Melbourne-Adelaide: The beauty of hitchhiking

My furniture has shrunk from twelve garbage bags into a backpack. What remains are two bags of clothes, a makeup kit and some camping gear. I am prepared to eat canned food, camp in the cold and live without no electricity. As long as my thumb attracts cars I am satisfied. And if those helpful people who are willing to stop are  willing to share their background, opinions and views I will have a lovely time and you got hopefully something fun to read.

You did not think it existed, but I found it; a person who is deliberately prepared to hitchhike with me. The first customer for tour organization 'Job takes you to the top, but does not pick you up' 'is a fact.

Sofia, my traveling companion
Sofia is a 20-year-old Swedish, attractive and adventurous girl. She is powerful, interested in other people and has a good sense of humor. With divorced parents, living half a year in America and now a year in Australia, she already has a lot of life experience and is very mature for her age.
She adds me where I fail; The pizzas are exchanged for tuna with vegetables, the tent is set up in 10 minutes instead of 1,5 hours and beer became wine. Her lovely personality makes her someone I really like to travel with.

After a short train journey where I saw ''my'' Melbourne for the last time we arrived in Melton. A village where you they give you a free sweatpants XL when you buy a bottle of water. And a village where the full employment is five full-time jobs. When the local newspaper headlined '' Out of 1200 candidates Brendan is elected as the new street sweeper, because of his passion for brooms '' we thought that one of the 1199 other candidates would have some time to give us a lift.
 

Andrew, 55-60 year
He is the man who immediately smashed our lift anxiety and Wolfs Creek thoughts. Andrew is a very friendly, sympathetic and sociable man. He told us about good hitchhiking spots and that Melton was not one, information which should come from us. He works as a private investigator and can pick the jobs that suit him, for example seeking evidence about an alleged affair or guiding a divorce in a smooth way so that he could guide their reuniting 2nd marriage afterwards. Above all Andrew wants to enjoy and encourage his Footy-team Richmond. That is not a perfect combination, because if Richmond loses, he is sick of that for 2 days. To prevent these short moments of intense pain, Andrew branded his savings with the Richmond logo, so the club can pay the wages of a few players from that.

Pk, 30-35 year
Pk is a man of many interests. After working several years as a process designer in the aircraft industry, he quitted his job a few months ago. Not that he did not do his job properly, Pk had worked his way to the top and saw no challenge anymore. Right now he has all the time to travel and spend time on his passion for climbing. He briefly started with professional climbing and is excited about it. Nevertheless, I expect in 5 years Pk would not use his climbing gear anymore. He has lost interest and started a fast course wakeboarding.

Halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide, we set up our tent overlooking a swamp with swans. Two Germans did the same and when one of them told me they were driving to Adelaide the next day I impulsively offered them to take us with them. The answer was an uncomfortable laugh, which mend[S1]  we had to find a hitchhike the next day.

Daniel, 25-30 year
Daniel saw us sitting on the side of the road, passed us and turned around to give us a lift. There were dozens of bottles on the back seats, the music popped out of the speakers and he had lots of tattoos and piercings, but what outclassed him was his energetic and cheerful attitude. Daniel traveled for five years from farmjob to farmjob in Australia and had a wild and amusing life. Several years ago he returned to his parents to get his life on track. He became a piercer and wants to work in a piercing shop. Unfortunately for Daniel, 90% of the people in his hometown Horsham has that dream. The chances are high that Daniel tries his luck elsewhere. Possibly he can start a piercing shop in Europe and attend concerts of his favorite heavy metal bands in his spare time.

Daniel dropped us off in Horsham. A village where, according to Daniel, many people are unemployed, addicted to drugs and very violent. A nightmare for the police that lost control completely. We wanted to be out of Horsham before we were influenced by drugs that came out of the tap.

Stoph, 50-55 year
Stoph came across as a reliable, thoughtful, funny man. He worked for welfare organizations and was a crane operator before he decided to take over the local pub a year ago. A new interior, a new menu, a new cook and no pokies should bring life back into the pub. Stoph works hard, loves his job and has a vision in mind. As long as his village Mimbula remains a village and does not disappear, I expect Stoph builds a lovely pub where I'd come to have a pint in five years if it is run by backpackers.

Leon, 60-65 year
Leon gave me in a short time a clear picture of farming life in South Australia. Sheeps changed into crops, from 500 acres to 3,000 acres of land and one harvest per year changed to three harvests per year; Leon’s farm underwent some changes the past 40 years. Higher costs, decreasing revenues and without subsidies only the big farms survive, plus the drought of the past few seasons that is not helping. An insecure income and a job that never stops does not seem to bother Leon, judging by his kindness and strength with which he talked about his work.

Dane, 55-60 year and April, 27 year
A father and daughter with Serbian roots brought us to Bordertown, creatively named after its location on the border of state of Victoria and South Australia. April lives in Melbourne and is mother of a daughter of 4 and had had a rough period because of the separation with the aggressive father of the child. Mentally she is too weak to work, so visiting her father in the countryside helps her to relax. Dane is a nature lover and lives up in a cabin in the woods. A few years ago he got a heart attack, at the same period he was diagnosed with diabetes and a high blood pressure. Enough signals to take a step back and retire.

As Dane and April are enjoying their carefree life and making some impulsive trips, they were happy to show us a group of white kangaroos and guide us through Bordertown. Just after we said goodbye they came back; they wanted to bring us to Adelaide. We were pleasantly surprised and arrived 3 hours later in Adelaide, Dane and April drove back home the same evening. A huge favor by two welcoming people with a nice, loose living style.

Adelaide
We drove a bike from the center of Adelaide along the river to the beach 12km away. Adelaide had an impressively laid back atmosphere. You can still do your meditation exercises or listen to the sound of the birds at prime time during the weekdays, and even on the market it was almost silent.

Heavy metal fan Daniel, farmer Leon and footyfan Andrew reflect the diversity of the people you encounter while hitchhiking and they tell you at the same time a lot about the Australian culture. A bright future is not for granted for the rural people, but with hard work and lots of persistence they make the best of it. And a free treasure is with them; a beautiful nature with a large, diverse animal kingdom.