Jérémy Marie: Hitchhiking Around the World by Land and Sea, 2007–2013

On 8 October 2007, a young Frenchman named Jérémy Marie stood by the road out of Caen in Normandy with his thumb out. He came home to Caen on 12 March 2013, after about 180,700 km, 1,752 vehicles and 71 countries and territories, almost all of it travelled by hitchhiking on land and at sea.

The British press reported the story in 2013 as a 100,000-mile journey around the world without paying for transport. Marie later told it in full in his book Mon tour du monde en 1980 jours (“Around the World in 1980 Days”), published by City Éditions in 2013.

Who is Jérémy Marie?

Marie was born on 12 March 1984 in Rouen and grew up nearby. In 2004 he spent a year in Llandrindod Wells, Wales, learning English. A year later he hitchhiked across Europe from France to the Baltic states, and in 2006 he hitchhiked around France. Those shorter trips gave him the confidence for the big one.

During the journey he kept in touch with pupils at Le Clos Herbert primary school in Caen, sending them what he learned on the road.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa

From Caen, Marie hitchhiked across Europe, through the Balkans and Turkey, and on into the Middle East. His photographs show him in the Syrian desert, on a tractor and on a donkey in Syria, beside the pyramids in Egypt and on a wooden boat in Sudan. He then followed Africa’s eastern side all the way to South Africa.

Crossing oceans as crew

Oceans were the hardest part of a no-fare route, and Marie crossed them by working on board. In January 2008 he left Cape Town as crew on a delivery catamaran and sailed across the Atlantic, reaching Panama City in March 2008.

His longest sea passage came in March 2010. In Cartagena, Colombia, he joined the sailing boat Khamsin as crew for a four-month crossing of the Pacific to Auckland, stopping at the Galápagos Islands, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Niue and Nuku’alofa in Tonga. He called this “boat-hitchhiking”.

The Americas, from Alaska to Ushuaia

Between the two ocean crossings, Marie hitchhiked through Central America and Mexico, north across the United States to Alaska, and then the full length of South America to Ushuaia at the tip of Argentina. The gallery shows him above Machu Picchu in Peru, in New York and in winter clothing beside Niagara Falls.

Australia, Asia and the road home

From Auckland, a container ship carried him to Brisbane. After crossing Australia, he even “hitchhiked” a plane seat from Darwin to Bali. In Bali he met Herdiwati Sidabutar, the Indonesian woman who became his wife.

The last leg ran through Southeast Asia, including Phuket in Thailand and Malaysia, then China, Central Asia and Kazakhstan, Iran and back across Europe, where one of his photographs shows him beside a car in Switzerland. He reached Caen again five and a half years after he left.

What a no-fare journey really involves

Marie’s rule was to avoid paying for transport. Food, visas, equipment and accommodation still cost money, and a place on a yacht came with crew duties. The real currency was time: long waits by the road, conversations with drivers and a willingness to change plans. He valued those lifts for the local perspectives they gave him.

For more on travelling on a small budget, read our guide to hospitality and work exchange and the Tomislav Perko feature. Wikipedia has a biographical overview of Marie’s travels.

Related reading

• MOVE, EAT, LEARN: Three Short Films from One Journey
• MOVE, EAT and LEARN: The Team behind the Three Travel Films
• Graham Hughes’s Odyssey Expedition: Around the World Without Flying
• Bill Passman’s World-Map Tattoo: A Travel Record That Changes over Time
• Leaving Work to Travel: The Journey in the Gallery and Planning Your Own Break
• The Longest Way: Christoph Rehage’s Walk across China and His Decision to Stop
• guide to hospitality and work exchange
• Tomislav Perko feature

Sources