Hitched rides all over the eastern side of Australia, and a bit up in the Northern territory.
The thing that amazed me was how many young women were willing to give a ride to someone who looks like me.
I'm a big ugly bastard... 6'4", 125kg, bearded, had a mean looking Blue Heeler with me that had both his ears chewed off in fights, was usually wearing dirty jeans, boots, hat and a flanalette shirt, and was carrying a swag and a rifle in a carry bag( had a permit, bag had conspicuos padlock, bolt and ammo were seperate...used to be perfectly legal, but it was blatantly obvious that I was carrying a high powered weapon)
Truck drivers would drive right past, young blokes in four wheel drives would go straight past....it allways seemed to be young women.
They were perfectly safe, I might look like a criminal, but im actually a nice bloke
....but they didnt know that.
I allways quized them about it, basically saying "I dunno that I would stop and give a bloke who looks like me a ride, especially not if I were a pretty young woman like you"
The reasons they gave were many and widely varied, but a lot of the time it was because they were alone and bored, just wanted someone to talk to while we drive the next two or three hundred kms to the next town.
More than a few of them simply liked my dog.
Good fun, if you've never tried it, you've missed out on some interesting times, and some very interesting people.
I wouldn't reccomend it unless you are confident in your ability to handle just about any foreseeable situation though, without a doubt, there are some weirdoes out there.
I pick up hitchers too, most of them are cool, many will give you a few bucks for petrol, or a joint or sixpack of beer or something....all of them have interesting stories to tell.
The freaks are easy to detect within minutes of them getting in your car, in that case I just out-freak them, tell them about my axe fetish and show them the moari fighting axe I keep under my seat(a gift from a gratefull moari guy called Sam I gave a ride to)....they usually want to get out pretty soon afterwards.
