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July 10, 2015

How I Stowed Away on a Ferry


Disclaimer: I am not recommending that you do this.

I put a lot of consideration into deciding whether or not I should write about any illegal activities on this blog. I don't believe I've done anything bad enough that would raise any alarms, like killing or raping anyone, so hopefully writing about some of my petty crimes online won't cause the FBI or police to come after me.
However, This is a bit less petty than anything else not legal that I may have written about so far. 
I suppose it could be seen as something like stealing... although in a different point of view, I didn't take anything physical and what they don't know won't hurt them.. or my wallet either.  hehehe

It's part of my story and I like to tell my stories as unedited as they can be. For Honesty's sake!

Anyway, yes I secretly snuck on a ferry just to save some $$$! and also so that I could feel more like an extreme and adventurous vagabond...  or am I a greedy, sneaky bastard in need of an ego boost?

 Even though it sounds cool..  Well, In hindsight, I don't really think it was as remarkable as it sounds.  

While at a hostel in Tasmania, I went on a road trip. Which, you already know if you have read my previous post. Which you should!
This man and I decided to take advantage of a camper relocation deal.  Those deals allow you to rent a camper van for very cheap. About 1-5 dollars per day. 
Normally they are much more expensive. But the reason it is cheap is because you are helping the rental company. They need vans to be relocated to another location by a certain date. So they allow them to be rented very cheap in exange for the relocation. 


So we had the Van for a few days and we were relocating it from Tasmania to Melbourne. Well, my friend was anyway.  


He was the one driving since My driving skills, especially with large vehicles are.. not the best.. The last time I drove a van.. Well, first I hit a fence and then later on that Same Day I hit a car!

Melbourne is back on the mainland Australia and a free ferry ticket is included in the camper relocation deal...   but only for 1 person.  
Additional passengers must pay their own way.  

So, I hid. in the campervan. ..

Like so...
  



I knew they might inspect the inside, but I also knew that that ferry operated everyday with many vehicles inside. I didn't expect them to be super vigilent and they would have to look throughoughly to find me.
Inside that drawer, I had blankets and stuff on top of me. More than what you see in the top picture. My friend drove the van onto the port. 
Then the scary part happened. I stayed very quiet as one the workers looked inside the van. He breifly looked inside and once opened a door where I would've been seen had I not had been buried under many sheets.
I stayed quiet and successfully got onto the ferry as I expected. 
It was an overnight ferry, so I spent the night in that van in the vehicle deck.
In the morning, my friend returned to the campervan and drove off the ferry.

Well, that's how I did it...  


Now for hindsight!  It was a very Rough day/night.  Shortly after I had first gotten in the drawer and was waiting inside while my friend drove to the port, I realized that it was really hot. 

But it was already too late to back out. 

I was smart enough to have a large bottle of water with me. and I sometimes poured some on me while inside that drawer to keep me cool.  Yes, I was that hot,  I probably would've gotten heatstroke or something if I didn't have that water with me,

My heart pounded as I heard the man walk into the van and open cabinets and doors.  
Thankfully, it became cooler once I was on the ferry but I could still hear workers outside in the vehicle deck and I was afraid to come out of the drawer in case someone walking by might see me through the windshield.  So, I stayed for a long time cramped in darkness.

Sometime in the night I crawled out.  and in case you are wondering, I peed in a can.


It felt good in a challenging kind of way despite being uncomfortable.  And it was nice to call home and honestly tell people that I stowed away.  

The pride and thrill of getting away with something. 

 It was an experience that I don't regret doing once, but I really doubt it would be worth it to me to do it again. 

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