A DUTCHMAN aiming at spending the next four years trekking around the globe without a bean in his pocket, dropped into Horrabridge school recently.
Teacher Andy Stewart ran across Raymon Stoppelenburg's website — letmestayforaday.com — and offered him a room for the night.
Raymon turned up in Horrabridge having hitch-hiked from Dartmouth.
The idea began fairly modestly as a means of seeing the world on a budget after college, but it has become a bit of an Odyssey. Now Raymon has become a minor media star, appearing on television in Holland, France, Belgium and on Channel 4.
Excited with the idea, Mr Stewart took 24-year-old Raymon into school with him on Monday morning to meet the children, before dropping him off on the highway to Bristol, his next port of call.
'I don't have any money with me, that's the way I want to travel around the world,' he told the children.
Obviously it's more difficult hitch-hiking across oceans, so Raymon is seeking sponsorship for his travel bills, and he keeps in contact through his website on a daily basis. He also posts pictures of the people he has stayed with.
The children had lots of questions for him:— where had he been, how long had it taken, how much longer would it take, didn't he get bored...
So far Raymon has 1,423 invitations from people with computers in 63 countries. He aims to travel while it continues to be fun, before returning home and settling into the life of a journalist.
l Pictured is the hitch-hiker on the information superhighway Raymon Stoppelenburg meeting Chlöe Scott, Sara Cruickshank, Kerry Walke, Luke Westlake, Aaron Gaden and Jamie Stewart with teacher Andy Stewart from Horrabridge Primary School.