A UK writer who only used the generosity of Twitter followers to travel the world in aid of a charity is gearing up for the release of book about the project.
Paul Smith completed the jaunt from his home town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Stewart Island in New Zealand in 30 days in March 2009, relying on donations of air, train, bus and ferry trips and accommodation throughout the entire journey.
Six months after returning to the UK, book publisher Summersdale approached Smith to write an account of the trip, with the book due for release in August 2010.
Smith's rules were simple: only accept hospitality from followers of his @twitchhiker Twitter account; only make plans three days in advance; only spend money on food and drink; and return home if offers to move on from a location dry up within 48 hours.
The route Smith eventually took included a ferry trip to Amsterdam, train to Paris and then Saarbruck and Frankfurt in Germany, back to Amsterdam, flight to New York, bus to Washington DC, various buses and flights across the US midwest before heading to New Zealand from Los Angeles.
Companies and individuals donated the flights and accommodation during the journey and included Orbitz, Air New Zealand, a businessman in Zurich and a frequent flyer who donate Air Miles for the Pacific journey.
The trip caught the imagination of the tech and mainstream media around the world and Smith's presence on a New Zealand TV show saw a sudden spike in traffic to Twitter (a country which at the time had little penetration from Twitter).
Smith's journey (documented on his blog) eventually ran out in New Zealand and he returned home to the day job of writer and "some iPhone app stuff".
He says:
There were a couple of instances in the US that it nearly went wrong. I knew three full days in advance I was heading to Pittsburgh from DC - plenty of advance notice based on how quickly Twitter users had responded up until that point - but nobody in Pittsburgh responded.
"There are over two million people living in the Greater Metropolitan Area, and the journey completely passed them by. In that instance, a Twitter user in Wheeling, West Virginia, offered to put me up for the night on her sofa."
Smith raised over £5,000 for Charity:Water as a result of the trip.
NB:Pictures courtesy of Smith on Flickr.
NB: The book, Twitchhiker: How One Man Travelled the World by Twitter, will be available from Amazon in August 2010.