Czech tourist hitchhiked 4000km from Perth to Sydney by asking drivers to tow his caravan

Exclusive: Czech tourist Vojta Pechar is living proof that the golden age of hitchhiking is not quite over.

The vintage travelling trend, popularised in the 1960s and ’70s, is still used by thrifty nomads to slowly cross Australia’s sunburnt country without spending a cent.

Unlike most travellers sticking their thumb out in the wild hope of hitching a ride, Pechar came with some heavy baggage.

The 25-year-old purchased an unpowered caravan upon arriving in Australia and needed to be towed every time he flagged down a ride.

“Most people will buy a caravan and a car together, but I just decided to hitchhike with the caravan,” Pechar told nine.com.au.

“I have been hitchhiking all over the world and buying a car was never an option.”

It is illegal to hitchhike in both Victoria and Queensland and travellers can only flag down rides away from motorways in some other jurisdictions.

Pechar avoided breaking local laws by only hitchhiking in WA, South Australia and NSW.

His first attempt at hitching a ride was deceptively easy.

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A friendly driver picked him up in Perth within 30 minutes and towed his caravan 100 kilometres to the small town of Beverley in WA.

After making it another few hundred kilometres to the town of Norseman, Pechar then needed to find a motorist willing to take him across the Nullarbor Plain.

He began to lose faith after days of constant rejection.

Drivers often stopped to chat, but without a tow-bar, most couldn’t help.

“I was waiting at one spot there for four days,” Pechar explained.

“I was even thinking of buying a car.

“I told myself before the whole journey that I would wait at one spot for a maximum of seven days, and if it didn’t work, I’d figure something else out.”

A man heading to Tasmania eventually stopped and offered him a lift.

He towed Pechar’s caravan nearly 2000 kilometres along the notorious Nullarbor to Adelaide, which includes the longest straight stretch of road in the world.

“He had a really, really big heart,” Pechar said of his travel companion.

“And he told me he was really glad he could have a conversation with somebody during such a long way.”

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Pechar was stuck again upon arriving in South Australia.

This time, he waited five days before a willing motorist with a tow-bar could drag him to his next destination.

It was at this point the optimistic traveller began to lose hope.

A well-timed social media post saved him from giving up.

“I was holding a sign which said ‘hitchhiker with the caravan’, but it didn’t work,” he said.

“One woman took a picture of me, and she put it on a local community Facebook page and found a guy who took me for another ride.”

Pechar’s next leg was from Adelaide to Balranald in NSW, a 500-kilometre journey.

It took one month, 14 different cars and dozens of rejections to reach his final destination in Sydney.

While he wasn’t on the road, he lived out of his small caravan and used nearby petrol stations for showers.

As a seasoned hitchhiker, Pechar had no doubt he’d find enough drivers to make the nearly 4000-kilometre journey from Perth.

Most were farmers or miners already heading on long trips.

“Australia was the best for this, not for the generous people, but because of the caravan culture here,” he said.

“So many people drive a pick-up or have a tow-bar.”

Pechar rejects the idea that hitchhiking is a lost art.

Nor does he think it is dangerous.

“I didn’t have any expectations. But people are very friendly,” he added.

“If I wanted to do it as fast as possible, I’d be able to do [Perth to Sydney] in like 10 days without the caravan.”

And after ditching his caravan in Sydney, he flagged down a car to head to the Central Coast within just a few minutes.

Pechar will fly to Queensland before heading home to the Czech Republic.