Take a shot at the adventures of life!

There are many myths, both alluring and terrifying, of hitchhikerdom. I succumbed to my own personal pressures of these myths and decided in Australia (the third stop on a twenty-plus country, two-year adventure) that I would make hitchhiking my preferred mode of transport. The appeals are high; it’s a free, low-carbon footprint way of getting from Point A to B. The cons, though no less thrilling, are also noteworthy: death by unknown motorist and/or worse unknowns to be had. And this goes for both hitchhiker and hitchhikee. On the receiving end, during my three-month trip Down Under, I came to love and look forward to my “day job” as a professional and respectful hitchhiker. So here are my three cents on freebees of the road.

First off, always try to make an early start. You don’t want to be out late if you know you have 400km of road to conquer. I tend to believe that you are what you attract so yes, if you are crazy enough to hitchhike at night then you might just get someone crazy enough to pick you up. I usually set off around 11 am, to be able to arrive with enough time to suss out my destination. This is the first and most obvious rule to hitchhiking.

Next up, be aware of “the rules of the road” and that hitchhiking is not a cut-and-dry way to travel. Typically, I would have about four hitchhiking hosts on any given trip; they would pick me up and drop me off as far as they were going, so plan on several hosts and even more attempts per journey. Also, as a good hitchhiking ambassador, remember to BE NICE and spread good karma. This means you might be explaining your background and how much you love that person’s country four times a day, but heck, this should be the easy part. I once had a man, only after getting on each other’s good sides following initial chit chat, tell me that he had 20 chainsaws in the back of his truck. This would have been horrifying news if not for the rapport we had built, so we each let out a good laugh after that tidbit of info was dropped.

Lastly, once you have all the rules and road conduct down pat, learn to trust people. This is probably not the advice your parents would give you re hitchhiking, but if you’ve taken the first step to consider it, then you might as well plunge in and understand that not everyone in the world is out to kill you, as long as that’s not your primary goal in life either. I met amazing and odd people alike. As I said, you are what you attract, so be kind and get those thumbs a cracking!