Pat Farmer returns from cross-India run for girls' education

After 64 days, 4,000 kilometres and having raised more than $30,000 to help educate disadvantaged girls in India, ultramarathon runner Pat Farmer has finally returned home.

Ultramarathon runner Pat Farmer during his two-month long "Spirit of India" trek. Source: AAP

Australian ultramarathon runner and former federal MP Pat Farmer has returned to Australia after finishing a 64 day-long run through India.

Members of the Indian government and community figures welcomed him home to Sydney following a run he hopes will help to provide an education to thousands of disadvantaged Indian girls.

The consul general of India in Sydney, B Vanlalvawna, was one of those who met Farmer at Sydney airport.

He said he believed the epic achievement would make a difference for girls' education in his country.

Ultramarathon runner Pat Farmer during the final day of his Spirit of India Run in Kashmir, India. Source: AAP

"I think that the impact ... the visibility which he has generated across India will continue to have a lasting impact in the minds of people both in India and Australia," Mr Vanlalvawna said.

Farmer has already raised more than $33,000 to help fund education for Indian girls.

He said the trip also helped him to experience different sides of India.

"[It was] good to see the diversity: the deserts, the mountains, the oceans, the seas, the inlands and the people themselves," Farmer said.

"So many different cultures, so many different religions."

However the 4000 kilometre run - from Kanyakumari, in the country's south, to the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains in the north - was not without its challenges.

Ultramarathon runner and Pat Farmer during his marathon across India. Source: AAP

Farmer said one moment in particular stood out: "the moments when I was very, very dehydrated and had to be hospitalised for the afternoon".

"I then got back out on the road later on after that, after being rehydrated, and continued on running from there," he said.

His wife Tania Farmer travelled alongside him in one of the support vehicles that followed him for the whole journey.

"Everything that's put in front of him, to still get up every day and just, literally, one step at a time, day after day, and then, finally, he makes it, it's just ... it's just an incredible thing to witness," she said.