Some 1,000 Polish students have embarked on a hitchhiking challenge during which they plan to travel 2,200 kilometres in no more than seven days without paying for their rides.

Participants set off from Wrocław, southwestern Poland, on Saturday morning and were expected to reach Calabria in southern Italy as quickly as possible as part of the annual Auto Stop Race challenge.

Those taking part in the challenge are each year expected a reach a different selected city in Europe solely by hitchhiking.

The organisers, a student travel club operating out of the Wrocław University of Economics, says the Auto Stop Race project is the largest hitchhiking challenge of its kind in Europe.

The idea is to develop a passion for travel among students and encourage them to find ways of travelling cheaply.

The fastest hitchhikers were expected to finish the race within about 40 hours, according to a spokeswoman for the organisers, Maja Gąsior.

The first Auto Stop Race was held in 2009, with the destination in Pula, Croatia. Other past destinations included Barcelona, Rimini in Italy, Rome, Dubrovnik in Croatia, Valencia in Spain, and the Halkidiki Peninsula in northern Greece.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP