Hitchhike
Care should be taken when using hitchhiking. Australian people and police have a reservation about people hitchhiking.That being said, there are a lot of people hitching a lift all over Australia.
There are plenty of happy people, truck and delivery drivers, travelers and hippies that pick up hitchhikers all the time. While hitchhiking is not seen very often, this is because the travelers are picked up so quickly.
Some rules to follow about hitchhiking:
- Stand in a place where it is safe for a car to stop. This is usually part of the law
- Find a location where plenty of cars pass in the direction you are heading
- Near lights, intersections and places with slow traffic are great as people will see you and have time to consider picking you up.
- Appearing animated and happy. Sitting at the road side looking bored will not inspire drivers to pick you up.
- Trust your instincts when you assess the driver offering to pick you up.
- Ask where they are going first, so you can quickly decide no, and decline by saying that you are trying to get to another destination.
- Hitchhike with another person
- Traveling with lots of luggage is going to hurt your chances of hitching too
- Report details of the car you are traveling in and the persons name by text message.
You can make this process obvious by asking the car registration and the persons name as "my mother insists that I text her". This simple measure makes it clear that the person's identity is being recorded and any normal Australia person would have no problem and no insult from this step.
For more information, there is a worldwide hitching web site called hitchwiki. This
site includes locations all over Australia that are good hitch points.
Related Links:
HitchWiki for Australia
