093 - The twichhiker

Paul Smith hails from Newcastle upon Tyne, England but he's hoping to get as far away from there as possible. He calculates the furthest landmass is tiny Campbell Island, south of New Zealand.

It doesn't seem too difficult, but Paul is attempting to do this in 30 days. And he's "hitch-hiking" by only accepting offers of transport and accommodation from users of a social media site called Twitter. The rules are simple:

*I can only accept offers of travel and accommodation on Twitter, from users who are following @twitchhiker

This means if a Twitterer’s sister’s boyfriend’s father has a spare train ticket, I can’t use it; the help the person has to be a Twitter user, and they have to be able to directly action the offer of help. This may be too restrictive, but I want to draw on the support of the Twitter community, not to use Twitter as a search engine to find third party services.

*I can’t make any plans further than three days in advance

It’s entirely possible that before I begin this challende, I could have my entire route pre-determined and that would be no fun at all. So unless an offer of transport or accommodation is made within 72 hours of it being applicable, I can’t accept it. Damn.

* I can only spend money on food, drink and anything that might fit in my suitcase

All travel and accommodation must be offered to me through Twitter. If I can’t, then I’m sleeping rough.

*If there’s more than one offer on the table, I get to choose which I take. If there’s only one, I have to take it within 48 hours.

I’m not entirely happy about this bit. If any part of this challenge is going to see me dead in a ditch or under a patio, it’s this part.

* If I’m unable to find a way to move on from a location within 48 hours, the challenge is over and I go home.

I hope my fellow Twitterers won’t let that happen.

SOURCE: Twitchhiker.com

Getting past the press
We wanted to get past the press and talk with the twitchhiker himself. During the interview we discuss his motivation, the charity he's supporting and the trip itself. Click the play button at the top of this post to hear it, or subscribe in iTunes and download it for free.

You can help the Twitchhiker by:
Following him on twitter and offering transport and accommodation
http://twitter.com/twitchhiker

Making a donation to charity:water
http://justgiving.com/twitchhiker

Reading about his journey on Twichhiker.com
http://twitchhiker.com

You can also find us on twitter and plenty of other social media sites.
http://indietravelpodcast.com/contact

NOTE: The chance to speak with Paul came through at the last minute, after we had already recorded this week's show. So next week we'll also talk about some of the same things and, strangely, call it show 93. We know ... thanks in advance.