To start my sabbatical I decided to go on one of my random hitching trips. The deal is that initially I choose between North, South, East, West and then go where the lifts take me. It has led to some really great, scary, exciting, challenging experiences. One thing is always certain, it’s a great way to disengage from normal life and gain a fresh perspective.
I thought I’d write a quick day-by-day summary. Here goes:
Sunday:
- No lifts
- 17 miles walked (with a 25kg pack)
- 3 motorway junctions
- Abandoned for lift from girlfriend and night in Brum
Monday:
- 3 lifts: a building surveyor who’d once helped Mick Jagger find his dog, a couple of mechanics who didn’t get what a sabbatical was, and an actor
- Made it to Newcastle by noon
- Set up camp
- Visited Sonodrome at their studio in Tynemouth, talked about geeky stuff, music and films
- Awesome winds all night = lack of sleep
Tuesday:
- Nice day in Newcastle
- Jesper Just films at The Baltic were fantastic
- Walked all over
Wednesday:
- 4 lifts: chap who ran the campsite, a round baldy chap who loved folk music, an 82 year old woman on her own (!!), and a fella driving a brand new 5ltr supercharged Jag
- Lots of history about Carlisle on the way there in the Jag, including about ‘The Scheme’
- Walked all over, nice wall and castle
- Emerging theme: so few independent pubs left in cities :(
- Found a decent pub with a Jack Dee style barman. Ended the evening talking about Jello Biafra and Henry Rollins
Thursday:
- 2 lifts: chap who drives coaches around Europe (his wife does the spoken tour guide thing on his coach), lovely chap who’d lost his best mate to cancer two years before
- Great conversations from Carlisle to Penrith and then from Penrith to Leeds
- Walked all over, cheap hotel
- Emerging theme: so few independent pubs left in cities :(
- Found a decent pub (The Wrens) with a lovely feel. Had one pint then walked for an hour to find another decent pub…ended back at The Wrens
- Having a great time in the pub talking about tattoos and putting the world to rights when two drunken brutes turn up. Friendly enough but also scary. They got bollocked by the barmaid for asking me “are you fucking muslamic?”
- After they left, free Jaegermeister on the bar and the barman took me for a night out in Leeds
Friday:
- Hungover, checked out, then slept in the park for two hours
- Walked 3 miles to motorway, no lifts, walked back to the station
- Made it to Buxton for the start of Sonic Weekend, and there ended my hitching trip
Overall, a damn fine hitching trip. SO many miles travelled and conversations had for FREE!