Frenchman Jeremy Marie has spent five years travelling over 100,000 miles around the world, relying all the way on the kindness of strangers for a free ride.

From trekking in 50C heat through the deserts of Sudan to braving temperatures of -20C while catching a lift in Kazakhstan, Mr Marie has visited over 71 countries.

The 29-year-old globetrotter has hitched lifts with cars, boats, planes and even a donkey since he set off from Caen, Normandy in October 2007.

Remarkably despite his 180,000km trip, Jeremy has not paid a penny towards his transport and instead relied on the generosity of strangers to give him a free ride.

During his trip he hitchiked and sofa surfed his way across Europe, USA, South America, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and plenty more in between.

He said: ‘My passion for travelling came when I stayed with a Polish family as part of a school foreign exchange trip.

‘I like to hitchhike, it’s a good way to meet people and you get to see the world from a local’s point of view and see and experience things a tourist wouldn’t usually be able to.

‘Some countries are very easy to hitchhike around, New Zealand was great the people are very friendly, the roads are good and there was no danger of miscommunication.

‘But it was difficult in the US as it’s against the law to hitchhike there, so people were very reluctant to stop and offer me a lift.’

‘Sometimes I felt scared, there’s good and bad people everywhere and so you have to be careful about who you choose to trust when you’re hitchhiking.