Abu Dhabi residents Steven and Dee Pontifex recently completed a mammoth walking challenge in aid of Operation Smile. Taking a much-needed rest, we sat down with the intrepid trekkers to find out more about their epic achievement.
Firstly can you tell our readers a little bit about what you have just completed?
Steve: Well it’s called the four deserts challenge. So we’ve just completed a 250km walk through the desert in Jordan. We started in Wadi Run and finished at Petra. This is the second of the four endurance walks totaling 1,000km. It was completely self-supported and there were 190 participants.
So why did you decide to do this?
Dee: Well Steve decided to raise awareness for Operation Smile and walked in the desert in Chile last year, and then decided to do this one in Jordan. This is number two of the four desert challenges with the third being in China and the final one in Antarctica. Steve plans to raise enough money for 100 smiles for the charity. After seeing my husband completing the Chile walk, I wanted to get involved and help too.
How are you feeling after Jordan?
Steve: As you can imagine our feet are pretty sore. Raw, actually. The terrain was extremely varied so our feet took quite a hit. From soft sand on an incline to dried-out riverbeds; we walked on plenty of terrain. One day was called ‘the long march’ which is an 86km trek to complete in less than 17 hours. That was really tough. We are still pretty tired but happy to be home with out daughter. We went through the pain so we could give these children a smile.
How much have you raised so far and how can people still help?
Steve: We have raised around AED 70,000 with AED 80 the cost of one smile. So we are getting closer to our total, but still have some way to go. We are hoping to raise approximately AED 100,000.
Dee: People can visit our Just Giving web page and help that way. Even if the people who read this spread the word, that will help too.
Dee, will you be doing any more?
Well on day one of Jordan I said never again! Not because I didn’t want to help Steve raise funds, but because it was so tough. But now I can’t wait for the next one.
If you would like to donate towards Steve and Dee’s next walk, visit:
www.justgiving.com/Steven-Pontifex
