Xnothingxheldxbackx

[[image:Taylor nz hitching.jpg|Hitching in New Zealand>]]
==Hitching Experience==
'''Big Trips'''

''Finland to Spain (May-July 2006)'': Started in Oulu, Finland and went north and then down to Stockholm. Caught the ferry (didn't boat hitch) to Tallinn, Estonia and then hitched through the Baltics and entered Poland stopping in Warsaw and Krakow. Then went to Slovakia and stayed in Bratislava. Managed to get a free train ticket to Budapest so ended up going to Budapest. Then hitched into Belgrade, Serbia and then proceeded to get lost in the Balkans going through Bosnia, Croatia and coming up through Slovenia. Then got lost through the Alps passing through the Austrian, Italian and Swiss Alps before coming out on the tourist mecca that is Interlaken. Passed through Geneva before heading into France and stayed in Grenoble. Then hitched to Reus (south of Barcelona, Spain). From there hitched to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. Was a fast paced trip as left Oulu in mid-May and was in Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls in July.

''New Zealand (Dec 2006-Feb 2007)'': Flew into Auckland, flew out of Christchurch. Went pretty much everywhere in between. Again, fast paced trip with tons of hiking thrown in too.

''Australia (May-December 2007)'': Left Canberra and hitched to South Coast NSW. Proceeded onto Melbourne. Then flew to Tasmania for most of June. Went back to Melbourne and went to Adelaide which was home base for most of July. From there went to Mildura, Grampions, Geelong and Great Ocean Road and then back to Adelaide. Then went to Kangaroo Island before finally returning to Adelaide and headed north. Went through the Flinders Ranges as far as Blinman before turning onto the Oodnadatta Track and following it up to Williams Creek. *WARNING* Outback hitching is not impossible but if you leave the pavement carry ''at least 10L of water with you!'' Most people will stop and offer you water even if they won't offer you a ride. From William Creek took a ride back to the main highway and came out at Coober Pedy. Met up with a guy had met in Adelaide and got taken 200km off the highway to a Aborignal Reservation. Then continued up the center to Alice Springs. Did 150km of hiking along the West Macdonalds mtn ranges before continuing north all the way to Darwin. Went through Kakadu Park and then kept going west out of Katherine. Then left the main highway again to hitch the Gibb River Road through the Kimberly. *warning* do not attempt in the wet season, best times are at the start of the dry july-august. the later you leave it the less cars travel the road. It is possible to travel into the northern Kimberly (Kalamburu) but there are even less cars. Be prepared for minimum waits of 4 hrs up to a day. Then went to Broome, and continued down the west coast until detoured inland at Port Headland to go into Tom Price and Karijini National Park. Came out and continued down the west coast to Perth with detours at Exmouth, Denham and the Pinaccles. From Perth went through the South-west stopping at Margaret River first and then hiking along the Cape to Cape before meandering through to Pemberton. Did a section of hiking on the fabled Bibbulumn track before ending up in Albany. Starting hitching towards Espearance but ended up going into the Stirling Ranges (spectacular!) and eventually Wave Rock and back to Perth. Left Perth and ended going all the way to Adelaide in 3 days. Got one ride with a truck to Port Augusta and then another ride into Adelaide. Left to hitch to Mildura but upon arrival the friend who I was going to stay with wasn't there so ended up hitching 24 hrs straight to go from Adealaide to Canberra.
Trip pace varied between extremely fast paced (1000km a day) to very slow paced, stopping in places for up to a week.

''Europe-Australia overland'' : October 2008 - May 2011. I posted about hh in Central asia in the following thread:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/group_read.html?gid=12&post=5161263

''around australia 2011'':  hitched around Australia again in 2011

''Indonesia'':  Went to a wedding and hitched from Bali to Jakarta

'''Small Trips'''

First time hitching ever was near my home on Vancouver Island, hitched to the beach with my best friend (2003).

In 2005 hitched from Canberra to Sydney, Australia. Then from Bundaberg to Mackay (Queensland, Australia). In 2006 did a side trip to Scotland and hitched after the West Highland Way. Also had another ride on a side trip in Spain.

==Statistics==

Only done km stats on my big trips:<br>
Ottawa-Montreal-NYC - about 980km or so according to google maps<br>
Europe 2006(Finland to Spain)- 5830km (according to google maps)<br>
New Zealand - 4398km (according to google maps)<br>
Australia - 21 832km (according to google maps)<br>
Europe 2008 (Switzerland to Norway to Vienna) - 6978km (according to google maps)<br>
Australia 2011 - 18 784km<br>
->Around Darwin 100km<br>
->Darwin-Katherine 450km<br>
->Darwin->Canberra (Via Bourke, Tamworth, Dubbo) - 4575km<br>
->Canberra->Darwin (Via Oodanatta track) - 4288km<br>
->Perth->Uluru (Via Great Central Road)->Port Augustus->Broken Hill->West Wylong->Canberra 4722km <br>
->Canberra->South Coast NSW-> Pt. Augusta->Esperance->Perth 4649km<br>
Indonesia 2011: Bali->Jakarta through mtns:  1448km<br>
Europe 2011: Athens->Belgrade: 1130km<br>
Europe 2012:<br>
->Belgrade-Berlin-Belgrade: 3202km<br>
->Belgrade->Timisoara->Cluj->Reghin->Suceava->Brasov->Sibiu->Hunedoara->Belgrade: 1783km<br>
->Belgrade->Nis->Sofia->Belgrade: 800km<br>
->Belgrade->Tulza->Sarajvo->Split->Zadar->Zagreb->Belgrade->Sofia: 1790km<br>
->Sofia->Plovdiv Return: 294km<br>
->Sofia->Belgrade->Oradea->Ruzomberok->Brno->Munster->Lyon (including getting lost): 3376km<br>
->Lyon->Antwerp->Paris->Auch: 1862km <br>
->Cape Finisterra->Porto->Talvira->Vigo->Gijon->Santandar->Barcelona: 3155km<br>
->Barcelona->Avila->Toulous->Auch->Biscarosse-Plage->Brussels->Osnabruck->Berlin (+side trips): 4150km<br>
->Berlin->Warsaw->Vilnius (including getting lost): 1300km<br>
->Vilnius->Ambrasikiai->Vilnius->Warsaw->Krakow->Lukovista->Ruzomberok->Arad->(lost in Romanian mountains)->Sibiu->Zemica->Blagovegrad: 2952km<br>
->Blagovegrad->Tserovo->Blagovegrad->Sofia->Belgrade: 800km (including local hitching between Tserovo and Svogue)
<br>

Total: = 87,844 km<br>

<b>Europe to Australia Overland</b><br>
<br>
Rome-Thessaloniki - 3,358km (approximate, google maps is still unhappy with the Balkans)<br>
Thessaloniki the Syrian Border - 3,032 km<br>
Syria - not in total <br>
Syrian Border to Kurdistan Border - 143 km<br>
Kurdistan Border - around eastern Turkey - Georgian border - 3,900 km <br>
Georgia - not in total <br>
Azerbaijan -  800km <br>
Kazakhstan - 5881km (approximately according to google maps)  <br>
China - July/Aug 2009 hitched approximately 11,500 km from Kaz border to shanghai and back to Kyrgz border<br>
Kyrgyzstan -  2747km (approximate according to google maps) <br>
Tajikistan - 1090km (approximate according to google maps) <br>
Uzbekistan - 460km (approximate according to google maps) <br>
/Afghanistan - not in total <br>
Pakistan - From Nov-Jan 2010 hitched around 5450km (approximate according to google maps)<br>
India (Feb-April 2010) - 7850 km <br>
Nepal - April-July 2010 - not calculted<br>
India - July- ? 2010 - Nepal border to Kailashahar, Tripura, around NE to Kolkata, across to agra, north to Leh, Kashmir to Golden Temple to Delhi to Kanyakumari to Kochi. Then to Munnar->Bangalore->Hyderabad->Mumbai->Surat->Ahmedabad->Kharan 14,943km<br> 
Bangkok to Singapore - 1838km<br>
Singapore->Laos - 6227<br>
Laos - not in total<br>
Cambodia - 1520km<br>
Cambodia->Bangkok->Singapore - 3024km <br>

Overland total: =73,766km *Syria, Nepal, Georgia, and Laos is missing from total<br>
<br>

<b>Grand TOTAL = at least 161,610km  km(according to google maps)</b><br>

not in total - hitched sections of my trip in Africa: South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi.

Have kept a pretty accurate ride count and it stands at ~2300 (November, 2010) :)

==My Advice==

Walk out the highway, put your hand in the air...see where the road takes you :) Surrender to the journey as much as possible!