Highway Hooters fundraising event Ryder ran 43 km! The Peace Runners were very impressed and tried our hardest to recruit him for the Peace Run team, but alas, it was not to be. Perhaps when he is a little bit older!
Scott, Renee, and Eugene definitely deserved their Peace Run t-shirts. Thanks for helping us out on the road today!
After a fond goodbye to the Onslow Gazelles we turned and looked at our beautifully situated accommodation for the evening - the Peedamulla Campground.
Hooray! Printer-repair-man (aka Atulya) fixed the problem with the printer!
Now we have our schedule printed and ready - one copy for each van. What could be on our schedule? Hmmm.... more running!
The end of the day brought the real event. Thanks to a power outage at the campground, the owner’s brother and nephew had to come to our rescue. They arrived quickly and had the generators fired back up in no time. Evidently it was a flat battery. Trevor (the brother) and Ashton (the nephew) were extremely gracious in lending a hand.
Ashton's warm welcome turned our evening into something truly special.
He lit a campfire and baked damper bread in its coals, then sat with us beneath the open sky.
Around the fire’s glow, he shared the stories, history, and rich cultural heritage of his people. It was the kind of moment that leaves your heart fuller.
We all happily consumed the delicious hot damper bread and even more happily shared our camp dinner with Ashton.
Ashton shared with us this photograph of himself in his ceremonial attire.
At the end of his stay with us, much to our delight Ashton gifted us two handmade boomerangs he has carved out of snakewood using a tomohawk. They still need to be fire curved to function properly, but they make excellent instruments as Ashton demonstrated when he sang.
A perfect close to a day of movement, connection, and meaning.
