Ludovic Hubler

He wrote the travel book Le Monde en stop, and later received the 2010 Pierre Loti Award.

From "sail-boat hitchhiking" to cross the Atlantic and the Pacific, to "ice breaker hitchhiking" to reach Antarctica; from crossing the Sahara Desert or visiting countries as notorious as Colombia and Afghanistan, Ludovic used his thumb in all kinds of improbable and difficult to imagine situations.

Among the most striking were his meeting with the 14th Dalai Lama, who received him in his hometown of Dharamshala (India) in 2007, and some of the thousands of students in all corners of the world with whom he shared his story.

Over the course of 5 years, the 170,000 kilometers travelled, the 59 countries visited, the hundreds of lectures given, and his gratitude for the help of over 1,300 drivers give an idea of the richness of Ludovic's trip - an adventure that was shared on a daily basis with pediatric cancer patients at the Hospital of Strasbourg, back home in Strasbourg, France.

Ludovic Hubler is now married to Panamanian native Marisol Richards Espinosa, whom he met during the trip in September 2005, as he hitchhiked through Panama.

Hitchhiking in the tribal zones of Pakistan near the Afghan border