Key details:

Duration: 3 days (only 2 hitching)

Planning time: None

Route: Sydney to Forster to Macksville to Byron Bay

Activity: Hitching

Total number of lifts: 10

Longest time waiting for a lift: 2 hours

Travelling: Solo

Weather: Sunny, warm (summer)

Gear:

Tent
Sleeping bag
Mat
Liner
Thermals/jumper
Backpack
Water bladder
Stove/gas
Cooking pot/fork
Day clothes
Map of Australia i.e. significant cities
Random food I grabbed in 5 mins running around Coles because it was closing.
Hiking boots
Cardboard sign

Summary:

An easy trip to make. Minimal planning, no fitness or technical know how required. My trip was filled with lots of kind and interesting people.

Planning:

I’d forgotten it was a long weekend. On the Thursday I got the idea to hitch to Byron and when I told a mate from work they offered to take me as far as Forster Friday night. He even let me crash at the holiday house they were renting with some friends. So I packed up my bag Friday morning and took it to work. Booked a train back from Byron for Monday 5pm arrive in Sydney 7am in time for me to get to work on the Tuesday. That was about the extent of my planning.

Day 1

I got a lift to the edge of Forster from my work mate for around 11am Saturday morning. I would recommend if you’re starting in Sydney to catch to train to Newcastle ($8.40 adult and takes 3 hours). It just gets you away from the city rush and on to some of the bigger motorways.

The people I’d stayed with on the Friday helped me make a cardboard sign take said North on it. I didn’t have much hope for the sign. I normally don’t use them, but it actually was quite good later on when I was at a junction going south or north

Lift 1 – hippy couple – Before my work friend had a chance to drive out of sight a lovely young couple stopped and offered me a lift. They were just out for a drive and offered to take me all the way to Port Macquarie. If was a great first lift. We detoured through a few good lookout points. Including a beautiful housing estate the guy had helped build. The woman was very free-spirited and creative. When they dropped me off at food stop in Port Mac they got me to sign the inside of his van which was already highly graffiti-ed from friends and previous hitchers.

Lift 2 – Turns out it was not a good hitching spot. I reckon because there were charity collectors a bit up the way and people felt they could pretend they were going south guilt free. At the time I thought the sign would help but I reckon it did the opposite. I stood here for a couple of hours. One of the longest I’ve ever spent waiting on a lift.

Finally another couple stopped, in a shiny new black jeep. They were on their way to a party and offered to drop me at Macksville. We chatted for a bit and listened to Jim Jefferies. If was friendly but they wasn’t a need to talk the whole time.

We got close to their turn off, it was dark by this point. They warned me Macksville wasn’t the safest town and ask where I was going to stay. I explained I had my tent and hoped to put it up wherever.
They googled actual campgrounds on their phones with no luck and finally stopped at a servo and asked in there for a local campground. The nearest one was 7km out-of-town. They very kindly drove well out their way to drop me there. Including about a km down a dirt road. The 3 of us where getting nervous driving down this track, but suddenly we popped out at a booming fishing campsite.

That was the end of my first day. Honestly it hadn’t been that productive. If I’d done a couple of things differently I reckon I could have got further. But this trip wasn’t about getting to Byron as quickly as possible. It was about having a fun weekend on the road.

Day 2
After a nice long sleep I got up in the morning packed up my tent and started walking. The daylight turned this creepy dirt road, in to a quite stunning lakeside track. I must have walked 3/4 km. Only a couple of cars drove past in that time.

As I was nearing Macksville a few houses began to appear. I chatted to a fisherman on a bridge. His dog however wasn’t so friendly, so I power walked on.

Lift 3– Two big old blokes with long beards got in to their ute as I walked past. I considered going up to ask them for a lift, but I was too timid. I instead waited for them to drive the 40m to me and stuck my thumb out. They stopped. I felt like a bit of an idiot for not just asking them with words.
They where on their way to a BBQ, they weren’t going far but they could drop me on a road with a little more traffic. Exactly what I needed.

I hoped in the back with their little yappy dog.
For two pretty tough looking guys they were the sweetest people. We talked about their relationships with their children and what I was doing in Sydney. Overall a pretty short trip, but I felt very warm towards them. Once again they drove out of their way a couple of km to drop me at an even better road than they’d originally intended.

Lift 4 – It was this point where the sign did come in handy. Waiting at a junction on to the main road. I was there for 10 mins or so when a nice guy on his way to work picked me up. Going up to Coffs Harbour. He talked cars. I don’t know a lot about cars, so I couldn’t add much, but his enthusiasm had me sold. It was really nice to be in a car with just one person have a chat. People relax more when they are alone. Once again on dropping me off I got a danger warning.

Lift 5 – I walked up the road to a good spot. I’m sure everyone does this when hitching. As soon as you don’t get a lift in 5 minutes you decide it’s because you’ve chosen such a bad spot. You’re too close to a bend, you’re too far from a bend, the speed limits to high, they’d had too long to look at you and change their minds. It goes on and after day 1’s epic wait I was finding every reason. I moved once, but then committed. Got a lift from a Dad and his 2 daughters. They were Sri Lankan they weren’t going too far about 20mins up the road, but as I was in no rush I jumped in.

Drop of from this lift was not ideal and it was my fault. He told me he was turning off at this junction and pulled over the let me out. This was on a 3 lane 110km motorway with a small shoulder. I stood there for a while till I realised the ridiculousness of this location and walked up and off the motor way. I walked round to the entry lane and got picked up pretty quickly. Lesson learnt: don’t try to hitch on a motorway.

Lift 6 – The woman who picked me up from my new location was lovely, she had 2 young children in the back. Who sure where a talkative pair. Once again this was a short lift, but I was pleased to see the back of that motorway junction. She told me about a good spot to hitch from and a tasty bakery.

Lift 7 – One of my favorite hindsight lifts. After a short wait a guy in a ute pulls over, no teeth, friendly guy. I hopped in and we chatted away. He asked if I’d like to get out soon or go with him to his mates place where he had to pick something up and then he could drop me at a much better spot. Now I should probably have gotten out the car, but I decided to trust him and was happy to stay. When he pulled into an old ute yard with tons of locked containers I started to wonder if I’d made the wrong decision.

He hopped out and went inside saying he’d just be 5 minutes, he did leave the keys in the ignition so I could listen to the radio. However 15 mins later when he’d not returned I was starting to worry. I wasn’t really sure how to fix the situation. I couldn’t run because they could easily catch you and I didn’t feel it warranted stealing his car quite yet.

After 20 mins he returned apologetic that he’d been roped in for a beer and gave me a big bag of fresh oranges. He then drove me to a good servo and gave me his number for if I got stuck.

Lift 8 – Almost immediately I got picked up by a couple from Brisbane. They took me all the way up to Ballina. They were very relaxed. I felt completely at ease with these two and conversation flowed naturally. They were heading up to see their parents. They dropped me of at a great spot in town with slow traffic and a wide shoulder.

Lift 9 – Now so close to Byron, I got a lift in no time. A Brazilian surfer, towing a caravan. He was living in Byron in a caravan park and he let me pitch my tent in his lot, right on the beach. He took me over to his friend’s place, where we had dinner and drinks. It was a great night in Byron.

In the morning he was in bed, so I got up and went for a walk on the beach. When I came back he was gone. So I just packed up, left a thank you note and hitched into town.

Lift 10 – I walked up to a good stop to hitch into town and there was another hitcher there. An older guy who insisted I should go first as I’d get a ride quicker. I was standing talking to him with my thumb out, but my back turned and someone pulled in. It really is easy to hitch around Byron. The lift only took 5 mins, but we had a deep conversation about the mass shooting in the Gay club in Florida.

I was officially in Byron town centre and honestly didn’t have any plans for my day. I just relaxed on the beach. Listened to some music, then at 5 pm headed over to the bus station to travel back to Sydney. The whole trip was brilliant and filled a long weekend nicely. Lots of travelling, but that was the aim of the trip.