Watch the video about my trip through Australia: http://vimeo.com/54844490
About
Bernhard hitchhiking in Chile.
- Bernhard is a film maker originally from Austria and he has been to more than 35 countries.
- So far, he hitchhiked in the United Kingdom, United States, Chile, Ecuador, Australia, New Caledonia, Cook Islands and French Polynesia and is also a very active couch surfer.
- He speaks German, English, French, Spanish and a bit of Finnish and Russian.
- He started hitchhiking in June 2009 and did around 20 000 km since then, mostly in Chile and Australia.
Personal records
Bernhard got a lift on the Ruta 5.
- Longest Rides
- 1438 km, from somewhere on the Ruta 5 next to La Ligua to Calama via El Salvador in Chile in April 2010.
- 1363 km, from Ceduna to Coolgardie in Australia in August 2012.
- 715 km, from Narromine to Broken Hill in Australia in August 2012.
- 553 km, from Coolgardie to Perth in Australia in August 2012.
- 464 km, from Holyhead to London in the United Kingdom in June 2009.
- 422 km, from Concepcion to Rancagua in Chile in March 2010.
- Longest distance
- 2003 km from Concepcion to Calama in Chile in April 2010. (I broke the trip up in Santiago de Chile, though.)
- 4650 km from Brisbane to Perth in Australia in August 2012.
- Worst waiting time
- 3 hours near Elton, United Kingdom.
Remarkable Moments
- I almost got robbed by three freaks in Chile. They picked me up at the Ruta 5 and after half an hour I got suspicious. I realized that their talking was a big lie and it seemed that they want to rob me. In a convenient moment, I told, that I got robbed in Concepcion after the Earthquake in February 2010 (what I seriously experienced) and need to go to Santiago de Chile to borrow money from a friend. Luckily I did not have a big backpack with me, so my lie turned out to be working. In La Pintana (the poorest and most dangerous neighbourhood) in Santiago de Chile they finally kicked me out of the car.
- Hitchhiking from Holyhead to London was fun, since the driver was a famous Irish soccer player (although I did not know him) and I got a lift in a nice Mercedes.
- A crazy guy somewhere on the Ruta 5 in Chile picked me up and drove with 160km/h, overtook cars from the right and finally showed me an exceptionally big amount of cocaine. I am sure he was on drugs during this ride.
- My longest ride with almost 1500km. A guy gave me a lift and as he had to go far, I ended up driving the car for some time as well. He offered me to stay at his house for the night and paid for food and drinks. Next day a friend of him needed to go to the exact same destination as I wanted to go and I could go with him - also driving the car part time.
- I managed to housesit a beach house in Ceduna for 5 days.
- Well, there are numberless moments more, since something special happens all the time. People tried to convert me to the Islam, I positively hitchhiked within a car (holding the sign out of the window while I was in a car who gave me a lift), got free food and drinks, was kicked out of a car in the night somewhere on a highway where the cars passed by with 120km/h.
- In Hawai'i a lady picked me up and we ended up touring around the island and met two days later for more sight-seeing
Map
<travelmap countries="at,fi,pe,es" c2="cl,gb,us,ec,au,nc,fp"
c3="si,hr,de,it,hu,mx,bz,gt,sk,fr,pl,se,ee,ru,ar,uy,bo,co,ie,ca,no,cz,pt,ae"
width="980" description='red: lived there, yellow: hitched and lived there (but I have not lived in Ecuador), blue: traveled there' />