Hitch hiking - who still does it, did it and/or picks up other hitchers?

I always stop & give a lift unless they are really dirty looking, you meet some great people. I once met a retired Canadian Soldier who had divorced his wife. He was on a world tour by himself. He'd been to quite a few hot spots & very rough places, he was coming through Swansea & got mugged & robbed, how bad is that, he'd lost his money & so was hitching to fishguard & then catching a ferry to Ireland. I give him a lift all the way. We had a great chat.

 

Late 80's me and my b/f went camping in cornwall, we hitched from lincs and stayed on holiday for six weeks ending up in brighton.
On my eighteenth birthday i called my folks, dad said "where are you?" I stuck my head out of the phone box to ask the bloke passing " Watford gap services, dad" i replied. He went a bit nuts but as i was 18 (just) and had been doing it for a couple of years he couldn't do anything about it. He knew he' wouldnt be able to stop me and taught me to map read and some good routes.

when i went to uni and had to travel from scunny to plymouth a few times a year it saved me a fortune. folks would give me my train fair and i'd head for the M181 with the cash in my pocket

I used to love hitching - i always got picked up by nice people but often telling me off "i never pick hitch hikers up but i had to stop because i don't know who's behind me and what kind of nutter may pick you up!". I used to tuck my hair up in a cap to look more blokey but apparently it didn't work. :/

Hitching to glastonbury one year, last lift was a theatre company performing there... didn't have to pay, just tucked under the costumes.

I often miss hitching, it was a good feeling and i met some really nice people. and some dodgy ones

 

About 1985 ish my mate and I were picked up by a Welsh farmer on the M4 near Swindon who proceeded to accuse us of being drug peddling hippies on our way home from a festival with our ill gotten gains. We had been to a festival, but were skint and knackered, and just wanted to get on the M5 and go North to home. He became quite irate and refused to stop until the middle of nowhere in South Wales, at night, and we ended up walking 15 miles just to find a main road. It was a nightmare.
A few years later, me and a girlfriend were touring Scotland in my camper, we picked up a German student. Her Dad worked at VW she told us, had something to do with air cooled stuff. She was writing a book about her travels and wanted our photo for it, with the van. I wonder if she ever wrote the book and got it published.
Hitch hiking is great, it should be encouraged, although if my daughter ever told me she was off hitch hiking I'd be mortified!

 

All the time in the 80's, most peeps were ok with the occaisional spouting rascist. Hitched from Lincoln to Cornwall and back one weekend. We had competitions to see who could get the furthest. Got picked up more than once by dope smokers - "hitch-hikers always have rizlas". Don't see many now, but I pick up the ones nobody else would. Scruffy doesn't=bad.

 

I hitchhiked to morocco from hull with my girlfreind Emma! was a hoot! you would have thought all of those lovely people giving us lifts would make me want to pick hitchers up! not done it yet though

 

Until a few months back I used to drive from haverfordwest (pembrokshire) back home to brum. In four years I seen 3 hitchers and picked up two of them. Pretty un eventful journeys but interesting enough chaps and id be happy for the company on the long journey.i think the reduction of hikers may be a sign of how less sociable and freindly society is now. And theres a unfortunate culture of untrust and wariness. A mate of mine recentley hitched across europe to prague or s
Sumwhere,said it was awesome

 

Back you dog - I have a mobile and I know how to use it...

 

Most of my victims have been hitch hikers

 

Do people think there are more dodgy characters or mental cases about nowadays or does the media hype things and show more than we ever saw 20 years ago?

No i dont think there are more dodgy characters just people perceptions, as owen says :

No, there's just more paranoia.

Ive heard people say stuff like " i always attract weirdos" before, just becouse a stranger has engaged in conversation at the bus stop etc, madness, just think people are very inhibited now and care to much about what other people think, like they doint want to be judged maybe?

 

D'you know what? I've been travelling around East Anglian for about 7 years now and only picked up one Hitchhiker. I only could take him about 10 miles, but he had an interesting story. But this makes me think that maybe I should offer a lift to more people.



But if I end up gutted, in a ditch, with my Merc being driven off by a psycho, I'll know who to blame