The kindness of strangers: while we waited outside in the rain, a young boy brought us hot tea and cake

"It was 1974 and my school friends and I decided to backpack around Tasmania in the middle of winter go figure. We were three mates in our late teens, without a clear plan. After arriving on the ferry, we hopped on a train owned by a mining company and travelled through the wild and unpopulated Tasmanian west coast to Queenstown. It was all forest and mountains, and so utterly freezing, we sat in our sleeping bags on the train to try to warm up."

"For a couple of hours, we waited with barely any cars passing. Our youthful enthusiasm was starting to falter when a young boy came out of a neat cottage with a basket. He said his mum thought we might like something to eat and drink. In the basket was a Thermos of tea, mugs and a container with some cake and biscuits."

Three school friends in their late teens backpacked around Tasmania in the middle of winter without a clear plan. They traveled by ferry and on a mining-company train through the wild, unpopulated west coast to Queenstown, experiencing bone-chilling cold and constant drizzle. Queenstown's economy centered on a copper mine whose pollution had denuded surrounding hills of vegetation. The friends attempted to hitchhike from the town outskirts and waited for hours in front of miners' houses with few cars passing. A young boy brought a basket from his mother containing a Thermos of tea, mugs, cake and biscuits, offering warmth and kindness the travelers never forgot.

Read at www.theguardian.com