Any ex-hitchhikers here?

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PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Location
Hamtun
Any ex-hitchhikers here?

I don't see many, if any, hitchhikers on the roads any more. It used to be my usual way of travel many moons ago. Late 60's and early to mid 70's was my main mileage.
London down to Devon and Cornwall usually, for summer fun and depravity on Fistral beach ^_^

Longest hitchhike was 1976 where the plan was to call into friends in several places (Nr Paris, Bruges and Valletta.. London to Dover, Paris,Luxembourg, Brussels, then generally southwards through Alsace to Switzerland, then Italy (Milan & Florence when Gelato was 100 lira a scoop) to Sicily and Malta then back to Italy (by boat, not thumb), then train across the south of Italy to Brindisi (bandit country at the time, so safer to catch the train!), then boat to Corfu and eventually onto the mainland and Athens, where I ran out of money so I sold a pint of blood to jump on a ferry to the islands for a week until some cash turned up from blighty..
Once fiscal security returned, I caught a plane to Tel Aviv and hitched to the Jordan Valley (Lake Tiberius) and worked on a Kibbutz for 10 months, hitching and cycling around the Golan Heights, West Bank, Jerusalem, Negev and Sinai deserts etc at every available opportunity.
Back home after 12 months, on several thousand miles, in lovely weather,

Happy days :smile:

Sadly, I don't think I'd pick anyone up now even if I did see somebody hitching a lift. Sign of the times, I suppose...
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Done it once or twice when I was in the Army. I recall getting picked up pretty quickly. Sadly, I wasn't abducted and used as a sex slave by any female drivers. Luckily, no male drivers fancied me either!
 
OP
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PeteXXX

PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Location
Hamtun
In Israel, soldiers got lifts straight away so it was a good plan to stand next to them and hop in!!
The only difficulty they had was if they had a rifle as it chipped the cars' paintwork.. Locals were happier if they were carrying an Uzi :laugh:
 

accountantpete

Brexiteer
Loads as a student in the 70's - usually at the end of term when the grant money had run out.

Best one was Swansea to Manchester for a party - waited for 10 minutes and got dropped virtually on the doorstep by a lorry.

The worst was a half-mile hitch to a "better" spot. I stood there for an hour without luck so went back to the old spot and got a lift within minutes:wacko:
 

CanucksTraveller

Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Location
Hertfordshire
Done it once or twice when I was in the Army. I recall getting picked up pretty quickly. Sadly, I wasn't abducted and used as a sex slave by any female drivers. Luckily, no male drivers fancied me either!

When i was about 8 my great uncle - (ex Navy in WW2) - stopped for a man on a motorway slip road who was carrying a sausage bag on his shoulder (you'll know the bag I mean). And with the man in the car, he told me that when I was old enough, I should always stop for a serviceman and give a lift.
Weirdly that was about the last time I ever saw a serviceman hitching a lift... I think the IRA put paid to carrying service kit bags openly. And in an odd twist, about 9 years later I joined up. Never did get to hitch a lift.
 

robjh

Legendary Member
I hitched quite a bit in my student days in the early 80s, and I guess this was pretty much the tail end of the great British hitching era. I could have afforded the National Express coach, but hitching just felt more resourceful, interesting and vaguely alternative.

People still went on hitch-hiking holidays in mainland Europe at that time - a mate and I got to Austria and back in 1981, university friends got to Corfu, and Mrs rjh and I had our first holiday thumbing it round Brittany. I also enjoyed 'Trampen' as it was called in German, around the autobahn network when I lived out there in 1982-3.

I've done it just a few times since, most recently a few years back to hitch a lift back to a railway station after a one-way walk in North Wales. If you look like a hiker in a popular walking area it seems you still have a fair chance of getting picked up.
 

Saluki

World class procrastinator
I hitched a lot in the 80s and will pick up a hitch-hiker if they are small and I reckon that I can handle them if they get narky. Mostly I have a dog in the car anyway and, although he is a Lurcher, he can be a bit sharp if anyone gets aggressive near him
 
Yes, I've done quite a lot.

Around southern and eastern England, France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Israel, a small bit of Australia (Victoria and NSW), a small bit of USA (Richmond Va down to Miami) and Canada (Calgary-Vancouver-Seattle)

Used to love it, and I do give a lift to someone if possible/practical as a way of giving back, but backpackers seem to be a very rare sight, these days. It's a pity, but understandable, too.
 

Dave 123

Legendary Member
As a student at Reasheath, Nantwich I used to hitch fairly regularly.
Two memorable ones...

A lift from a strange religious man who touched me up. I got out of the car at the earliest opportunity!

The other- first car that passed! Ford Sierra estate, 4 squaddies going home. The driver was sober, but the other 3 were steaming drunk on whisky. They kept trying to make me have some, but I kept declining. We had a great laugh.
I was dropped at the door.
 

robjh

Legendary Member
[QUOTE 4925002, member: 259"]....
Best hitching was in the old East Bloc. Very few people had cars and when they did they were delighted to show them off.[/QUOTE]
Hitching was a standard way to get around rural Romania in the 90s, though it was customary to offer the driver a few lei for the journey, and consequently many drivers would fill the car up with hitchers if they could. As a foreigner, and a westerner at that, it was hard to know the going rate, but it was never going to break the bank, and on numerous occasions I had drivers waive the offer of a fare - I think the amusement of hearing me trying to speak Romanian was reward enough in itself.
 

iandg

Legendary Member
I used to hitch between Stafford and Wolverhampton (up and down the A449) regularly in the early 80's and used to pick up hitch hikers when I got a car. Last time I picked up anyone was about 3 years ago. Don't see many people trying to hitch a ride anymore.

The funniest incident was early Sunday morning when I was heading back from a party in Wolves. First ride took me to Penkridge and I'd only been there for a few minutes when a mini screeched to a halt. I got in, middle aged female driver, the conversation started, I said I was heading home after a party, driver said she was heading to Stafford to pick up her son from a party too and I spent the next 5 miles being lectured to on letting my parents know where I was, making sure I had plans to get home safely............................
 
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