Sucheta Kadethankar

Gobi Desert sand dune in Mongolia

The Gobi trek that Kadethankar completed, titled "Gobi Crossing 2011", was an event organized by the Explore Foundation of Ireland. It catered to young people who wished to explore the wild desert of Gobi (the fifth largest desert in the world)[7] in Mongolia. It was planned as a 60-day trek covering a distance of 1,600 kilometres (990 mi). Kadethankar was one of 13 selected walkers,[2] including Christopher Schrader (who became the youngest person to cross the Gobi Desert on foot[8][9]) and Faraz Shibli (who became the youngest Briton to do the same[10][11][12]). The team included seven women but only three of them endured the trek to the last; Kadethankar was one of them.[2][13] Her expenses for the expedition were US$7000, while her travel was met by her employer Symantec. It was a charity trek to support the Edu Relief, a Mongolian NGO, to support free education to students in Mongolia.[13] The trek route was described by Kadethankar as drab, dreary and endless.[2]

After Kadethankar registered to participate in the trek, she trained for six months by walking every day from her office and back, a distance of 24 kilometres (15 mi), carrying a heavy backpack.[1][4][14]

The trek was in a west to east direction, to the north of the Khongoryn Els (one of the largest sand dunes in Mongolia)[7][1] starting from Bulgan, a sub-district in Khovd Province in the west and ending at Sainshand, the capital of Dornogovi Province. Human habitation along the route is rare, only that of nomads living in igloo-type huts called "gar". They were very courteous and happy to see so many people at one time. They even supplied cheese and milk to Kadethankar, who as a vegetarian, was surviving on Mongolian noodles and pastas.[1][15]

During the trek, Kadethankar faced many hardships and one such hardship was her suffering from an attack of flu for a few days. On this occasion she covered herself with layers of sweaters. Another incident was a kick by the camel which was carrying her baggage. During the trek, there was also a sand storm which lasted for 3 days. On one occasion a camel carrying food had bolted but was finally brought back. There was even a rain storm on one day. But none of these hazards interrupted her determination to complete the trek.[2][1] The weather conditions, all through the trek, was one of hot searing sun with average day temperature soaring to 47 °C (117 °F) and then dropping to 20 °C (68 °F) in the night, with severe arid conditions.[2][1] This created a serious situation in which six of the 13 member team had to discontinue the trek. But Kadethankar carried on and was one of the seven members, the only woman from India apart two women from Australia and Singapore, who completed the trek in 51 days, nine days ahead of the scheduled period of 60 days.[1][3]