My hitchhiking exploits have taken me across much of England, and a little bit into Europe. You might have imagined that it was something I would have gotten into properly at University, where like most students I was pretty broke most of the time (or at least too broke to pay the eye-watering fees for trains). However whilst that was where I first did it, it wasn’t until I had a proper job and was earning a sizable penny that I caught the bug properly. The combination of freedom, meeting new people, and not having to plan ahead and actually book tickets all play prominently in my head when I’m deciding how to get anywhere around this country.
My latest hitching tale saw me use a precious day’s vacation and head up the spine of England from London to Yorkshire to see my brother and sister-in-law. With the only time-limit on me getting to Wakefield in time to catch the legendary “Super” St Helens against the Wakefield Wildcats, I was confident of getting up with time to peruse the museums and shops of Leeds before catching up with my brother and heading down to Wakey. As so often the case, fate decided differently for me that day.
The start was as strong as one might hope for – a hearty Wetherspoons breakfast. The ales on tap had me tempted, but I decided to wait until I was the appropriate age range to start drinking at 9am in a Spoons (i.e. >60 yrs old). A quick check on Hitchwiki tempted me to try a new hitching spot on the M1, at the London Gateway Services. As soon as I’d arrived, I thought I’d made a mistake – the flow of traffic through was tiny compared to other places, and I feared I may be stuck there for a while. However just 25 minutes after starting the lovely delivery man Paul picked me up in his removal van, and took me up to Toddington services, just outside Milton Keynes.
Here, I had barely been out the van for 30 seconds and Josh pulled up, sure and confidently ushering me towards his window and informing me was he heading up to Loughborough. Here my Leicestershire upbringing came into sharp focus as I remembered all the services stations along the M1, and so I jumped in and we headed North. As a Engineer who had just finished a tour of Afghanistan, Josh was one of the most fascinating and interest people I’ve had the chance to meet whilst hitching yet – his perspective and knowledge of the Middle East, the way he told me about various intricacies between what you see and what happens behind closed doors, and his perceptive insight into the issues of the day gave rise to a non-stop dialogue for the entire journey. I was genuinely disappointed to see Leicester Forest East services come into sight, but had to wish him on his way.
My final lift of the day was also somewhat interesting, although for slightly different reasons. Having been hailed across the car park by the friendly Colette, I jumped in the back of Paul and hers car and headed on up the motorway once more. With the conversation floating naturally from topic to topic (a good portion was spent discussing the pros and cons of Social Media and the Internet), the journey was going as well as one might expect for a Friday afternoon on the M1. However, a sudden slam of the brakes from the car in front of us led to some quick adjustments to our own cars speed, and in attempting to avoid rear-ending the cause of the issue we took emergency action and swung across the carriage-way. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), there was a people carrier in our way. A good shunt of them shortly moved them out of the way, and so we tootled on over to the hard shoulder shaken, but at least not stirred. The victims of our sideways plunge were in fact the band The Hype Theory, who were on tour and on their way to play Rock City in Nottingham. I have subsequently checked their Twitter feed and it’s made no reference to this incident so I can only assume that they got there fine and undamaged, for which I’m sure their fans are grateful.
After the necessary interlude of ringing the swapping details, taking pictures of the damage, ringing insurance companies etc, we finally got moving again an hour or so later. The incident didn’t seem to dappen the happy spirits of Paul or Colette, and it was great to be in the company of two such positive people. Their kindness really shone through at the end of our trip – although they were going to Huddersfield, they proceeded to drive me into the centre of Leeds city centre to drop me off where I wanted – easily adding 30 odd miles onto their trip. The generosity of people never ceases to put me in awe, and it’s these type of experience I share with people when they say the world is going to hell in a handcart.
So although it was a somewhat unusual trip up, I managed to get from London to Leeds in 4 hours 40 minutes – just in time to enjoy a lovely local ale for £2.08. Much as I love London, you just can’t beat the North for some things.
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