Today was a public holiday - Western Australia Day. But no leisurely start for us. We packed our tents and left at 7.40am, shortly after the sun rose over the beach beside our campsite.
We drove to our start point, 100km from Jerramungup. Ashprihanal started running, but it was barely a kilometre before our first meeting of the day; Sue Leighton, who the team had met in Ravensthorpe the day before, was waiting for us. Sue led us off the main road to the Kukenarup Memorial Site, a 250 metre loop trail through the bush, which was the location of an infamous massacre.
The Noongar people had only recently returned to this site, after avoiding it for more than a century, as a place of many hurtful memories. Now it is a native garden of peace, with plaques dotting the trail, bearing anecdotes and poems. At the head of the trail is a beautiful picnic shelter overlooking the landscape. Engraved in the ground are Noongar words and their translation: “Now you are here, Listen. Breathe.”
Around thirty kilometres up the road, Pat and Doug pulled up to find out what we were doing. They, too, were travelling around Australia. They held the Peace Torch and wished us all the best.
Ashprihanal and Mahasatya were discussing how to divide up the last few kilometres. Suddenly Ashprihanal asked for his lunch burrito. “Oh no!” he said, changing his mind. “Then I will be too heavy!” “I only ate half my burrito,” Mahasatya observed helpfully. “Oh, you are smart!” exclaimed Ashprihanal. The idea of not eating all his lunch at once was revolutionary.
Today our team ran 50km into the Shire of Jerramungup...Teekhnata, after a 5.2km climb was rechristened with her old nickname, Queen of the Hill.
We finished our distance and drove on to Jerramungup. The shire CEO, Martin Cuthbert, explained how the area had started as a farming settlement for soldiers following the First World War. He also shared with us how his community has worked together to look after each other instead of waiting for government to do it for them.
There was a large mural on the nearby building, featuring ANZAC soldiers and nurses in black white, punctuated with large red Remembrance Day poppies. Martin explained how the whole mural had been painted using spray cans, by an artist named Jerome. The piece was about 20 metres long and three metres high.
Martin with his son, Dylan.
Team C ran 80km from Jerramungup to our accommodation in Wellstead. One of the runners changeovers was right at this beautiful bridge that crosses the Pallinup river. Very interestingly built, wood is connected to metal and forms one common structure.
We have entered into rural land, vast crops lying beyond the road and the oncoming bush. After the flat lands of the coast and the desert, hills marked our return to a different kind of landscape.
When we reached Wellstead Bush Camp, we were greeted by a friendly cat. Denis and Misha would love to have this new friend on the team.
"No, these are not the team's running shoes"
From the camping place there is a beautiful view of the peaks of the Stirling Range National Park, the highest of which is Bluff Knoll 1099m. We set up tents, cooked dinner and got ready to wait for the rain in the evening. Overall, it was a calm day, without any big surprises.
The camp we are staying at has many fascinating farming, and other, implements. The camp kitchen has a collection of sawbees (scissors for shearing sheep), a collection of old rusting spanners and various hand tools, and for some reason, hundreds of old keys displayed on a board. There were rabbit traps, a harpoon, and a collection of kerosene lamps hanging from the ceiling. These were the items which I could identify.
