World Run II / Reports

The map shows the position of which the pictures for the day are taken (if any). The start and finish markers are placed at the first and last valid registered position. This is not nessesary the actual start and finish position, if GSM or GPS signals was not available.

Goto: 2011-05-05 2011-05-07 Chile West

2011-05-06:

26
Distance today: 40.0 km (Accumulated: 25234.0 km)
Elapsed time: 03:39:52
Country: Chile West

Start 11:07am., misty & l.wind, at green km-marker "km 635" on hwy.5. Finish 15:11pm, 21c, clear & same, at green km-marker "km 675" on hwy.5.

The joys of running through a desert !

...one would perhaps imagine a desert to be a bland & boring place with little variation - but, in my experiense that is far from the case. Both the Sahara Desert, the Sinai, the Nullabor and now the Atacama has each a thrilling display of small nuances in coleur, sand, stones, rocks and mountains; and each a fantastic experience of Silence & Nature :-)

In the pictures from todays stage I have tried to piece together some of those impressions - along with the abrupt contrast to 'the humans in the desert': the highway w. its trucks thundering by, the constructions going on; and the total tranquility which sets once the camp has been made, out on the plains with a vast horizon as only 'sound'. Hope you enjoy..

The silence also gives chance for deeper thourghts. And to finally catch up and digest some of the many daily impressions from the continents. And at a more general level it strikes me how easy (!) a place South America so far has been to run through. If I should in very short compare the difficulty or challenge of the continents as to running across them then I'd say that Australia is with a big margin the easiest: the infrastructure is very good - yet there are little other traffic on the roads, supplies are in most parts easy to get and the population has a very good understanding of these kinds of "long runs" as there has been quite a few across Australia during the last decades. Second would be the European continent as its nearly as 'easy' (ofcourse its not exactly easy to run across a continent.. ;-) but there can be degrees of difficult !); mainly the difference is that the traffic is a lot denser and more dangerous and a daily thing to be aware of - contrary to what most perhaps believe traffic is usually the thing which can pose the biggest threat during these runs and not animals, local unrest, extreme weather etc.
North America is near the european continent in difficulty to run across, atleast as I experiensed it in world run one, and with a very friendly and helpfull culture in both Canada and Usa; still the longer streatches w. far between supplies makes it more of an challenge, for example when running across the remote prearies and the Rocky Mountains.

South America so far actually has been 'not much more difficult' than North America, and a simply stunning variation of nature where the stage at 4000m. alt. across the main pass of the Andes Mountains is one of the biggest highlights of the world runs along w. the experience when running across Siberia (Russia) back in 2004 in world run one. Only the problematic corruption in Argentina has been a hard obstacle; which now is behind me when currently running in politically stabile and well-functioning Chile :-)

Asia as when running across Russia from the Baltic Sea at Sct.Petersburg to the Pacific Ocean at Vladivostock, 10500km, is also an experience of incredible helpfullness and friendship especially in Siberia which always remains one of - if not perhaps "the" ! - Favorite place in the world for my part; but the nature which is one of the most unspoiled left in the world, when running through Mid. & East Siberia there is up to 400-600km between settlements, then its also what makes it a vast challenge to run through: supplies is extremely far between and its a full scale expedition task as well as a running challenge !

Africa; is to some extend beyond comparison. The difficulties, hardships, diseases, distances between supplies (and qualities of supplies) makes the word "Difficult" seem insufficient to describe it at all. And my run through this continent North to South is a thing which still hasnt let go' of me ;-) At the same time though, these difficulties maybe brings one closer to understanding what it Is to live in Africa. And this direct understanding of the cultures of the world is one of the aims of the world runs :-)