A Practical Guidebook for Free Travellers. Translated from Russian by Peter Lagutkin. Anton Krotov

      All of the above is addressed to hitch-hikers. If, O reader, you happen to be a driver and not a hitch-hiker, please take the following advice.

      Single and coupled, in bright overalls and in plain clothes, sporting big backpacks, standing along the road waving their hands – these people are hitch-hikers. Most of them are completely safe and harmless fellows. If you have some unused space in your car, give them a lift. They won’t pay for your fuel but can help you kill time and learn more about roads, cities, and regions; some of them have travelled to very faraway places. Some have music records with them. They will keep you awake at night, watch out for hazards, and help avoid accidents. Some of them are from abroad and can have interesting opinions to share. In a word, most people who have hitch-hiked a lot are very interesting chat mates.

      Some of them, though, can at first be too shy to share their valuable information about road conditions, passing cities, errors in your road atlas, and, sometimes, local places of interest. Make them talkative: ask how long they had to wait, and what their parents, friends, and the police think about what they’re doing.

      Strangely, hitch-hikers rarely meet each other on the road. Some of them don’t know about hitch-hiking clubs or methods, or that you can get free lifts from trains, boats, etc. Tell them all you know yourself. Present them with a copy of this book.

      The Wave. Hitch-Hiking At Night

      Traffic varies greatly between day and night. Most cars head out of cities between 7 and 9:30 a.m.: we call this phenomenon the wave. It is more pronounced on weekday mornings. Between 6 and 7:30 p.m. there is another, smaller wave.

      The wave travels down the road at an average 60kmph (37mph), fading gradually. It is very convenient to «ride» the wave: vehicles are plentiful and wait times tend to be short. The best time to start a hitching tour when leaving a big city is around 7 a.m.

      Hitch-hiking gradually becoms worse as night sets in. Between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. vehicles are scarce, so it isn’t the worst idea to go to sleep.

      Around big cities like Moscow, some night traffic exists at all times, but smaller, remoter roads are practically deserted. Try to pass the less-inhabited parts of your route in the morning or day time.

      Night-time hitch-hiking has its own nuances. First, traffic is usually lighter as most drivers go to sleep, silently hinting that we should, too. From insignificant, minor roads traffic can disappear completely.

      Second, much to the surprise of an experienced daytime hitch-hiker, drivers «stop stopping» in darkness. But it happens simply because, with not enough light, they notice you too late and don’t have time to act accordingly! For safety reasons, don’t throw yourself under the wheels figuring you’ll be «more visible!»

      In Central Asia, India, and other warm regions, day-time weather in summer can be so hot that many long hauls happen in the night time. On some roads in the North, drivers prefer the long night to the short day with its dazzling white snow. Learn such things before it’s too late, and you won’t miss your cars.

      Trained hitch-hikers travel very efficiently in the night time, using bright, light-reflecting overalls, reflectors, head lamps… A man in bright overalls, holding a blinking torch, can attract the driver’s attention even in a dark place, even at hundreds of metres’ distance. Lots of outlandish images will swirl through the driver’s mind («Greenpeace? Paratroopers? Cops? Cosmonauts?»), making your chances for success soar. Better still if there are two of you, wearing identical suits.