This telephone interview was held on Monday, 17 January with Kelle, who is accompanying the Soulsearchers.

NeilPryde: Hi Kelle, where are you right now?

Kelle: Hello! We are close to Adelaide, only 2 more days left.

NeilPryde: How is the ride so far going and how is the mood?

Kelle: The ride so far works very well; we certainly can keep our ambitious schedule. We are 6 guys with different characters and needs, so there are certainly some issues from time to time.

NeilPryde: Where do you usually stay at night?

Kelle: The whole team spends the nights in the mobile home, which is not very spacious, but still fairly comfortable.

NeilPryde: How are the weather conditions?

Kelle: The climate is quite tough, we came from the snow-covered Germany and the temperatures here down-under are usually above 40 degrees Celsius. The sun is burning our heads and apart from that we always have to fight against the strong headwind. It is really tough; fortunately the sea is close by, so that we can take a refreshing bath almost every day.

NeilPryde: How do the locals react when they see you passing by?

Kelle: Australians are very kind and curious people. They offer us their help whenever we meet them and they want to know why we are doing this ride. Some people invite us to have barbecue or to stay even over night, but we have to deny, as our schedule is very tight.

NeilPryde: What a pity! So, please tell us, why is the network coverage so poor?

Kelle: We didn’t expect these issues before, but once we leave a bigger city there is no coverage at all, as no one lives in these areas. This makes our daily life very hard as we cannot call each other or contact our families and friends back home.

NeilPryde: This is really hard these days not to have network coverage. What else I would like to know, do you have any experiences with wild animals?

Kelle: We were warned before we arrived in Australia, there seem to be a couple of poisonous snakes, scorpions and spiders all over the place. Luckily we didn’t have any problems so far, the only annoying animals are definitely mosquitoes and flies, and they are simply EVERYWHERE.

NeilPryde: OK, I can imagine how annoying this must be. And how do you like our bikes so far?

Kelle: I cannot really tell, as I am not riding, but the guys who cycle them, did not have any problems even after riding them every day for several hours.

NeilPryde: What do you guys miss the most right now?

Kelle: Even though we are all very good friends it would be great to see some other people from time to time. It is hard to do something on your own, as we have to stay together as a group. Also, we all miss the lively city life, here is really nothing going on, it’s only the desert and you.

NeilPryde: What would you do different if you could plan the ride once again from the beginning?

Kelle: We should definitely prepare better which roads to take and also to evaluate the rider’s performance before starting as we have different levels of riders in the group. But still, everything works fairly well.

NeilPryde: OK, I see. Is there anything else you would like to say?

Kelle: If you ever should plan to ride this route, then better choose the opposite direction…

NeilPryde: Thank you, Kelle.