Your Wildest Adventure: Solo Jaunting as a Teenager

‘Your Wildest Adventure’ is a series featuring thrilling tales from travel writers while jaunting around the world. This week’s edition is a story of the true spirit of travelling from Keith Jenkins, my pal in the travel blogosphere. A fellow Asian writer, Keith has called Amsterdam home for 18 years, and documents his extensive travels on his blog Velvet Escape.

Solo Jaunting as a Teenager

As a kid, I was pretty adventurous. Some would say wild and reckless. But I never really saw myself that way. But  at the age of 14, I surprised myself by jumping on an adventure of a lifetime.

I lived with an aunt in Sydney, Australia for a while during my early-teens. A very good friend of mine who lived in Melbourne had been urging me for a while to go visit him so one day I decided to make the trip. I didn’t have much money, certainly not enough for a return bus ticket to Melbourne. I made a list of how much the trip would cost and compared that amount with my savings. It wouldn’t be sufficient to cover the whole trip so I knew I would have to improvise.

I bought a one-way bus ticket to Canberra and off I went. I was so excited to be on the road on my own. Canberra was beautiful. I spent the day walking around and taking in the sights – the highlight was the brand new Parliament House with its elaborate Aboriginal art. I had to ration my money so I survived on crumpets and jam – for breakfast and lunch. That evening, at the hostel, I treated myself to a can of soup and a crumpet. It was great fun hanging out and playing card games with the other backpackers at the hostel. I was in adventure heaven!

Hitch-hiking to Melbourne

The next morning, I joined two American backpackers who were also heading to Melbourne. We walked several miles to the highway and hitched a ride on an enormous truck – I think it was transporting sheep. The truck driver never stopped chatting. He spoke with a thick Australian accent and I hardly understood a word he said but that didn’t matter, it was my first hitch-hike ever and I savoured every single moment.

We drove through the Snowy Mountains and made several stops along the way. I’d never seen snow before. I was thrilled beyond words. We stopped at a truck-stop where I bought myself a bag of raisin buns (no more crumpets, I thought), then headed out and made my first snowman, or something like it.

The truck driver was heading in a different direction from there so he offered to check with other truckers to see if anyone was heading to Melbourne. He returned within a few minutes and escorted us to another truck which was just about to leave. We hopped on and after several hours, we were in downtown Melbourne. The trucker dropped us off at the main bus terminal where we thanked him profusely. I said goodbye to the two Americans, then called my friend and he picked me up half an hour later. I stayed with him and his parents for two nights. That evening, I called my aunts to say I was ok and that I was having a lot of fun on this ‘school trip’.

Reaching My Destination

My friend took me around Melbourne the next day. I loved everything about it: the meandering Yarra river, the magnificent Tudor and Victorian houses, the lovely Albert Park and the gorgeous seaside town of St. Kilda. We spent the whole day walking and talking so we were exhausted when we got back to his home. His Mum cooked us a delicious meal, my first hot meal since the start of my trip, and I devoured everything on my plate in no time.

The following day, my friend brought me to the bus terminal. I’d told him about my hitch-hiking adventure and he thought I was mad. He said that his parents would totally flip if they found out – I knew mine would too! I didn’t have enough money to make my way back to Sydney so I bought another one-way ticket to Canberra. I waved him farewell and got onto the bus.

Meeting Fellow Travellers in a Hostel

The bus arrived in Canberra in the evening so I returned to the hostel I’d spent a night in just a few days earlier. Some of the guests I’d met on my first night were still there. We sat up till the early hours of the morning talking excitedly about my hitch-hiking adventure. The opinions were split: some thought I was too young to be travelling on my own like that while others applauded it. They asked me how I was going to Sydney. I shrugged my shoulders. They offered to lend me some money to buy a ticket but I graciously declined.

I slept for several hours and sneaked out of the hostel in the early hours of the morning in the dark. I decided to head to the city limits. The previous day, as I stocked up on my ration of soup and raisin buns at a supermarket, I found a piece of carton and took it with me. I borrowed a marker pen from the hostel reception and wrote ‘SYDNEY’ in big bold letters.

Catching a Free Ride to Sydney

As I stood at the edge of the main road to Sydney, I held out my carton board. It was freezing. The first morning rays were just appearing over the tree-tops, the road was still rather quiet and I was alone. At that moment, I felt fear creeping up. “What was I doing? This is downright dangerous?”, I thought for the very first time. I took out a raising bun and munched on it, while trying to calm myself.

After about half an hour, a car slowed down and stopped. A young lady was driving on her own. She wound down the window and said that she was going to Sydney and that I could hop in. I did so thankfully. She was an accountant and was going to Sydney for a job interview. We chatted all the way to Sydney. Traffic was quite light so we made it to Sydney before noon. She had more than an hour to spare before her interview so she offered to drop me off at my aunt’s house.

I was really grateful for that as I wasn’t sure I’d have enough money for the train ride from downtown Sydney to the suburb where my aunt lived. My aunt thought that I’d simply bought a return ticket to Melbourne so she had no idea of my adventure, and I didn’t mention a word of it.

It was my very first solo adventure, and yes, it was wild and reckless but it was a priceless experience, certainly one which ignited a fire within me that made me long for more.

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Keith Jenkins lives in Amsterdam, and travel is his biggest passion. He has travelled through 60-odd contries across 6 continents. Read about his extensive travels at Velvet Escape.

Don’t forget to check out my contribution on Keith’s ‘A World of Inspiration’ series – A Familiar Face in a Foreign Land.’

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