User:Tmoon

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Trying (and failing) to hitchhike out of Maastricht, Netherlands.
Quiet road through the Maktesh Ramon crater at Mitzpe Ramon, Israel.
My favourite type of hitchhiking - narrow countryside roads. The Isle of Man is perfect for this.

Hitchhiker from the UK, living on the Isle of Man. Wishes he could unicycle.

The stats

My definition of 'hitchhike': a journey made

  • for free,
  • arranged at the moment the journey starts
  • with the explicit consent of the vehicle driver,
  • who is otherwise a complete stranger to you

(i.e. no car-pooling schemes or similar, public transport drivers must agree to let you travel without paying, and lifts from friends-of friends, work colleagues etc don't count)

Adventure #1: The Gent Escape, August 2004

Adventure #2: Home to Home to Home, June 2006

Adventure #3: "Jedzie Pan do Wrocławie?" "Tak! :)", June 2006

Adventure #4: AWOL in Europe, July-September 2006

Adventure #5: Bummit to Belgrade, March-April 2007

Adventure #6: Final taste of freedom?, August-September 2007

Adventure #7: The TT course, January 2008

Adventure #8: Israel by thumb, January-February 2008

Adventure #9: The shortest hitchhike ever?, April 2008

Adventure #10: Keeping it local, May 2008

Adventure #11: Home from the Berlin Beach Camp, May 2008

Distance travelled: 10791km of which 5949km hitchhiking alone, 2916km with one other hitchhiker, and 1926km hitchhiking in a group of three; done 10211km by road, 580km by rail, and not hitchhiked by sea or air... yet

Longest lift: I think it's 352km, through Germany from Inntal Ost (A93 services) to Pforzheim Nord (A8 services), September 2006 - and by the goodest good golly gosh were we grateful for it

Furthest distance in 24 hours: 1042km, from Rome, Italy, to Lausanne, Switzerland, August 2006

Countries hitchhiked (earliest first): Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, United Kingdom, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel

Most useful lift: Gabor the Hungarian, who picked us up at Pforzheim Nord and didn't care where he was going - he wanted to be a personal taxi service. So we got him to take us to a mate's house in Kelkheim, 177km away. Although neither of us trusted him, and he tried to abduct my travelling partner, it was one hell of a useful lift

Least useful lift: the Slovakian white van man who took us to the wrong side of Bratislava, on the wrong motorway and facing in the wrong direction, making us fail the Bummit to Belgrade competition

Most fun lift: two Israeli soldiers found me north of Tiberias, and took me with them for a great day out throwing snowballs, avoiding minefields and exploring abandoned military outposts in the Golan Heights, before tasty ostrich steak and a cross-country drive just to drop me back in Haifa. Also, drinking syrupy hot chocolate with a French white van man and his two young children as we travelled through the Italian Alps was fun. And I won't forget the three Danish students on the start of their roadtrip

Best hitchhiking spot used: Brunautal West (A7 services) in Germany, where those three Danish students dropped me off in front of around 200 hard rock fans going home from the Wacken festival. I could pick and choose from so many offered rides, going all over Europe... the only way the situation could have been better would be if I was among a crowd of hippies

Worst hitchhiking spot used: an empty motorway junction outside Meerane (near Zwickau), Germany. All hope seemed lost. Whilst I was thankful to the previous driver for going 50km off his route, he did it so as to drop me off in the most useless place he could find

Best scenery: waking up at a service station in the mountains east of Aosta, then travelling through the town, and north on the E27 across the Swiss border towards Lausanne - this was unforgettable and was well worth the overnight hitchhike from Rome. In Germany, I had the opportunity to hitchhike to Traben-Trarbach through the hills and vineyards. I've hitchhiked through some beautiful Israeli scenery, especially Route 40 south of Be'er Sheva, and the mountain roads around Galilee and the Golan Heights. Most of the Isle of Man (especially the A18 'mountain road') is breathtaking

Scariest lift: any of the old-age drivers with terrible eyesight who pick you up on the Isle of Man, and drive way too fast. The Isle of Man has no national speed limit

Shortest time waiting: two seconds, at Antwerp, Belgium. A driver pulled up just as we'd picked our spot, and took us towards the Netherlands. My travelling partners both fancied the pants off him

Longest time waiting: a spot in central Cologne, going east. I'd used the spot the year before and it took 2 hours for a lift to arrive. This time we weren't so lucky; after waiting for eight hours, we cut our losses and hitchhiked a train

Biggest moment of genius: none. In this era, your average hitchhiker has a few screws loose

Biggest moment of stupidity: spilling freshly squeezed orange juice onto my rucksack and sleeping bag whilst trying to thumb down a VW camper van outside Jönköping, Sweden on a hot, sticky afternoon. The van didn't stop and I had to grudgingly trudge back to Jönköping centre, wash out my equipment and catch a bus

Planned hitchhiking trips

A collection of signs used in 2006. 2008 collection under construction...

Yes, some trips are planned :). But I don't have any planned at the moment. Come to the Isle of Man and I'll race you around the TT course!

You want some more info! Yes you do ;)