I had plans. I had so many plans. I wanted to visit the gardens of Iran. Soak up the history and culture of Morocco. Travel to the Caucasus on an alpine plant holiday of discovery. I wanted to finally be fit enough to walk up to the top of Yr Wyddfa (Mt Snowden). Hell, I wanted to travel throughout Australia, where I spent much of the first thirty years of my life, but was then, too poor to afford to travel.
I probably won’t get to do most, if any, of those things, now. Because I hadn’t planned on getting a chronic illness and becoming disabled. And traveling when you have an energy limiting chronic illness like ME, is very difficult. And that’s before you are forced to accept that that so many places you might visit, have very limited accessibility for disabled people, even if you can undertake some travel.
So my plans are smaller now. With careful planning, I can travel short distances, such as our recent holiday to North Devon, which is a couple of hours away.
I had heard about tramper mobility scooters, which are kind of like four wheel drives but for mobility scooters. They enable you to go on rougher terrain, that is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to go on with a standard mobility scooter or wheelchair.
I finally got to try one at Heddon Valley/Heddon’s Mouth, part of the National Trust managed countryside and coastline. The photos are a testament to the beauty and joy given to me, by the use of a tramper mobility scooter.
Though the photos don’t really show how rough the terrain was, trust me when I say that it would have been so much harder to do this on my normal street mobility scooter. I would have had to use up most of my energy focusing on the pitfalls (literally) along the path, to have noticed wildflowers, let alone getting as far as the sea.
This is part of the countryside mobility scheme. It cost £3 pounds for the day, £5 pounds for two weeks, or £15 for a year. Currently they are based in the southwest of England, and the West Midlands. I really hope this scheme soon covers the rest of the UK*.
I enjoyed myself so much. My heart was full to bursting, and I had tears of joy. I was so happy that I got to enjoy some of the Devon countryside and coastline.
My plans had to change, and may be smaller now, but thanks to schemes like this, I can still experience some access to nature. I don’t say this lightly. Whilst I accept that, thanks to having ME, I’ll never be able to walk up Yr Wyddfa, I don’t accept that I should be denied all access to nature. I may not be able to travel to the Caucasus, but where possible, accessible paths should be installed or access to trampers offered, so that more of us can delight in wildflowers, and feel a sea breeze upon our faces.
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*If you know of a scheme in your area, please leave details in the comments below, thanks!
I love this post and how you got to experience a place you wouldn’t have been able to had accessibility been considered right from the start of a scheme. (Wouldn’t it be great if you could take a tramper up Yr Wyddfa one day?!) And also showing that joy can be found in new experiences and in the outdoors with a disability and that we’re not all at home watching life happen to other people xx