Ludovic Hubler

Michael Jordan to basketball, Gretzky to hockey, you get the point. Not that hitchhiking or hitchikers can be compared to world class athletes, but this guy was the one who grabbed hitchhiking by the bollocks, and created a media frenzy and massive appeal.

Ludovic Hubler was in 1977, in the northeast of France. He decided to do a world circumnavigation without leaving the surface.->coolest shite ever. He left his family and home in Jan 1, 2003, and set out to hitchhike across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the North, Central and South Americas. Transportation was solely reliant on hitching cars and boats. It was initially a heavily covered event in Europe, as the idea seemed somewhat ludicrous. The dude made headlines before, when in a hitchhiking race he advertised as having only €5. He made it across, beating all of the competitors and cheekily flashed the same five Euros at the finish line. He ended up successfully hitching around the world, finishing recently. Its probably one of the greatest concepts in travel Ive heard of. Pretty crazy, but pretty remarkable. He evaded corrupt cops, gangsters, mobs, wild animals, the whole lot. It is refreshing to see however, as we are a society too afraid to go anywhere or do anything, and here is a Gringo hitching all over the place, unscathed. His motive was to circumnavigate without spending a penny on transportation. He was very successful. It wouldn't be my driving force, but a brilliant idea.

His website.