Hit the Road

HIT THE ROADSummary Set in an era before backpacking became part of the mass travel industry this book has echoes of Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" and Bill Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There"." In 1954, , Lee Pearce, a fourteen year old boy from country Australia, hit the road, to satisfy a yearning to see what was around the next bend, and over the horizon. Traveling without a timetable or a particular destination, and very little money, he hitchhiked to many areas of the country. Very...
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HIT THE ROADSummary Set in an era before backpacking became part of the mass travel industry this book has echoes of Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" and Bill Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There"." In 1954, , Lee Pearce, a fourteen year old boy from country Australia, hit the road, to satisfy a yearning to see what was around the next bend, and over the horizon. Traveling without a timetable or a particular destination, and very little money, he hitchhiked to many areas of the country. Very few people hitchhiked at that time, and the solitary young wanderer seldom met other travelers. Between his travels, he returned to Sydney where he frequented the beatnik bars of the fifties, and hung out with his artist friends and became Australia's youngest, freelance magazine photographer. In 1959, with a couple of friends and a bankroll of twenty- five pounds, he set out to see the world. Fuelled by the writings of the Australian adventurer Peter Pinney, and the American beatnik Jack Kerouac, they exchanged security for adventure and sailed over the horizon.. For the next four years he traveled to Italy, Germany, Britain and Greece, spending an eventful year on a kibbutz in Israel. In 1963, he and his young American wife traveled rough through Europe, Greece, Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan to India. This was to become the well-traveled Hippie backpack trail of the seventies, but in the sixties it was wild country, not frequented by Westerners. This light-hearted account of his colorful adventures, contains some dramatic, and many funny moments. His habit of casting his fate to the winds becomes a voyage of discovery as he learns the ways of the world.