Hitch a lift for the ride of your life!

Last Easter 1,000 students from all over the country took part in an event organised by Link Community Development in which they hitch-hike from the UK to Prague or Morocco in order to raise money for the charity and experience the journey of a lifetime.

The concept of this 18 year old project is simple: you raise £350 sponsorship money which goes straight to the charity, get into a group of two or three, and then catch that crucial first lift which begins your trip.

The journey to Morocco takes an average of 6.5 days, whilst Prague takes an average of 3.5 days, however you are free to do either journey as quickly or as leisurely as you wish, and the charity’s tracking system and 24 hour emergency hotline will ensure you are safe throughout your journey.

Having noticed the hitch because it looked like a fun and different way to do something for charity, myself and my hitch partners Dave and Hanna left York University in the vague direction of Morocco.

After crossing the Channel, we jumped into a rather dilapidated Ford Fiesta outside Rennes in Northern France, which appeared to contain the driver’s worldly possessions – including his pet cat which was thrust upon my lap and proceeded to paw me throughout the trip. ‘Cat man’ as he came to be known was heading in no particular direction - rather helping us along on our journey in return for a bit of a chat.

When we reached Bordeaux further down the coast of France, we were overwhelmed by the kindness of the rather attractive Timothy who drove us to his university in order to get his American friend to translate which road we wanted to be dropped on, and then found us a hostel to stay in for the night.

A few days later, we had reached Madrid, and were picked up by Jeff in his state of the art Scania lorry. For two days, we enjoyed watching episodes of Shameless on his built-in TV, having chats over a few beers in the evenings, and, errr, listening to his sat nav that he had programmed to ‘talk dirty’!

After saying (a slightly emotional) goodbye to Jeff at the Spanish port of Algeciras, we took the ferry over to Morocco which completed our 5 day journey composing of 26 fantastic lifts. Whilst on the ferry, we came across an amusingly drunk pair who were doing the hitch-hike from Swansea University, and after deciding a group of five would be even more fun, we began our 9 day stay in Morocco.

Our first stop was the maze-like Medina of Fez which was brimming with delicious food produce like fresh oranges, olives and homemade nougat. We then travelled to the costal town of Essaouira where we relaxed on the beach, ate seafood that was straight from the sea and cooked in front of us, and enjoyed a Moroccan hamam; a tradition in Morocco which involves being thoroughly scrubbed and massaged in the town's amazing underground steam rooms!

In Marrakech, the markets came alive at night with snake charmers, fortune tellers and stall holders selling slow cooked lamb tagine. Whilst in Marrakech we somehow found ourselves purchasing a baby tortoise for the equivalent of £4, and after christening him ‘Trevor’, he accompanied us throughout the rest of the trip.

From Marrakech, we travelled across the Atlas mountains into the Sahara desert, which after a slightly uncomfortable camel ride (not forgetting Trevor), ended in a night's stay under the stars, and an unforgettable view of the sun rising.

Unsurprisingly, none of us wanted to leave the next day, and as we crawled onto our budget flight home, it was unanimously agreed that the hitch-hike was one of the best experiences of our lives, and something I would encourage everyone to try - so get registered to hitch-hike to Morocco or Prague in Easter 2010!

• Link Community Development: improving schools, empowering communities, changing lives. LCD works to provide quality sustainable education in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa and Uganda. Our work promotes the health and wellbeing of young people and gives children the chance to escape the cycle of poverty into which they were born.

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