Open Road Adventures

He whizzed past me on the open road, eyes concealed by ray bans reflecting me with my thumb up and hand out by the side of a mound of lava rock.

He turned around and I could feel his eyes on me even though I couldn't see them. He cycled a fair distance away, but did a double take and before i knew it, he had pulled a sharp turn and was cycling straight back towards me.

Two thoughts hit me at that point. Was he doing what I thought he was doing? And, whoa, this wasn't what I had in mind when I had conjured up images of hitch-hiking in my mind. Surely there must be some sort of rule that states hitch hiking requires a bigger vehicle?

I pulled my hand back to my side, but it was too late. He had seen me, and was approaching me fast. I turned towards my friends, who were all unimpressed with my feeble attempt at getting us a ride.

The man on the bike was clad in a ridiculous lycra suit matched by an equally ridiculous looking pair of metallic orange ray bans. In one swift move, he removed them and for a moment, I was stunned into silence. He had the most intense pair of turquoise eyes I had ever seen, which left me gobsmacked. He grinned and reached his hand out for what I assumed to be an introduction.

But instead, he looked me square in the eye and said "I'll take you".

I was dumbfounded and confused. "You'll take me...what? where?"

He looked over at my friends slumped by the roadside and proclaimed "I'll take the girl".

My friends laughed, thinking it was a legitimate offer and said, "Yeah! Cool! Hey, we'll see you there! Take the turn off at..."

I shot my friends a glare but before I could shut them up, the cyclist grabs my hand and tells me I'm going with him.

All eyes were on his hand grabbing me by my arm.

It was at that point that my friends realized it wasn't a joke. One of them scrambled to his feet and quite nearly punched the cyclist in the face for grabbing me.

The cyclist cursed him for being "a little shit", hopped back on his bike and cycled off.

I was banned from getting us a ride. It was another hour before a car pulled over for us, only to drive us for a grand total of twenty seconds before chucking us out again.

We eventually hitched-hiked using six different people, witnessed a drug deal, and ended up at a breathtaking valley echoing the thundering resonance of waves crashing on the shores.