A first-person Guardian feature recounts a journey from Sydney towards Perth by hitchhiking. The opening scene places the writer outside Esperance after a long wait for a lift, describing uncertainty as part of the experience rather than an exception.
Drivers respond in different ways before one eventually stops. The account reflects on giving up control of a fixed itinerary and finding conversation with people who would not appear in a more conventional travel arrangement.
This is a personal narrative, not a recommended route or assurance of safety. Its interest lies in the writer’s interpretation of an increasingly uncommon travel culture and the mixture of isolation, patience and human contact encountered along the way across a very large country.
