I picked up a hitchhiker once (the only time) in the rolling downs of southern England. He was holding a small fold-out sign that said ‘paraglider – need to get back to car’ and had an armful of pillowy soft parachute. He was a big, well muscled man who I normally would’ve driven right past with a ‘not on your life, buddy’ but I wanted to ask him about drifting gently over the Downs more than I was scared about something happening.
My father picked up hitchhikers all the time, especially surfers when we were going to and from the beach. He’d roll back the Kombi door for them and direct them to take the middle seat between us kids or to just hunker down on the floor.
I love the sign with the explanation. I hope you had a nice trip together.
I picked up hitchhikers once. They were two young men. They were waiting on the other side of the road going the opposite direction to me. It was raining. When I came back that way an hour later, they were still standing there. In the rain. The poor guys only needed to go about ten kilometres, but no-one would pick them up in the rain. I was driving an old van that a little water would make zero difference to. So I picked them up. They were a little confused by the friendly young woman who picked up two bedraggled men and proceeded to chat happily and offer to drop them at their door, LOL!
Since I’ve had kids, I haven’t picked anyone up (other than people I know from somewhere). I’m a little more cautious these days.
I remember when my husband and I were teens we lived about thirty min. apart and if his push bike wasn’t going or he didn’t have bus fare he’d hitch. That was thirty years ago. Recently some friends of my son, young women hit hiked whilst on holidays and I was horrified! You just never know, nor do you know who it’s safe to pick up! More recently we were driving to my Mums in the country and came across a couple broken down basically a long way from anywhere and we stopped. Their radiator had burst and as quick as my husband put water in it, it emptied out. wasn’t much he could do for the car but their issue was their daughters wedding was the next day and they had the DRESS! So we loaded our car up with all their gear and drove up into the Otways to deliver them to their daughters house much to the Brides relief. My Mum, who I had called when we stopped hadn’t heard from me again as there was no service up in the hills, was having kittens thinking we had stopped for Bonny and Clyde and she also was relieved when we turned up 4 hrs. later than planned!!
Poor mum, always stressing.
That bride must have been so relieved… and I bet that story got told many, many times over in their family.
awesome 🙂
Hi Chantelle!
First of all congratulations on your amazing blog from an a argentinian fan! Second: I would love to start my own blog and I was wondering : What plattarform do you use for the blog? Blogger, WordPress or other? It looks like WordPress to me!
WordPress, yep!
I was a hitch hiker – I’d hitch hike to and from school often and to friends houses and parties. Only from the ages of about 14-18. Then the “I’m immortal” feeling went away and I stopped. I kept pIcking up hitch hikers until 2 years ago when my first born came into the works and haven’t picked one up since.
I, with my 3 year old in the backseat, picked up a guy once who was out in the rain and when I drove past he looked so sad and unfortunate that I went back and picked him up. He was a lovely young guy who was very very grateful. I felt great about being able to help.
I just remembered that I gave a backpacker a lift once that I met at the park. We ended up going on a date later that week.
You are a very good egg!
Saying I went hitchhiking around Southern Africa when I was 19 makes me sound a bit more adventurous than I probably was. It just seemed to be another form of public transport. We poured into the back of pick-up trucks with dozens of locals and we got lifts from kindly older folk probably wondering what the hell we were thinking and trying to protect us. We said, “No, thanks” a couple of times. I like to think we had some common sense and our ‘Spidey-sense’ was working.
Although I’ve never told my Dad who thought we were on an organised overland trip and I would probably freak out if my daughter suggests doing the same when she’s 19!
I’ve never picked up a hitchhiker even though I think it would be good karma. There’s no space between the car seats in the back now, but maybe when they’re gone and I’m not driving down a deserted road, at night, in the Mid-West, by myself….
Look at you being all adventurous!
I’m HANGING to find a hitchhiker, to do a Street Talk on them xx
You just need to head up this way. There’s lots of them!
I have hitched all over the world – it seemed like a right of passage when we were young and fearless in Europe. And in the Northern Rivers its really just the norm. My funniest experience was in Taiwan 20 years ago where hitching is unheard of – especially from a couple of young Aussies. We were graciously picked up, offered delicacies of fried chickens heads, driven around for about an hour and then dropped off where we began – a sight seeing adventure at its best!
Oh my gosh, this is an awesome story!!
That’s awesome. Your own little tour guide. 🙂
That is a great story!
No way I pick them up! I don’t want to die and my mum told me I would die if I picked up hitchhikers or if I hitch hiked myself. LOL! A bit dramatic Mum but I’m 39 and I still can’t help but hear her voice on those few occasions I have contemplated picking one up. I can’t do it.
I think you are bringing a big city mentality to this, not a Northern Rivers one lol.
You ask “so if I’m not picking them up, who is”. The answer to that is: locals. Practiced with common sense, hitching is very common here, especially up in the hinterland. It’s environmentally friendly, which is important to a lot of us here. Plus public transport is non existent. We live 15km from a village. If the car is home, great. We may use it. But then again we may not. It’s just as easy to walk down to the main road, dog in tow, and hitch a lift with a local to the next village.
We also give backpackers a lift. We like backpackers. They do the local economy a lot of good. Plus you get to expand your horizon while they are in your car, asking where they are from, sharing a few words of a new language, as well as of course recommending somewhere great in Australia they might like to try next.
Some of our closest friends are neighbours we didn’t meet until we saw them hitching and gave them a lift. Think about all the friends you might have missed meeting 🙂
I think you’re right Jeni.
I think on the smaller streets around home, I would be more likely to pick someone up – because they’d likely be neighbours or locals.
But on the big motorways – I think it’s a bit scarier for me.
I’ve been a backpacking hitchhiker, but only in South America and mainly at places where there simply are no busses. I guess it’s different over there though, since people offer you a ride out of the blue sometimes. Maybe because I was this blonde girl traveling by herself, so I was no threat to anyone. And I just used my Spidey-sense, like Sarah-Jane says. (Still don’t know what kept my parents from totally freaking out over those stories though.)
In all honesty, I have never and probably would never. The thought of helping someone out always comes past my mind. I think a few to many scary hitch hiking stories gone wrong has freaked me out. But, with that being said, If I had more guts I would. This is me being the cautious, too cautious probably, person in this world who probably has trust issues….. still working on that 🙂
In 1971 at the ripe old age of 17 I hitchhiked from Boone Iowa to Somersworth New Hampshire, about 1,400 miles. It took me about a week. It took me about a week, but that was because I got lucky. Three guys in a van picked me up outside Chicago in the middle of a rain storm and gave me a ride all the way to eastern Pennsylvania. It was a great experience at the time. I ended up taking the bus back which was a much worse experience. I would almost never pick up a hitchhiker today or for many years.
What great luck you had. And if we had Facebook back then, I’m sure you’d still be friends following each others lives.
I am not usually one to pick up hitchhickers, but my husband likes to! So we have picked them up a few times. We usually sus them out of course as we drive by, and there is two of us in the car, so if we’re just picking up one person it’s unlikely they’ll be able to kill us both…!
We picked up hitchhickers when we were in Israel. We were going through the dessert, coming to Jerusalem from the Dead Sea, and we picked up a couple as it was getting dark. They didn’t really speak English, and we didn’t really speak Hebrew, but it kinda worked out. They were quite happy to sit in the back with Lior, and he chatted away to them in baby speak!! I don’t think we quite dropped them off where they wanted, but close enough that they could catch another lift. 🙂
I love that you weighed it up: “it’s unlikely they’ll be able to kill us both…”
Congrats on bubba number 2 on the way. I only figured it out through Instagram on the weekend and then forgot to say congrats! x
I have never! You never know who you could pick up! Yes, there are good people in the world but there are also terrible ones too and you just don’t know. And honestly, I wouldn’t trust someone who can’t even organise their own mode of transportation.
I couldn’t pick up a hitchhiker either – Mum’s voice again. Though I’d possibly change that for say a couple of women in trouble. Having said that, I’ve hitched twice and both were accidental. The first time I was on my way to work, first job, quite early, freezing and foggy and my old car broke down. It was well before mobiles so I was stuck. A rugged trucker was the only one to pull over and he offered to drive me to call the NRMA. Frankly I didn’t have a lot of options and he didn’t give me any creepy vibes – I willl confess that as I climbed into his truck I told myself how very foolish I was. Of course he was completely nice and dropped me off at work as promised.
Second time was only a few years ago when we got off the train only to find the place we had to go was miles away. An older lady offered my friend and I a lift after realising our strife. We figured between us we could take her so we got in. We laughed afterwards feeling reckless – and I’ve never told my mother!
I do think it’s a shame we have to be so distrusting.
Shaggy
I picked up a man and his two young daughters locally and gave them a ride home. I figured that i would be safe alone with two little girls. Turns out i was and they were on my way home.
As you may remember from my previous comments, i own a fruit property, well we employ backpackers and sometimes we may pick them up or drop them off to/from work.
Last season we had a young married japanese couple we did this for, for a few days.
We also had a German man and his Chilean girlfriend we drove as well. So in the beginning they start off as hitch hikers in a fashion 🙂
Its an amazing way to meet people, we had had English, French, German, Asian, Kiwi and Aussies work for us. I really enjoy hearing their stories 🙂
As for me hitch hiking, ummmm, no way!
I’ve picked up an old man once when I was doing a 3 hour road trip with my boyfriend & his brother. I was devastated once he got out because he shared the saddest story about his family throwing him out when he was younger and refusing to talk to him (I don’t think I asked why). Maybe there was more to it but I really wished there was more I could do!
I’ve also hitchhiked before in New Zealand. We were staying in a small coastal town and it was the only way to get into the main centre at night.
I felel the same than you : not safe and personal space eater
I think the crucial line in this story is… hitchhikers do bad things in the movies… real life is NOT the movies. Movies have an awful lot to answer for, making us afraid of everyone we don’t personally know. In my youth I hitchhiked a lot (but always with a buddy) and I still pick people up if they are wearing a backpack, especially if they are girls (although it’s rare to see hitchhikers in New Zealand these days). The worst that ever happened was when my late husband and I picked up a young man who was juggling oranges as he waited beside the road. We took him on board and he proceeded to fill the car with THE most stinky farts for the 50 we took him. LOL This was about 30 years ago but I’ve never forgotten it.
My Husband, son and I were in Queenstown, NZ recently and the place is flooded with backpackers many of them hitchhikers and most of them european. After driving past Hubby and I had the conversation about whether or not to pick up (it was drilled into me as a child NEVER pick up a hitchhiker!) We decided that if our son wasn’t in the car we would have. They’d have to sit through all my questions – where have you been, where are you from, etc I’d love to hear their travel stories.
totally didn’t mean to add the picture… fail!
My boyfriend at the time (now husband) were backpacking around Ireland in 01, we were staying in some tiny village and missed the bus – it was going to be ages before another one came through so we decided to hitchhike – quite a few friendly farmers drove past and waved but finally a young girl similar age to us stopped and gave us a lift to the net town – she was so excited to meet some Aussies!
I wouldn’t have the courage to do it now!!!
I picked up a hitchhiker once (the only time) in the rolling downs of southern England. He was holding a small fold-out sign that said ‘paraglider – need to get back to car’ and had an armful of pillowy soft parachute. He was a big, well muscled man who I normally would’ve driven right past with a ‘not on your life, buddy’ but I wanted to ask him about drifting gently over the Downs more than I was scared about something happening.
My father picked up hitchhikers all the time, especially surfers when we were going to and from the beach. He’d roll back the Kombi door for them and direct them to take the middle seat between us kids or to just hunker down on the floor.
I love the sign with the explanation. I hope you had a nice trip together.
I picked up hitchhikers once. They were two young men. They were waiting on the other side of the road going the opposite direction to me. It was raining. When I came back that way an hour later, they were still standing there. In the rain. The poor guys only needed to go about ten kilometres, but no-one would pick them up in the rain. I was driving an old van that a little water would make zero difference to. So I picked them up. They were a little confused by the friendly young woman who picked up two bedraggled men and proceeded to chat happily and offer to drop them at their door, LOL!
Since I’ve had kids, I haven’t picked anyone up (other than people I know from somewhere). I’m a little more cautious these days.
I remember when my husband and I were teens we lived about thirty min. apart and if his push bike wasn’t going or he didn’t have bus fare he’d hitch. That was thirty years ago. Recently some friends of my son, young women hit hiked whilst on holidays and I was horrified! You just never know, nor do you know who it’s safe to pick up! More recently we were driving to my Mums in the country and came across a couple broken down basically a long way from anywhere and we stopped. Their radiator had burst and as quick as my husband put water in it, it emptied out. wasn’t much he could do for the car but their issue was their daughters wedding was the next day and they had the DRESS! So we loaded our car up with all their gear and drove up into the Otways to deliver them to their daughters house much to the Brides relief. My Mum, who I had called when we stopped hadn’t heard from me again as there was no service up in the hills, was having kittens thinking we had stopped for Bonny and Clyde and she also was relieved when we turned up 4 hrs. later than planned!!
Poor mum, always stressing.
That bride must have been so relieved… and I bet that story got told many, many times over in their family.
awesome 🙂
Hi Chantelle!
First of all congratulations on your amazing blog from an a argentinian fan! Second: I would love to start my own blog and I was wondering : What plattarform do you use for the blog? Blogger, WordPress or other? It looks like WordPress to me!
WordPress, yep!
I was a hitch hiker – I’d hitch hike to and from school often and to friends houses and parties. Only from the ages of about 14-18. Then the “I’m immortal” feeling went away and I stopped. I kept pIcking up hitch hikers until 2 years ago when my first born came into the works and haven’t picked one up since.
I, with my 3 year old in the backseat, picked up a guy once who was out in the rain and when I drove past he looked so sad and unfortunate that I went back and picked him up. He was a lovely young guy who was very very grateful. I felt great about being able to help.
I just remembered that I gave a backpacker a lift once that I met at the park. We ended up going on a date later that week.
You are a very good egg!
Saying I went hitchhiking around Southern Africa when I was 19 makes me sound a bit more adventurous than I probably was. It just seemed to be another form of public transport. We poured into the back of pick-up trucks with dozens of locals and we got lifts from kindly older folk probably wondering what the hell we were thinking and trying to protect us. We said, “No, thanks” a couple of times. I like to think we had some common sense and our ‘Spidey-sense’ was working.
Although I’ve never told my Dad who thought we were on an organised overland trip and I would probably freak out if my daughter suggests doing the same when she’s 19!
I’ve never picked up a hitchhiker even though I think it would be good karma. There’s no space between the car seats in the back now, but maybe when they’re gone and I’m not driving down a deserted road, at night, in the Mid-West, by myself….
Look at you being all adventurous!
I’m HANGING to find a hitchhiker, to do a Street Talk on them xx
You just need to head up this way. There’s lots of them!
I have hitched all over the world – it seemed like a right of passage when we were young and fearless in Europe. And in the Northern Rivers its really just the norm. My funniest experience was in Taiwan 20 years ago where hitching is unheard of – especially from a couple of young Aussies. We were graciously picked up, offered delicacies of fried chickens heads, driven around for about an hour and then dropped off where we began – a sight seeing adventure at its best!
Oh my gosh, this is an awesome story!!
That’s awesome. Your own little tour guide. 🙂
That is a great story!
No way I pick them up! I don’t want to die and my mum told me I would die if I picked up hitchhikers or if I hitch hiked myself. LOL! A bit dramatic Mum but I’m 39 and I still can’t help but hear her voice on those few occasions I have contemplated picking one up. I can’t do it.
I think you are bringing a big city mentality to this, not a Northern Rivers one lol.
You ask “so if I’m not picking them up, who is”. The answer to that is: locals. Practiced with common sense, hitching is very common here, especially up in the hinterland. It’s environmentally friendly, which is important to a lot of us here. Plus public transport is non existent. We live 15km from a village. If the car is home, great. We may use it. But then again we may not. It’s just as easy to walk down to the main road, dog in tow, and hitch a lift with a local to the next village.
We also give backpackers a lift. We like backpackers. They do the local economy a lot of good. Plus you get to expand your horizon while they are in your car, asking where they are from, sharing a few words of a new language, as well as of course recommending somewhere great in Australia they might like to try next.
Some of our closest friends are neighbours we didn’t meet until we saw them hitching and gave them a lift. Think about all the friends you might have missed meeting 🙂
I think you’re right Jeni.
I think on the smaller streets around home, I would be more likely to pick someone up – because they’d likely be neighbours or locals.
But on the big motorways – I think it’s a bit scarier for me.
I’ve been a backpacking hitchhiker, but only in South America and mainly at places where there simply are no busses. I guess it’s different over there though, since people offer you a ride out of the blue sometimes. Maybe because I was this blonde girl traveling by herself, so I was no threat to anyone. And I just used my Spidey-sense, like Sarah-Jane says. (Still don’t know what kept my parents from totally freaking out over those stories though.)
In all honesty, I have never and probably would never. The thought of helping someone out always comes past my mind. I think a few to many scary hitch hiking stories gone wrong has freaked me out. But, with that being said, If I had more guts I would. This is me being the cautious, too cautious probably, person in this world who probably has trust issues….. still working on that 🙂
In 1971 at the ripe old age of 17 I hitchhiked from Boone Iowa to Somersworth New Hampshire, about 1,400 miles. It took me about a week. It took me about a week, but that was because I got lucky. Three guys in a van picked me up outside Chicago in the middle of a rain storm and gave me a ride all the way to eastern Pennsylvania. It was a great experience at the time. I ended up taking the bus back which was a much worse experience. I would almost never pick up a hitchhiker today or for many years.
What great luck you had. And if we had Facebook back then, I’m sure you’d still be friends following each others lives.
I am not usually one to pick up hitchhickers, but my husband likes to! So we have picked them up a few times. We usually sus them out of course as we drive by, and there is two of us in the car, so if we’re just picking up one person it’s unlikely they’ll be able to kill us both…!
We picked up hitchhickers when we were in Israel. We were going through the dessert, coming to Jerusalem from the Dead Sea, and we picked up a couple as it was getting dark. They didn’t really speak English, and we didn’t really speak Hebrew, but it kinda worked out. They were quite happy to sit in the back with Lior, and he chatted away to them in baby speak!! I don’t think we quite dropped them off where they wanted, but close enough that they could catch another lift. 🙂
I love that you weighed it up: “it’s unlikely they’ll be able to kill us both…”
Congrats on bubba number 2 on the way. I only figured it out through Instagram on the weekend and then forgot to say congrats! x
I have never! You never know who you could pick up! Yes, there are good people in the world but there are also terrible ones too and you just don’t know. And honestly, I wouldn’t trust someone who can’t even organise their own mode of transportation.
I couldn’t pick up a hitchhiker either – Mum’s voice again. Though I’d possibly change that for say a couple of women in trouble. Having said that, I’ve hitched twice and both were accidental. The first time I was on my way to work, first job, quite early, freezing and foggy and my old car broke down. It was well before mobiles so I was stuck. A rugged trucker was the only one to pull over and he offered to drive me to call the NRMA. Frankly I didn’t have a lot of options and he didn’t give me any creepy vibes – I willl confess that as I climbed into his truck I told myself how very foolish I was. Of course he was completely nice and dropped me off at work as promised.
Second time was only a few years ago when we got off the train only to find the place we had to go was miles away. An older lady offered my friend and I a lift after realising our strife. We figured between us we could take her so we got in. We laughed afterwards feeling reckless – and I’ve never told my mother!
I do think it’s a shame we have to be so distrusting.
Shaggy
I picked up a man and his two young daughters locally and gave them a ride home. I figured that i would be safe alone with two little girls. Turns out i was and they were on my way home.
As you may remember from my previous comments, i own a fruit property, well we employ backpackers and sometimes we may pick them up or drop them off to/from work.
Last season we had a young married japanese couple we did this for, for a few days.
We also had a German man and his Chilean girlfriend we drove as well. So in the beginning they start off as hitch hikers in a fashion 🙂
Its an amazing way to meet people, we had had English, French, German, Asian, Kiwi and Aussies work for us. I really enjoy hearing their stories 🙂
As for me hitch hiking, ummmm, no way!
I’ve picked up an old man once when I was doing a 3 hour road trip with my boyfriend & his brother. I was devastated once he got out because he shared the saddest story about his family throwing him out when he was younger and refusing to talk to him (I don’t think I asked why). Maybe there was more to it but I really wished there was more I could do!
I’ve also hitchhiked before in New Zealand. We were staying in a small coastal town and it was the only way to get into the main centre at night.
I felel the same than you : not safe and personal space eater
I think the crucial line in this story is… hitchhikers do bad things in the movies… real life is NOT the movies. Movies have an awful lot to answer for, making us afraid of everyone we don’t personally know. In my youth I hitchhiked a lot (but always with a buddy) and I still pick people up if they are wearing a backpack, especially if they are girls (although it’s rare to see hitchhikers in New Zealand these days). The worst that ever happened was when my late husband and I picked up a young man who was juggling oranges as he waited beside the road. We took him on board and he proceeded to fill the car with THE most stinky farts for the 50 we took him. LOL This was about 30 years ago but I’ve never forgotten it.
My Husband, son and I were in Queenstown, NZ recently and the place is flooded with backpackers many of them hitchhikers and most of them european. After driving past Hubby and I had the conversation about whether or not to pick up (it was drilled into me as a child NEVER pick up a hitchhiker!) We decided that if our son wasn’t in the car we would have. They’d have to sit through all my questions – where have you been, where are you from, etc I’d love to hear their travel stories.
totally didn’t mean to add the picture… fail!
My boyfriend at the time (now husband) were backpacking around Ireland in 01, we were staying in some tiny village and missed the bus – it was going to be ages before another one came through so we decided to hitchhike – quite a few friendly farmers drove past and waved but finally a young girl similar age to us stopped and gave us a lift to the net town – she was so excited to meet some Aussies!
I wouldn’t have the courage to do it now!!!