Roswitha rides back into the beef capital for the third time

Says all you need is right here in Central Queensland

ON THE ROAD: Roswitha Soechtig visits Rockhampton for the third time. Picture: Jann Houley

Roswitha Soechtig from Braunschweig, Germany popped into The Morning Bulletin yesterday to say g'day.

The 72-year old is enjoying her third cycling trip around Australia, having already travelled from her brother's home in Adelaide across the Nullarbor, bussing from Tennant Creek to Mt Isa and continuing her bike ride south to Rockhampton.

Ms Soechtig left school at 14 to work in a factory making electric switches and melamine plates in order to finance the first of her many studies.

She spent a further spell working as a typist before she began teaching at a girls' school.

"Every time I would return to school my girls would say 'Please, please, Miss, tell us about where you have been'," Ms Soechtig said.

"They have learned all about the Australia and Africa and the Silk Road."

Ms Soechtig published an e-book which has been translated into English about her two trips between Germany and China in 2008 and 2013, traversing the north and south routes around the Black Sea.

"My first love was mountain climbing," Ms Soechtig said.

"I climbed Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and the Overland track in Tasmania."

Roswitha Soechtig visits Rockhampton for the third time. Picture: Jann Houley

Ms Soechtig cites Reinhold Messner, who first climbed Everst without supplemental oxygen, as her role model.

"He said 'If you don't have Everest, then climb a little mountain every day'," she said.

Ms Soechtig - who has gained diplomas in mathematics and sport, geography, criminology and the psychology of movement - stops home to provide Braunschweig locals with private tuition just long enough to save funds for her next adventure.

And she hasn't let a 2016 blood cancer diagnosis stand in the way of revisiting old friends in our region.

Ms Soechtig carries medication with her and says her recent blood test results, taken in Mackay, were excellent, a result which she puts down to drinking lots of water and the rigour of cycling for hundreds of kilometres.

"I know the Rockhampton region like the pocket of my hosen (the back of my hand)," she said

"I love the interesting buildings, the river, the mountain, the beaches... all you need is right here."

When asked what she most associates with the region, Ms Soechtig says her dear friends... and the bull statues.

Originally published as Roswitha rides back into the beef capital for the third time