A Birthday Day Out at the RHS Gardens Wisley, 2018
My birthday was in May and my family set aside the Saturday after to have a day out. This particular Saturday also happened to be the 19th of May, aka Royal Wedding Day, so the timing of our trip meant we missed watching it on TV and getting all teary eyed (although I did steal my sister's phone to google for pictures of the dress - personally, I quite liked it).
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Anyway, back to the day out. I had a list of options for different weather scenarios and energy levels (I'm a bit of a planner) and as the day was beautifully sunny and my energy banks were feeling pretty high we went to the RHS Gardens at Wisley for a picnic. I expected to have a bit of grumbling from my brother on this, but he got to push me in my wheelchair which always makes him happy - he likes tormenting me by pretending to let go at the tops of hills.
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| Copyright, Much Ado About Travelling |
I was a bit worried about the wheelchair part of this - gardens aren't generally the most wheelchair friendly - but most of the paths were paved pretty nicely. All in all we had a pretty good day: we pretended we were in the tropics when in the greenhouse, picnicked in the sun and ate lots of ice cream. What more could you really want on a sunny day in England?
...and then went home to watch the Royal Wedding on iPlayer, what can I say, I wasn't going to not watch it at all.
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| Copyright, Much Ado About Travelling |
Accessibility (1 = not very good; 5 = brilliant!):
Wheelchair 3/5: The majority was surprisingly wheelchair accessible for a garden. The paths were some of the most comfortable outdoor surfaces I've encountered. However, as soon as you strayed too far off of the main route into some of the side areas things got a little more tricky (hills! gravel! tree roots!).
Sensory Input 4/5: I personally find being outside much easier on sensory input (unless you're in a city). Nowhere seemed particularly noisy and busy. I would just point out here that some of the greenhouse, particularly the rain forest area, got quite hot and humid, so I had to move through there quite quickly.
Food & Facilities 5/5: There were quite a few eating places dotted throughout the gardens, with pretty good food options and access. We chose to take our own picnic though. Also quite a few toilets.
Travel 3/5: Although travel for us was pretty simple (we drove), it looks like public transport options may be slightly more limited, although you can get some discounts on entry if you've used public transport, more info is here.
Overall 3.75/5: We were there for between three and four hours, with a travel time of twenty-five minutes.
*I currently have moderate ME, meaning I use a wheelchair pushed by someone else, and a walking stick. Please take into account your own physical capabilities when planning a trip, if you need to start small then start small. Look into what you can see nearby for when you're ready. Although, when at my best, I may be able to post every 1-2 weeks, that does not mean I am well enough to travel that frequently! Many of my posts come from a backlog of trips taken over the past few years.
