This is a guest post by Annie FrangiPony, an inspiring fellow traveler I met at Rainbow Gathering last year. Annie has just begun her solo hitchhiking adventures. Her enthusiasm and courage are awesome, and I’m so happy we can share some of her stories with you, here on Raw Safari. You can read more about Pony’s travels on her blog Watching For Pigs On The Wing.
Lovely People.
Lately I went to volunteer at the Port Fairy Folk Festival in South Eastern Australia. The “Folkie” is so popular that accommodation in town and neighbouring towns is super expensive and booked out months ahead. That’s why I was more than glad to be able to stay with a friend in Warrnambool for free. Warrnambool, however, is still about 30 minutes driving away from the festival.
About 2 minutes after my friend dropped me on the highway in Colac, a car pulled over with two businessmen in it – a real estate agent and a developer. The latter was called Dale and told me stories about how he used to hitchhike everywhere when he was a teenager. After some time filled with cheerful chatting and getting to know each other they dropped me off in Camperdown.
Before I got out, Dale handed me his business card and said “If you ever come back to Melbourne, give me a ring, me and my wife will take you out for dinner!”
After about 10 minutes of waiting, a car with three young Englishmen in it picked me up. They’re the “Young’uns” and were on their way to perform at the festival! They’ve just landed in Australia and I gave them some Aussie slang lessons delivered with a German accent. In turn I found their northern England accent hilarious, played them some Tin Whistle and they sang along to the Irish tune.
We joked until they dropped me in Warrnambool, and of course I promised to come and see their shows.
Over the festival weekend I got picked up by five more parties of people, mostly older couples that went to the festival every year. All of them were just super generous and lots of them used to hitchhike themselves and shared their stories with me.
Zoe, Shirley and Gary picked me up late Sunday night after the East Pointers, and took me home to the caravan park they were staying at, where I could pitch my tent on their spot for free.
The next morning, they made me a coffee and took me back to the festival – and when the East Pointers played again, they all came and danced with me!
Oh my god, they were just such a lovely amazing family.
Later in the day, Kath and Rob bought me an ice cream, and while we drove to Warrnambool and shared stories, Kath said: “there’s nothing more exciting than standing on the side of the road with your thumb out!.”
“You speak my language!” I laughed.
After the festival I hitched to Melbourne with three lifts – with Michael the cement business manager, with Miles the travelling stock broker, and with Trish and Bob who came from the festival, towing their caravan and learning a bit of Tin Whistling from me.
Goodness, they were all lovely.
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