A Day Full of Firsts

This morning after breakfast I decided to take advantage of the amazing facilities this hotel provides for people in wheelchairs, and went on a bushwalk with my parents and my sister, using the Swiss Trac. I was completely blown away by the freedom it gave me and the opportunity I got to unleash my inner speed freak.  The feeling of the sun on my skin and the wind in my hair was indescribable as I drove further and further, faster and faster, over surfaces and terrains that I would find near impossible in my normal wheelchair. After walking for a couple of hours we turned back to our room, and by the end of the walk I realised I had driven a distance of about 5 or 6 kilometres. It was an experience that I will never, ever forget.

In the afternoon I made the decision to continue my day of new experiences, and keep the "I'm up for anything" attitude, and my sister and I went to the hotel's sauna. At first I was quite nervous about the idea of being naked in a room full on strangers (including men), but I told myself that this holiday was about firsts and things that I never thought I would do (after all, I never thought I would get to Europe!) and that at the end I would be pleased I had done it.

As we got there I saw a row of wheelchairs, and I immediately calmed down, as I remembered that this hotel catered for people in wheelchairs, and I had seen many people in wheelchairs so far, so my "weird shaped" body would be no different from other people's. We entered, took our robes off, and sat in the hot, steamy room for about half an hour. There were about 6 or 7 other people in the room and other than a very quick glance around as we entered, I faced the wall and kept my eyes glued to a crack in the paint work for the entire time. Gradually people got up to leave and I heard  them taking showers to cool off. Because of my wheelchair, I couldn't go in the shower, so I just ran my arms under the shower and that was enough to cool me off.

My wheels were scorching hot from the heat of the sauna but, wrapped in my robe, I pushed myself outside into the fresh air to cool off. That was something I could tick off my bucket list, and it definitely wasn't as scary as I thought. I might even do it again in another country, sometime in my life.