HE’S OFF AGAIN !

Intrepid fund raiser Graham Walker cannot keep still.

He’s back out on the street in his usual pitch to advertise his latest wheeze. Hitchhiking from Totnes to John O’ Groats while wearing his illuminated top hat and tails.

Fundraising began online and more than £1200 has already come in. All the money will go to Bob the Bus and Totnes Caring, whose old mini bus needs some TLC.

What The Devil is he doing

“I’m quite looking forward to it,” he told me. “I have to be careful about logistics as I don’t want to get stuck in the middle of a city.”

Graham will be hitchhiking alone but who knows, like Forrest Gump ,he may well attract a crowd.

Totnes Caring will give him the first lift– to Shinner’s Bridge – and then he’s on his own with his sign simply saying ‘NORTH’. “On the way back it says ‘SOUTH’” he laughs.
He’ll be relying on his partner to book him hotels in wherever he ends up each night.

Graham has travelled the highways and byways of the country before of course. “When I was in the Army I used to go hitchhiking from the North Yorkshire Moors to Bristol – 340 miles each way – for a long weekend. I wasn’t in uniform but wore my Army hat and had my Army bag, so always got a lift.” He says the heyday of hitching was the 70’s, before motorways had really spread.
“The best place to hitch is a roundabout but motorways don’t have roundabouts. There used to be a dozen random hippies, all peace and love, and me. And drivers would always pick ME up! Not the peace and love hippies, but the man trained to kill!”

(Fact corner – A thousand miles of motorway had been built by 1972. The M5 from Birmingham to Exeter was completed in 1977.)

He says nearly every driver who stops is a man. Often they’ve been in the Services themselves so they want to talk. Occasionally he had to pretend he had a pregnant girlfriend at home to stop wandering hands…..

Graham thinks it will take him seven days and is relying on the “What The Devil is he doing” reaction to get him lifts when he’s spotted sauntering along lit up like a hallucinatory Fred Astaire.

The Pulse hopes to post photos of Graham along the way, if he remembers to send any! His journey begins on Monday, March 10. So if you’re heading NORTH, and see him, give him a lift…..

In the meantime – here is the Justgiving link for the fundraiser: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/graham-walker-998