Lost in Europe

A Hitchhiking Adventure

"It was 8:30 a.m. on a bright Saturday morning, and I was staring at the wide array of parked trucks in front of me with a blend of apprehension and excitement in my naïve twenty-two-year-old eyes. My head was full of wonder at where those trucks might carry me, for I was off on a grand adventure, and like so many grand adventures, it was beginning just off junction fourteen of the M1 motorway, at Newport Pagnell services. Oh yes, all of Europe was waiting for me out there, and there really was nothing to stop me. I had 150 euros in my pocket, and the world was my oyster."


Chris Pountney's life was stuck in a rut. One whole year after graduating university and his life was going nowhere fast. Then one day he decided he'd had enough.

Join with him as he embarks on his first ever solo travelling adventure, undertaken at a time before smart phones, before iOverlander, and, in his case, before bicycles. All he has is his thumb, and a good deal of optimism that anyone might actually want to pick him up and take him somewhere.

A whole continent is out there waiting to get lost in. And he certainly does plenty of that.