They may come across a lonely, red-faced German, furiously pedalling his heavily laden bicycle through North Queensland or across the border towards Kakadu, Northern Territory.

The cyclist would be Bernd Marx who is retracing the steps of his boyhood hero, Ludwig Leichhardt who, in 1845, was on the closing stages of his epic 15-month journey to northern Australia, accompanied by a party of six plus horses and cattle.

Bernd will not enjoy that type of companionship, nor the chance of fresh meat “on the hoof” as he sets out to trace another segment of Leichhardt’s groundbreaking journey from SE Queensland to Port Essington, NT.

There is little doubt that those currently on the land in North Queensland and the NT may owe it to Leichhardt’s successful trip after he reported vast grazing opportunities to an enthusiastic audience of potential settlers in Sydney.

Bernd Marx, 59, is a world authority on Leichhardt and has already demonstrated a remarkable tenacity to detail during his six efforts to cover sections of the explorer’s route.

Leichhardt, who failed to gain Government backing for his trips, was perceived as under-resourced for the long northern journey and Bernd seems to follow a similar pattern

Without German or Australian Government backing, Bernd, a retired power station engineer, accumulates funds for his Australian forays by providing boat rides along canals in the picturesque Spreewald area in central Germany, something of a contrast from the Australian outback.

*Full story in this week’s North Queensland Register, out Thursday.