Featured Anything you wanna know about living on the road in England?

Yo ! You don't seem like you hitch often, but long story short my male friend and I want to go to scotland hitchiking the fastest possible. Do you have any tips like what to write on your sign or whatever ? Should we write something like "frenchies" or not ? I'm asking because I've realized people are often more likely to help you if you're not from the country you're in.

Any other tip for two persons who want to hitch from southern France to Glasgow ? Have a good one :)
 
otch0z said:
Yo ! You don't seem like you hitch often, but long story short my male friend and I want to go to scotland hitchiking the fastest possible. Do you have any tips like what to write on your sign or whatever ? Should we write something like "frenchies" or not ? I'm asking because I've realized people are often more likely to help you if you're not from the country you're in.

Any other tip for two persons who want to hitch from southern France to Glasgow ? Have a good one :)
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Hey! Jumping in on this as a fellow hitcher..

Hitching in the UK has a reputation of being quite difficult, but in my experience you can generally get to where you want to be in pretty good time. Most of the people who will pick you up are people who used to hitch when they were younger and want to return the favor.

I live in the North so I cant really comment on route from France, but If you are coming up from France I would say avoid London if possible.
Almost all the traffic for Glasgow will come up the west coast of England, so aim for the M6. Once you are north of Liverpool/Manchester, you should find that a lot of the traffic going that way will be heading to Glasgow way, or stopping off at the Lake District national park.

Wikihitch will give you all the tips on specific pick-up spots. For your sign, I would go for a french flag or something that easily identifies you as a long distance traveller with some tales to tell, should boost your odds on a ride a little!

Thats all I can think of saying right now, hopefully useful...Bonne chance avec tes aventures!
 
@scattercat Thanks !! It might in fact be really useful. I was a bit concerned that english people wouldn't be big fans of french folks, but we will be coming from far and we will have some stories to tell, I bet. Anyway, we'll try and aim for the M6. That was something we were unsure of as you guys have these two highways on both coasts (kinda funny to me)
Also as we have to get there the fastest possible (6 days maximum), we're gonna try to hitch from Montpellier (way down in the south) to Paris in one day to have enough time to cross the Channel and get to Scotland. It's a bit of a challenge but that's what makes us so excited about it !

Also, we're going volunteering to the Eden festival. Maybe you're going to ? I know nothing about it, barely did any research about the kind of music there, but we're meeting a friend and that's why we're going.
 
I would say that the type of person most likely to give you a ride will not mind that you are french- in fact, quite the opposite! Montpellier is beautiful, I passed through a few years ago on the way to sete for worldwide festival.

I wont be at Eden but I've been a few times before, and the music is always good in Scotland so you should have a great time... Plenty of hippies to dance in the fields and swim in the river!
 
hey stinky! Hows it going?

I dont travel full time but think can contribute to few things ppl have asked.

Countryside
can wild camp or sleep out in the countryside pretty much anywhere thats not immediately obvious farmers land including national parks (lake district, up in scotland) without any real fear of owt. There are even comfortable caves some places (eg south peak district). There is also a network of free shelters up north in beautiful remote places: www.mountainbothies.org used by walkers etc. If u go treat well/ why not do some work or some cleaning/ something good for the bothies cos the wardens put a lot of work in & too many ppl take the mick.

foraging:
There is plenty to forage but obvs might take too much time to learn n obvs again u cant really live off.
Up north where i am stuff includes:
greens: nettles, wild garlic, garlic mustard, mustard, bistort
roots: garlic mustard, horseradish, wild carrot, bullrush, pignuts
nuts: hazelnuts, ocassionaly walnuts
fruit: tons - eg bilberries, blackberries, raspberries, apples prob most common.

skipping
think small places/ small eg tescos are better here than supermarkets where bins usually locked away. Pizza hut seems pretty good often.

Food banks
we have food banks that give out food/ meals 1 or 2 days a week. Churches could prob tell u were they are

Hitching
hitchwiki is good for here. Not that many ppl hitch (except in rural scotland) but I usually get a ride in under an hour easily. Service stations on the motorway are good to hitch from. Can still get rides off lorries but lots of long distance ones are no good anymore cos of insurance/ previous hijackings, i usually try with cars 1st.

Trains
fairly easy to jump up north. Usually ask for yr address and to see some ID if caught. penalties up north are now 20 quid on spot fine in some places ..so if a journey will cost £15 for an hour or 2 with our rip off train prices it seems worth it. Lot of trains the conductor doesnt care now as well as they're all about to be phased out for barriers (and if you get stuck behind barriers/ there are staff on its well worth looking round, especially up north, as lots of stations have an easy way out/ round/ barrier free entrance)
 
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Thoughts on heading to the UK and potentially roughing it in the autumn/winter with very little financial cushion? Flights are runnin for less than $200 in October, and I'm thinkin about taking a risk, throwing down now, and hoping I can work my ass off and save enough to have a couple hundred for a month or two (plus a flight home) between now n then. I probably have enough connects & favors stored up to find couches a lot of the time, and don't have too hard of time making friends, and food usually sorts itself out, but if not... I've kicked it outside through a lot of rainy autumn/winter in the NW US before, but it's been a few years, I also had more backup support and I admittedly don't have as great of gear. Go for it, or naw?
 
jimi said:
Thoughts on heading to the UK and potentially roughing it in the autumn/winter with very little financial cushion?
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where in the UK are you headed? how much mileage you can get on "free stuff" will vary pretty harsh off that - i wouldn't worry too much about the weather tho, i've always found it to be mild enough to survive even the worst "storms" here, most of us brits whinge when it's slightly hotter or colder than normal because we're used to it being so temperate

if you're pretty sure you can cash in those favors i'd say you're gucci, if not i'd probably hold off til some stuff is locked in just in case
 
mono said:
where in the UK are you headed? how much mileage you can get on "free stuff" will vary pretty harsh off that - i wouldn't worry too much about the weather tho, i've always found it to be mild enough to survive even the worst "storms" here, most of us brits whinge when it's slightly hotter or colder than normal because we're used to it being so temperate

if you're pretty sure you can cash in those favors i'd say you're gucci, if not i'd probably hold off til some stuff is locked in just in case
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I was gonna fly into London and probably catch a megabus out (probably toward Scotland, but I'm not tryin to make my plans too solid) since they are pretty cheap.
 
jimi said:
Thoughts on heading to the UK and potentially roughing it in the autumn/winter with very little financial cushion? Flights are runnin for less than $200 in October, and I'm thinkin about taking a risk, throwing down now, and hoping I can work my ass off and save enough to have a couple hundred for a month or two (plus a flight home) between now n then. I probably have enough connects & favors stored up to find couches a lot of the time, and don't have too hard of time making friends, and food usually sorts itself out, but if not... I've kicked it outside through a lot of rainy autumn/winter in the NW US before, but it's been a few years, I also had more backup support and I admittedly don't have as great of gear. Go for it, or naw?
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I say go for it!!!! If you end up anywhere near me I will always make sure you're not alone and try to put you up if possible (I'm usually bristol and London based) message me if you need a hand x
 
mono said:
where in the UK are you headed? how much mileage you can get on "free stuff" will vary pretty harsh off that - i wouldn't worry too much about the weather tho, i've always found it to be mild enough to survive even the worst "storms" here, most of us brits whinge when it's slightly hotter or colder than normal because we're used to it being so temperate

if you're pretty sure you can cash in those favors i'd say you're gucci, if not i'd probably hold off til some stuff is locked in just in case
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In my experience the south seems the easiest to get by in terms of food banks and stuff also its just warmer here haha
 
jimi said:
I was gonna fly into London and probably catch a megabus out (probably toward Scotland, but I'm not tryin to make my plans too solid) since they are pretty cheap.
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Did you make it? I'm in London at the moment heading to Cornwall and then all the way up to Scotland to take a good friends final journey to his resting place. Welcome to join.
 
No, I didn't make it.... Life stuff happened and now I'm stuck in the PNW for another few months it looks like. :/
 
Stinkyyy said:
Did you make it? I'm in London at the moment heading to Cornwall and then all the way up to Scotland to take a good friends final journey to his resting place. Welcome to join.
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So I got lucky, shit came together, n it looks like I'll be flying into London mid December! I'll be kickin around London and the UK for a month, and maybe other places, depending! Will you be around?
 
jimi said:
So I got lucky, shit came together, n it looks like I'll be flying into London mid December! I'll be kickin around London and the UK for a month, and maybe other places, depending! Will you be around?
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Yes yes!!! I'll be Bristol or London most likely hit me up! Am on Facebook might be easier to message me there Sofi Bernadette
 
lving on site has changed massively in the last 25 years - when I first came on the scene around 1990 things were absolutely nuts - people actually travelled the whole time, mainly due to constantly being evicted from where they were staying .... the free festival scene was at its absolute height with huge parties taking place practically every weekend in the spring and summer.... we're talking 20 , 30 , even 40 THOUSAND people taking over whole villages for a week or more - it was all anarcho / DIY in spirit and a total no go zone for police.... people travelled in big convoys of trucks / buses / commercial vehicles / ex military towing vehicles - no one would even consider paying for insurance / tax / MOT - the whole vibe was Fuck The Poleece ! there were huge amounts of drugs mainly hash / psychedelics / speed but also smack and coke if you were so inclined, everyone drank Special Brew (9%) like it was fucking water - things were seriously hardcore pretty much 24 - 7 BUT then came the big clampdown - things were totally out of hand and the authorities created loads of new laws or started using old ones in new ways.... by the mid-90's things were totally different - a lot of people moved to Ireland or Southern Europe to try and regain some of the freedom they'd lost but eventually these countries too got fed up with huge raves and people siphoning all the diesel out of their vehicles !

if anyone wants to have a look at some photos of the good old daze have a look at the following website - http://www.travellerhomes.co.uk/

the scene still carries on in England and Europe but the legal situation means that things are very tame compared to years ago - but hey you can only work with what you got - MUTATE AND SURVIVE !
 
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@Anagor just told me that the above link doesn't work, however just typing the URL into the address bar or Googling it seems to work for me..... strange.....
 
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