3 local okes hitchhike from Durban to LA

Posted by Gabrielle Jacobs on 4 October 2019

Three local adventurers have embarked on a wacky, worldwide hitchhiking adventure from Durban to Los Angeles in the hopes of showing their documentary series to American talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres.

The ‘Hitched’ film crew is hitchhiking 28,000km around the world, having travelled to 13 countries already, including Russia where they’re based at the moment.

Heading to Russia via Georgia. Image: Hitched Series

In the spirit of adventure, the Durban-based group comprised of cousins Luke MacDonald and Jordan Deall, as well as cameraman Donovan Orr, are hitching their way from country to country on their own steam, but largely with the help of production company, Tomfoolery TV and a bit of crowdfunding.

Cousins Luke and Jordan managed to get some wheels for this leg of their trip. Image: Hitched Series

The guys set their sights on LA and Ellen’s famous studio because Google told them she’d be the most influential person with the platform to promote part one of their African travel doccie series. Season One documents the journey into the Congo, in search of Africa’s own mythical Loch Ness Monster, the dinosaur Mokele-Mbembe rumoured to have been found in the Congo River Basin.

‘#HeyEllen we nearly didn’t leave Ethiopia because Luke found his dream house in Addis. We told him he needs money to buy one if he wants it though, and so he agreed to carry on with the journey. We’re now en route to Khartoum, Sudan!’ Image: Hitched Series

‘Hitched has been an incredible journey of adventure, fun, grit and the power of big dreaming,’ says David Leslie, founder of Tomfoolery TV, the Hitched Series production media company. ‘We believe the team really shows what it means to create authentic African content which we love. We are so excited for them make history and tell their story to the world from Ellen’s couch.’

Jordan learns some tricks from this young fishing guru. Image: Hitched Series

The talk show celeb has no clue that they’re on their way to meet her, however! With support from their followers on social media, they’re spreading the word by tagging the Ellen Show and using the hashtags ‘#HeyEllen’.

Discovering Sudan’s own pyramids. Image: Hitched Series

Since they set out in March this year, the guys have managed to rack up 16,000km.

Initially, the Hitched crew encountered a few hurdles with route planning. They travelled to Cape Town hoping to catch the boat to St Helena, from which they’d travel to the USA via South America; but they changed tack when they found that the boat service was no longer operational. For other routes, they had trouble securing European visas, and another posed the tricky problem of crossing the Arctic Circle.

Early mornings in the Namibian desert. Image: Hitched Series

In the end, Namibia was the first country to feature on their journey up through Africa.

Other countries on their route so far include Botswana, Tanzania, Egypt, Israel, Turkey and Georgia.

Just outside Tsavo National Park in Kenya, en route to Nairobi. Image: Hitched Series

You can follow their epic round-the-world journey as it happens on social media or hitchedseries.co.za, which will soon become the second instalment of the Hitched Series.

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