A few months back we hatched a cheeky desire to hitch hike to India. After a long list of to-do’s before we could set off, including moving the flerd 5 kms across town,
and hosting Jordan’s 30th and our farewell gathering,
we walked with our backpacks to the A300 and stuck out our thumbs. Ballarat was our first destination as we needed to head west before we could go north. Can you even hitch to India? Dunno, let’s find out.
Hitch hikers should be added to the list of rare breeds in Australia. As news cycles have merged into fear cycles, we get many worried looks when we hitch. Nonetheless, on this first morning we got a ride within 10 mins with a lovely lady named Cath, who dropped us off at Ballarat Station where we boiled the billy. Thanks for starting us off Cath!
We enquired about the cost of a train to Adelaide, and were sold tickets for a train and two buses, costing just $52.50 in total,
grateful for such affordability, and for the homemade, light-weight, high nutrition food we brought such as rabbit and roo jerky.
While this is a hitch hiking trip, we’ll take affordable transport should it come up. We were a little startled we got so far in just one day, and arriving on dusk in Adelaide, we were taken in by Nicole Brammy and her permie family. After a good night’s sleep in the backyard, we helped out with the household productions.
While Meg helped Nicole and Olivia sort walnuts, Patrick defrosted unwanted fish heads clogging up Nicole’s family freezer and converted them into a miso broth for the workers.
In the afternoon we packed up our tent from the backyard,
and headed a few hours south to spend the second night with old friends from Daylesford, Chris and Vanessa and their boys Willem and Alejandro, at their home in Willunga.
It was wonderful to connect with these families. In all we spent three nights in Adelaide and on our fourth day we caught a bus and a train north to the Salisbury Interchange from where we walked for about an hour out to the A1 to resume our thumbing adventure.
The only bus to Alice Springs from Adelaide would have cost us over a $1000, though more importantly, would have ruined our dance with chance. After two hours of waving in a friendly fashion at concerned motorists, Ali picked us up.
Ali is originally Afghani and he spent 6 months on Christmas Island before arriving in Australia. He said it was destiny that we met and he hoped he’d see us again. We felt the same. He dropped us off at Port Wakefield,
where we worked our thumbs hard for another two hours until Marie picked us up. Marie Warren, is a grandmother, artist and screen printer whose ancestral mob are the Arabana people. As we journeyed, she shared stories of the Mother Country we were travelling in, including the Seven Sisters story.
We talked about our ancestry, and Marie and Patrick (and therefore Woody) found they share Scottish roots. Marie’s grandfather is Francis Warren, formally a Scot before becoming a fully initiated Arabana man who, as Marie stated proudly, was a fierce fighter in the Frontier Wars in Central Australia. As we travelled and spoke about our shared lineage, a giant serpent appeared in a salt lake to our right, looking much like Uilebheist Loch Nis (the Loch Ness Monster). We pulled over for a gander.
Travelling with Marie was akin to entering a mythological adventure. We laughed and cried and shared story. After dusk Marie dropped us off at the caravan park on the west side of Port Augusta. “You’ll be safe there, “ she told us,
and we shared some more tears and words. “We need you white fellas,” she said with big feeling. “The dealers use Aboriginal street kids here as guinea pigs when they bring a new drug into the country,” she said with gravity. “I want to come see your bush school, see how you do it. That’s what our babies need here.”
We white fellas need you too, Marie, though many of us have lost connection to a land- and story-bonded life so we no longer know why we do.
After our emotional farewell we found the caravan and camping park was full, even for a small hiking tent, so heeding Marie’s warning about the town we avoided seeking out a sneaky camp, and headed instead for the Flinders Hotel and booked the cheapest room in town.
Early that morning we began our day’s labour, switching our ‘Alice’ sign for something more modest. We were finding out just what huge distances we needed to travel,
and we were in for the long game. It took us four hours before we got a ride, a perfect opportunity for catching practice.
While we waited to fill up a car already committed for a northern transit, an Indian taxi driver pulled over and asked us if we needed a ride. We got talking about our attempt to travel to India overland, hitch hiking and crewing on a boat from Darwin to visit our friend, Jashan’s family farm in Punjab and stay with his parents in his childhood village, visit Vandana Shiva’s farm Navdanya and other permaculture farms in the north, and to cut our teeth on the streets of India playing cricket.
Yes, we’ve become a cricket family since Blackwood fell in love with the game. Here’s Woody practicing his batting with a round bat he carved from hazel wood just before we left,
and here he is, just 11 years old, belting his dad around in the Hepburn cricket nets a few weeks back.
The taxi driver was so moved by the story of our attempt to get to his ancestral lands he returned an hour later to check on us and to give us a wad of cash. Our initial refusal caused some awkwardness, and we realised the gift dearly wanted to be given so we accepted with grace and much gratitude. This generous soul left before we shared names, and he said on parting, “I’m not wealthy, but it’s in my religion. Go well.”
Not long after this immense act of kindness, and about four hours in total out on the road, a young fella called Adrian (or A-train to his mates), stopped, picked us up, and drove us into what is called The Outback.
Adrian was heading to his mother’s engagement party near Roxby Downs and said he’d be happy for the company. We travelled for about an hour together before he needed to turn off, so he dropped us at Spuds Roadhouse on the Stuart Highway,
where we once again got out our hitching sign.
We were pretty buggered. None of us had slept well so far on the trip. Roxby Downs, Woomera, these are big names we adults know through news stories only.
But, we’re not really here to drift, it’s become apparent.
We were going to spend the winter curled up by the fire, working on our book, which the growing, harvesting and teaching seasons helped to put on the back burner. But a few months ago India called us and we had to pay attention to that.
While labouring with our thumbs out on this long road, we also paid attention to the changing colours of Mother Country.
Nearing dark, two Frenchies, Loren and Enzo, pulled over.
They were on a 300km round trip to do their food shopping, and told us there was a free camp site where they worked at Glendambo. So they dropped us there, on that red earth,
and with their joie de vivre spirit we set up camp, got a fire going,
cooked dinner, played some songs, and passed out under a magnificent desert sky.
By the next morning our tent was drenched in dew. It was the first time damp had permeated our family house on the road. We cooked a seedy oaty porridge for breakfast while waiting for the sun to dry our gear,
utilising the shrubbery as a makeshift dryer.
Our night in Glendambo was an initiation into the desert, at least from a settler’s point of view.
We decided we’d pack up the tent wet and get going early. We hoped to get to Coober Pedy and stood out on the Stuart Highway again to roll the hitch dice.
To the west of our frugality was this land and this sky.
Little rituals of acknowledgement and connection are playing out through the waiting. When Woody needs a little encouragement on these long waits, we remind him that if we travelled fast and assuredly we’d need a lot of money, therefore he’d be sent to school so his parents could earn it, and he’d miss out on all the chance encounters that were already making this trip so rich.
After a few hours of courting the wild twin on the Stuart Highway, Steve and Sue, caravaners from WA, picked us up. Covid dissidents like us, we had plenty to talk about, and politics filled our journey akin to this graffiti we discovered in a public toilet on the Stuart.
We adults in the car were all Greens voters back in the day – environmental lefties. While we travelled, we collectively lamented how few now are reading this aggregating era of regulatory capture and the systemic corruption in the state-corporate nexus. Needless to say neither Green, Blue, or Red are parties any of us trust and are repulsed by their complicity.
Sue and Steve, salts of the earth, rolled us into Coober Pedy,
a dusty old mined-to-hell-and-back town,
where we set up the tent and dried out our wet things before the sun lost its sting. Each day is getting warmer as we progress north.
The temperatures drop at night but we’re toasty with all our winter gear. Once set up we explored the town
that has been turned over and
mongreled in both crude and novel ways.
You know what they say when you travel, As in Rome… so we donned the digger’s spirit,
for a very brief moment, and got the hell outta that strange lil town,
passing Waa on our way,
and walking 45mins back to the highway to begin our morning’s labour.
We smiled and waved to motorists, and received a goodly assortment of friendliness back in return. Being three of us plus our gear, not many people have the space. What we gain in being friendly, we lose by being numerous and bulky. It took two hours before a car pulled over. “I can give you a lift. You’re not psycho-killers are you?” asked Shannon, “No, are you?” Meg asked back, with a grin.
“We’re going to Alice,” said Patrick. “Yeah, I can take you there, I’m heading to Darwin,” said Shannon. Did someone say Darwin?! We piled in, so immensely grateful for the ride and for the dog named Rocky.
Over the next four days we lived on the road with Shannon and Rocky,
visiting Alice only briefly,
and camping at roadside free camps.
Shannon didn’t turn out to be a psycho-killer. He’s a kind and generous man, and we got to do a lot of yarning,
and as our shared stories deepened and grew, so too the termite mounds the more we travelled north.
On our last morning together we stopped in to Bitter Springs
for a refreshing swim, the water almost the same as our body temperature.
We travelled far with Shannon and Rocky, over four beautiful days. On our last leg-stretch before Darwin we stopped and took a family snap.
Shannon and Rocky are about to embark on a new life up here. Shannon will be driving trucks out to remote communities for an Aboriginal transport company, and Rocky will travel with him.
We farewelled this awesome man and his dog outside the Dinah Beach Yacht Association, in Darwin
and walked through the gates into the next stage of our adventure.
Thank you to everyone who waved and smiled at us on the road, who gave us rides and took us in. And thank you Dear Reader, for accompanying us on this first leg of our adventure.
And thanks to Jordan for the first and third images, and to Kim for the second.
Oh my goodness, what an adventure. I can’t believe how far you’ve travelled since I last saw you just the other week! I’m already waiting with baited breath for the next instalment. May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sunshine always warm your face, and the rain fall soft upon your fields! XXX
Thanks Sieta! We still can’t believe it too…
Ohh wow you guys. India! Adventuring so far from the nest ❤️ You’re all so courageous and your adventurous spirits are inspiring us here in deans marsh. And what generous kind people you’ve met along the way to take you in. If only these kind of adventures were mainstream news stories. It would lift people’s spirits. You must now be deep into your next phase of travel. Can’t wait to hear more. Solstice blessings!! So much love. Siany, ads, Kai, Elke and cwtch xxx
Thanks family, sending our love from Timor Leste, just near the Indonesian border xx
Far out this is going to be an amazing family adventure . Safe travels . Can’t wait to read the next post.
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I’m crying with joy, sadness, warmth and most of all, with love for the 3 of you and all the wonderful humans you have met and will meet. Big love from Willunga xx
Thanks Vanessa. Big love to you mob from us sweating it out in Darwin. It was so lovely to share a night together. xx
Your incredible India journey is deeply heart warming, authentic and engaging. I’m on the edge of my seat and want more 🙂 May you be greeted with delightful surprises and goodwill on your adventure, and may your love, wisdom, humility and kindness continue to bless all who cross your path. Onwards and upwards. Om shanti 💖
Thank you Karen
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Just loved reading this! What a wonderful adventure. Inspiring. Thanks for sharing the story and pics. Looking forward already to the next post. Happy and safe travels to you all. xx
Thanks Rebecca! Sending some Darwinian warmth your way.
Go well lovely humans. If anyone can do this – you can! xxxx
Thanks Kirti 🙏🏽
That was fabulous. I greatly enjoyed your last travelling blog serious and I know I will also enjoy reading about this new adventure. Can’t wait until the next installment. Happy travels.
Thanks Tara xx
Wow you guys!!!! Jen has been keeping me updated but I hadn’t dreamed you’d got this far. I admire your courage, your perseverance, your grace and adventure. It’s lovely to hear of the kindness of others that you are experiencing. I look forward to hearing more. Continued safe travels. xx
Hello dear Kate,
Thank you! 🙏🏽
Sending love and hugs xx
Ohhh – I love a Meg travel adventure. Looking forward to travelling with you (in spirit).
Great photos & yarns. Good luck.
Thanks Jacqui!
How exciting – and brave! I shall really enjoy following your travels. There has already and will be so much magic around you on your journey. Funnily enough a friend of mine is currently magicking up her journey to New Zealand from India for a trip, unsure as she is how this will happen. You might like to read her beautiful stories about the process at https://annacowan66.substack.com/, I hope they will delight you along the way 🙂
Thanks for sharing this, Rachel 🙏🏽
Ah thank you for sharing! Your adventure and these shared stories make my heart so glad. I’ll likewise be following with keen interest. Blessings!
Many thanks Lyl!
Wow you guys…we are so with you.Your journey and ours…love you.
Feeling that, Gary. Always 🥰
Wow, loved reading this! We did a 22k drive and freecamp around Australia last year, including doing the length of the Stuart Highway from Adelaide to Darwin, then back again when the Fitzroy Crossing was flooded and we couldn’t get across to Western Australia. Amazing country and beautiful people to meet and things to see.
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I can’t explain why but this adventure of yours fills me with great emotion. I take comfort in knowing there are still great compassionate people willing to share a slice of their life and share stories( and cars) with you. Go Well beautiful family. I look forward to your next instalment.
Thanks Sonya,
We’re comforted by that too.
You Guys are Amazing
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Just WOW! Cannot wait for more. Go well lovely friends. xxx
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Wow! What an adventure! I too can’t wait for the next instalment.
Great piece of writing too.
Nice to see the beautiful smooth bowling action of Patrick after 30+ years (although a bit more groaning at the point of delivery than I remember). And Woody’s lovely batting technique. The straight bat shots looked particularly stylish. Obviously well coached by his Dad.
Safe travels.
G’day Tim! Thanks for the 🏏 praise. Woody asked us, ‘has anyone commented on my batting video?’ So we read your comment to him. Made his day.
Sending love and hugs 🤗
Wonderful to blog along beside you.
Inspiring.
Love
Murray
Thanks Murray!
Congratulation. I must admit I am a little jealous. It so much reminds me of my thumb – travels through Europa in the 1950’is. We were also three with too much luggage and a guitar. I was a full 16 and my two friends not much older.
Woody, travelling is far better than sitting in a classroom being told what to think and do. Enjoy that trip. It will teach you sooooo much. Bon voyage, gute reise. XXX
Sage advice, Ellen xx
You are such incredible folk. I loved reading all of that. Thank you for sharing your journey!
Thanks for saying, Brooke
Thank you Patrick, Meg and Woody. It’s wonderful to be invited into your travelling world and read about and see the images of your adventures.
How on earth did you make this giant serpent appear to greet you?
May the magic be with you ❣️
Thank you, Brigitte xx
I’ve loved reading this so far…beautiful souls attract beautiful souls. Travel safe and well.
Thanks Michelle, yes we have found that generosity begets generosity, and when it ebbs in some it will flow in others.
Am so moved by the stories shared and your courage to embrace the unknown.
In tears 😭
Thank you for enriching our lives with your lived adventures
Thank you beautiful!
You are so kind and thoughtful xx
well, that was a pleasant way to spend 15mins, reading about your trip to Darwin….I could almost feel the dirt under my feet….great photos! ….be safe and can’t wait for the next leg!
Thanks Kay!
I am so moved by your adventure and the way you embrace the unknown. There is lot to learn from nature and people around us. Taxi guys kindness is your first taste of how India will recieve you. Bei has tears in her eyes.
Love and hugs ❤️❤️
Jashan and Bei
Thank you dear ones, we feel your love and spirit xx
Wow, wow, wow! All the best for you and good luck… So excited! Kisses and hugs! 🌎🌞💙
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oh wow, what a journey you guys are now on!
Yes, i hitched recently along some busy road and still it was difficult to get a ride – quite sad when there are so many empty seats. Good people do stop though, but it’s definitely a lot longer wait times nowadays… thanks as always for sharing 🙂
Thanks Dylan, let’s start a hitch hiking revival 😃
Good luck and happy travels! Looking forward to reading about more of your adventures 🤗
Thanks dear Belinda!
How wonderful and inspiring.. such pioneers away from the modern age…what gifts you are to all who meet you. x
Thankyou for sharing your travel tales.
Oh, that is so sweet to say, Aimee.
What a wonderful adventure you three! How I have dreamed of a similar route to India myself. Can’t wait to see what you learn along the way. Especially the sea legs 🙂
Every blessing and safety attend you. Love ilka
Thanks dear Ilka, sending warmth and sunshine 🌞
Oh! Your writing drew us right in by the heartstrings. What an incredible adventure of connecting, already. Beautifully written and we can’t wait for the next instalment.
Big love to you wonderful risk takers.
Xxx
Thanks so much dear friends!
What an incredible adventure already! So happy to see you all out in the world doing your thing ❤
Thanks so much for your encouragement, Dan. We are so happy to be out in the world doing our thing!
Fantastic adventures! And wonderful connections. Reminding me of the backpacking with tent my 11 yo son & I did around Oz for 9 months many years ago. Woody is the perfect age for this. Thanks for sharing the rides with us and looking forward to next nautical stage ⛵🤗
Thanks Adrien! We bet your son has such special memories of that time you spent together.
Beautiful, thanks so much for sharing your new adventures and your zest for living xx
Thanks so much for your encouragement, H!
super exciting to find your story today! Ive been wondering and imagining all sort of scenarios since you left…sooo great you even had a dog friend, desert sands under your fingernails, awesome random connections, cute hitchhiker-signs, big skys… and now we are in suspense for the next chapter ! big gratitude for sharing- the earth is sooo lucky to have you sweet souls adventuring !
Thanks so much dear Trace. Big big love to you from Darwin. x
You guys are so inspiring. Never mind Backpacking as a single. Backpacking as a family with a vision and a will. Wonderful to be traveling vicariously with you.
Thanks so much, Samantha! x
Oh this is exciting! It’s something I’ve long wondered if possible. Looking forward to watching your journey. Enjoy!
Thanks Jo! Big love to you. x
Sounds epic! Reminds me of the wonderful story of the German couple Patrick and Gwen who travelled the world from east to west hitchhiking, spending not more than 5 euros a day for 2,5 years. Their experiences can be found on https://www.weitumdiewelt.de/ and their current adventure of starting a community in Germany on https://www.kirnhalden.de/. Looking forward to your updates and wishing you safe travels and sacred meetings.
Brilliant! Thanks Afina! We love hearing stories like Patrick and Gwen’s. x
I loved every line of it! Waiting for the next post! Jó utat (as we say in hungarian)!
Nagyon köszönöm Heni a meleg jókívánságokat.
Wow what an adventure!!! So much patience in the waiting but so much reward in the rides and stories. You’ll be telling the tales when you’re 80 Woody… not many young fellas would ever get to experience anything like this Woody. I hope you get some well earned sleep with the water lapping you off to lullabies on Ray’s boat. And hope there’s a wonderful bon voyage waiting in the Darwin yacht harbour. X Trev
Thank you so much dear Trev. We are so enormously grateful to you for hooking us up with Ray. x
This is amazing, made me cry <3
Excited to hear and see more from this precious adventure full of stories, kindness and hope.
Love from Sweden
Thank you so much dear Sara! x
My Dear Precious Family What a wonderful photographic diary such a courageous journey. I bless you with peace protection safety salvation in Jesus Name much love Aunty Lynda
Thanks Lynda!
And many Mother Country blessings to you. 🧡❤️🤎🥰🙏🏽
You guys are AMAZING! Every time when you think you have figured it out, you come left of centre and a totally new adventure evolves.
Wishing you the best of trips, but I know it’ll be in good hands.
I am nearly at the end of my 3 months Nepal 🇳🇵 journey, soo good to get a different perspective. Much love, luck & learning on the road
Thanks Eka, staying with you on our first big bike trip is always dear to our heart. And that we stay connected makes us sing. We’re overdue for a get together. Sending lots of love and hugs 🥰
Wow!!! Have a wonderful journey, all of you, and many thanks to the beautiful people who lend a hand, a kindness, and an encouraging word along the way. Sending you HUGS from the Northeast, USA.
Travelling always reminds us how given the opportunity to be kind-hearted with strangers, most will step into that generous place. 🧡❤️🙌🏽
This is very exciting and inspiring! Also you made pretty incredible progress in that time. Well done! Best of luck
Thanks so much, Richard. ✊🏽
Stories of kindness and resilience should fill every inbox! Such excitement reading of your journey so far. We love you all so much and are sending telepathic big mum and dad hugs x
Love and hugs to you, dear friends.
I just love it when you hit the road! Sending love from Scotland.
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So delighted to read your blog, wonderful friends, as you’ve all been in my thoughts constantly since you left. I’ve tried to imagine where you might be along the road and am amazed you’ve arrived in Darwin within 10 days…just going as the spirit and the wheels move. Loved reading and seeing those photos which capture the joy of encounters with people and landscape, conversations, generosity, kindness, patience and that extraordinary country you’ve travelled through.
Much love to you all, I’m with you in spirit and looking forward to your next blog. What an adventure you are on and thanks for allowing us to travel with you vicariously.
Nikki Xx
Thanks Dear Nikki, we always feel your spirit. ❤️🧡🤎🙏🏽⛺️
Amazing! So loved hearing about each and every stop and ride along the way, and when you said Shannon asked if you were crazy psycho-killers and Meg asked the same back – I could so picture her saying this with a big smile beaming up!!
Yep, you saw that well, Renaee. ❤️🧡🤎
What an emotional read, to witness your adventure from here in the UK. I felt like I was right there with you, waiting, waving, yarning. Happy thumbing it, can’t wait for the next installment. Go well, good travellers.
Thanks so much Esther! x
Fantastic pics and people stories of that special slice of Australian society (that still pick up hitch hikers if they can ) Brings back memories of my year hitching around the country at 18 when that slice was a little broader but perhaps less intensely distilled that you have experienced.
Thanks Dave,
That must have been a remarkable year.
Sending love to you and Su xx
What a fantastic adventure!! Eagerly looking forward to more.
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India!! Travel well, dear friends! We can’t wait to read the next instalment. You hit the road the very same week we moved into a house! xx Caiti and Aaron and Finn and Rory
Oh, that’s good news. Happy settling in dear family xx
So lovely to read your happy wry commentary and see your lovely smiles.
Much love for your journey
Fiona
Thank you Fiona, love from all this way north to all that way south in Tassy.
What a marvellous adventure! I think you are such an amazing family and cannot wait to read the next part of this journey. I wish I was brave enough to even think I could do this. Safe and peaceful travels x
Thanks Belinda!
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Wow how amazing!
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Woody, Meg and Patrick – you are magical and divine souls. Thank you for existing in this world, at this time, sharing your magic with the world and reminding us all of our magic and divine soul. Blessings and love 💕
Thanks Tarsha! And thank you for looking after Zero and keeping Forest & Free thriving through the cold, dear family.
Wow! Wow! Wow! I laughed and cried reading about the start of your adventure. There are so many beautiful, open-hearted people in the world. Thank you for sharing this journey. I am so glad to have spent a day with you before you set off, and I am reminded of our family trip around Australia when our son was the same age as Woody. We could not decide if we would visit Cooper Pedy or not. We didn’t. You have just shown me why. Xx
Ha, yes, wise move Kemi, with Cobber Pedy.
So amazing and inspiring megu and fam. Can’t wait to hear the stories upon your return.
Thanks Kathryn! xxxx
What!? Índia?? Wow!! You guys always surprise me in any movement you make. And your movements is always full of wisdom and adventure, peaceful and joy!! I wish you the best in this nomadic journey to meet the one and wonderfull Vandana!! Even though I don’t know you personally, i’m with you all down the road!! Wish the best, Tiago from Portugal
We’re in Timor Leste now, and feeling/witnessing the many traces of Portugal here, Tiago!
Just found your story on ABC news and had to pop over to your blog to read more!
Cheering you on from chilly Victoria this morning. You left at the just right time to seek out warmer pastures, lol. Brrr.
Thank you for sharing your travels, it’s such a heartwarming and courageous read.
I will follow you here, but please continue with news updates, people need more uplifting stories just like yours.
Welcome onboard, Trav, and thank you. We’re about to drop our next post, from Timor-Leste.
I saw the title of your most recent blog and couldn’t believe my eyes! So, I’m just starting to read this blog. I haven’t been following you for a few months. What an amazing courageous adventure! Looking forward to reading all the rest of your adventures. Wishing you all the best in health, safety and meeting kind souls. What a way to travel the world. If you ever make it to Ontario, Canada on your hitch hiking journey, you’re more than welcome to stay with us.
with much love,
Jia-Huey
Thanks Jia-Huey.