Welcome to part 1 of a blog written by Donna Goodacre. It’s a chronicle of her families trip around the world. No big deal you might say, plenty of families travel. Well, when one member of the family uses a wheelchair, it actually is a pretty big deal. However, their motto is Have Wheelchair Will Travel – and so they did. Here is their story…..
Part 1 Asia to England
We are a family of four – Donna and Neil (parents), Chelsea (14) and Richie (18). Richie has cerebral palsy which restricts his mobility. He can communicate normally but cannot walk unaided. His chair is a manual one which he can operate, but he usually depended on us during this “trip of a lifetime”. Below are some excerpts from the blog I put together after the four of us travelled around the world for five weeks from Christmas 2006.
Brisbane-Singapore
After a couple of calls to Yellow Cabs, the maxi taxi finally turned up and we set off to Brisbane International Airport on our big adventure. I should say at this point that even though I normally book flights on-line, I booked these through Flight Centre as I found a cheap round-the-world fare on Bestflights.com which I persuaded them to match. Parts of our trip were a bit complicated so I preferred to let someone else take responsibility this time. This One World fare stipulated that one leg had to be on Finnair, thus going through Helsinki to London. Everything else I did myself, including the seating on the planes. You can do this yourself on-line. We needed seats close to toilets for Richie and lots of leg-room for Neil. Another point to note is that you now have to give the dimensions of your wheelchair as restrictions on cargo size can make it difficult for people with larger, non-collapsible chairs on some airlines.
Anyway, for us everything went according to plan and eight hours later we arrived in Singapore. We were a bit worried about customs and made sure we had prescriptions for all medication. Our fears, however, were unfounded. We sailed through, probably because of the wheelchair (it comes in handy sometimes). We were outside Changi airport with the airport attendant flagging down a taxi in record time.
We stayed at Changi Village Hotel, not far from the airport, as it advertises itself as being wheelchair friendly, and it will store your luggage (as most places do) after you check out until you need to catch your ongoing flight. As far as accessibility goes, the room and getting to it was no problem. The dining room, on the other hand, had steps leading up to it. Fortunately Neil is able to haul a wheelchair with a person in it up stairs without too much hassle (depending on the number of stairs), but I certainly could not have managed it, and anyone on their own would be eating in the lobby! (It became evident on our travels that while much of the western world pays lip service to making things easier for people with disabilities, sometimes they haven’t thought the whole thing through).
The area around Changi Village Hotel is interesting in that you can eat authentic Asian cuisine along with the local population without feeling like a tourist. We shared the outdoor food area a couple of times while watching the soccer on tv with the locals. Good for the kids to experience, and only a couple of kerbs to negotiate.
To get to and from Orchard Road we used both taxis and trains. Taxis would take you no matter how bulky the baggage, but the trains, while modern, did not always have accessible stations. Here again the chair had to be pulled up a couple of steps. (On a number of occasions on our trip we were naughty and put the chair on an escalator – not to be condoned, but saved a lot of grief!)
Orchard Road shops were not particularly easy to access. There are some elevators, but they are often hidden around the back. Other places just had steps and we avoided those. It did not stop Richie enjoying his one day in Singapore however, as the most important shop, HMV, had three accessible floors!
We would have liked to have spent a bit more time in Singapore and gone to the zoo and cultural places, but we were on a strict schedule, so this time the one day had to do us. We went back to the hotel, collected our bags and took a shuttle to the airport to await our flight to Helsinki, leaving at 10.30pm.
England
After stopping at Bangkok to pick up passengers, then spending the next twelve hours or so crossing Asia and Europe, we arrived at Helsinki with ten minutes to transfer to our British Airways flight to London. The Finnair crew could be described in one word – efficient. The wheelchair was no problem, and our transfer was done in record time, with no bags mislaid on the way.
Landing at Heathrow, on the other hand, was not as easy, with a gale blowing the aircraft like a cork on the ocean! I’m sure it was nothing out of the ordinary for Heathrow, but I heaved a sigh of relief when we pulled up at the terminal.
Customs was easy again, and in no time we were in our taxi heading towards our accommodation. We phoned one of the many taxi van companies on the free phones at the terminal and met them outside Terminal 4. It cost around thirty pounds, which was quite competitive and well worth it for ease of access. This company was called Heathrow Car Services Ltd.
Our accommodation was at the London Thameside Youth Hostel at Rotherhithe. I booked this because it looked relatively modern, was advertised as wheelchair friendly and was a lot cheaper than a motel, especially so close to attractions. It is literally at the side of the Thames, and our first dinner was across the road at a quaint old pub looking towards Tower Bridge.
The room was a family room with our own bathroom, and we accessed this by one of two lifts. We had a double bed and bunks – Richie of course took the bottom bunk and got around pretty easily.
Getting around on the buses was easy, especially as they stopped just across the road from the hostel. Most have the hydraulic step, and after a day or two we were using them quite confidently. The tube, on the other hand, is not so accessible, and you need to find out beforehand which stations you can use.
During our stay in London we managed to squeeze in a number of attractions, including the London Dungeon, Harrods, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, the London Eye, and lots of window shopping. All of these were wheelchair friendly.
On the 14th we left Rotherhithe to pick up our rental car from London City Airport. The train was accessible, although we had to change lines a couple of times. There were lifts, luckily. One thing I should point out is that we travelled with three large backpacks and a bag on the wheelchair. That way the person pushing the wheelchair had hands free. It was much easier getting on and off public transport as well, although by the end of the holiday they were rather heavy!
London City Airport, compared to Heathrow, is tiny, clean and modern-looking. We did the paper-work and picked up our Skoda (diesel) in no time. We managed to fit all bags, people and wheelchair inside and headed off in the direction of Manchester.
One of the highlights of our stay up north was a visit to the Beatles Museum in Liverpool – something I have always wanted to do. There is a bell to ring for someone to come and operate the open lift, as the museum is downstairs. The lift is not an all-weather lift, and this day was the only day it rained on our whole trip! All survived. Once inside everything is wheelchair-friendly and it cannot fail to impress, whatever your age.
The final destination of our stay in England was at Summercourt, near Newquay, in Cornwall. We stayed at Carvynick Cottages, a timeshare resort which we had organised from Australia. We have owned a timeshare unit in Mogo, NSW, for about 15 years, and during this time we have exchanged it for many different locations in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. We used to stipulate that we needed a wheelchair accessible room, but found that we got a lot more choice if we said nothing, and in most cases the rooms are accessible anyway. However on this trip, both times we used Timeshare the access to the bedrooms was up stairs with no elevator! Richie managed by sliding up and down on his bottom, so it was not a problem. Not recommended for electric wheelchairs.
This part of England, while very beautiful, does not have the disabled facilities of the big cities. A car is essential, plus careful booking of accommodation. We visited Newquay, Land’s End, Penzance, Truro, Redruth and Falmouth. Neil and I toured Pendennis Castle, once owned by Henry V111, and definitely not wheelchair accessible. Richie still enjoyed his stay in Cornwall, however, as they had reality television!
On the 21st December we left Summercourt for Portsmouth, on our way to France.
To Be Continued……..
