So.. its six months on and I've been in the Valley for two weeks. Julia & I are stood beside the road jusat outside Westport. Its coast to coast and at least a five hour drive so potentially a full days hitch to Cristchurch, through remote mountian passes, last time I did it I got stuck for 4 1/2 hours in a little redneck town called Reefton.
We'd walked out of the valley that morning and somehow, and I'm not entirely sure how (although I'm pretty sure there were vegan pies involved), its was 4pm and we are just setting out. We had no tent and just one sleeping bag between us... 'neah' It'll be fine. We watched the intemmittant cars go past ignoring us. Hmm so we sleeping cosy in ditch tonight?
Then.. out of nowhere a 1966 Jag XJS 3.4 L Walnut interior pulls up, going all the way to Christchurch! For a while I couldn't stop laughing, the first this I did was take this pic:
And.. if that wasen't sweet enough it was driven by a couple of 'Icies'. Dudes fresh for 6 months working in Antarctica, one driving from Ross to the pole and the other working at the pole. I'm totally into Antarctica.. one of them had even read my fave fiction on the place.. and said it was true to life.. he even knew some of the people the character were based on!
However, after living in the bush for 2 months, well we were not exactly exiting in the same world as clean society! I had only one pair of only trousers which had dried mud to the knees from the walk out. We'd not showered for weeks, my hair was half dreaded and we spent most of the journey trying to work out how bad we smelt...
Would you pick me up?
In a jag?
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2 comments:
Not bad - you should score a few points for that one. Any chips involved? My only hitching exploit since Dublin involved a dull six hours in the cold going to Manchester in January. Got picked up by, among others, an SUV-driving tecky who'd just quit his job with Qinetiq (dodgy arms-research firm) and a very cool chap from Cumbria who makes a living repairing church clocks. No Jags. We did the zero-time hitch, though (offered a lift before you've stuck your thumb out), which is always worth an extra point in my book.
Hope all's well - will write properly when I get my act together.
xLCU Historical Precedent
Cool! Just watch out for a fat bloke from Hull...
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