Around the world in twenty years

Walt Balenovich has spent the last 20 years backpacking around the world in his trusty blue wheelchair. Now he has written a book about his travels

I began travelling when I was young enough not to be embarrassed by participating in competitive sports. My wheelchair basketball team was not very successful (we lost one match 166-4) but one thing that sports offered me was a chance to travel. First, we travelled around my home province of Ontario, in Canada, by bus and later, as we became more organised, we flew around North America to participate in large basketball tournaments.

My first overseas adventure was in 1988, when I visited a university friend who was nearing the end of a three-year stint in Nakuru, Kenya. There was no aisle chair to help me off the plane. Instead, three Kenyans lifted me out of my seat and carried me off to the lounge to await reunification with my blue chair. With my friend’s help I was able to get in and out of his 4x4 and venture right across the country to enjoy a camping safari on the Masai Mara and a tropical weekend on the Indian Ocean in Mombasa. The only real problem was that my chair got a flat tyre. I hadn’t thought to bring a 24-inch replacement so we had to go to a bike shop, which sold only 26-inch tubes. Their solution was to lop off two inches and glue the ends together! It was a rudimentary fix, but it worked – although it punctured almost the minute I returned home.

Over the last 20 years, I have backpacked through 28 countries in all six habitable continents. I work as an IT consultant and after every contract I go travelling, always on a budget. When I return home, I look for another contract. I think the travelling is infectious and I am single, so I can go whenever I want.

In 2006 I visited Africa again, this time alone and backpacking through South Africa and Zambia. By staying at hostels and meeting new friends, I was able to share a car down to the Cape and explore Cape Town, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Soweto. I did, though, have a bad experience with Nationwide Airlines at Johannesburg Airport, where they refused to board me until I paid $50 for a Personal Assistance Unit (PAU), a box on the end of a forklift used to board passengers who can’t use stairs. I told them I wouldn’t pay, as it was a form of discrimination. I stuck my foot in the departure lounge door, exclaiming: “Apartheid is not dead in South Africa!” Finally, some fellow passengers decided to help and some of the airline’s staff also assisted as they had become embarrassed. At the end of the flight, the plane staff carried me off, though they weren’t supposed to.

Sadly, the adventure ended suddenly in Zambia when I fell out of my chair and broke my leg! I was really annoyed because the next day I was scheduled for a safari in Botswana. I had to cut the trip short and also missed my return to Cape Town to explore the Garden Route, which runs east from Cape Town along the coast.

I travelled alone extensively on EuRail just over a decade ago and for the most part things went quite well.

The staff at the stations always helped, except in Croatia, which had just become an independent state. I was surprised at the lack of help in getting off the train. Finally, the lady mopping the floor enlisted some assistance. If she hadn’t stepped in, I might have stayed on that train and gone right back to Vienna!

One problem I encountered was my own fault. I always try to book rooms on the first floor where possible.

In North America, the first floor is the ground floor but elsewhere in the world the floors begin at zero, so the first floor is the second floor! I really had a problem with that until I smartened up.

South America was fantastic! I had long postponed a trip there out of fear of the unknown but my visit to Chile, Argentina and Uruguay went really well. In fact, when I was at the hostel in Santiago, the operator of a bus tour to Patagonia asked me to come along. I mentioned that usually most bus tours are off-limits to independent wheel-chair travellers. Jorge smiled and said that both he and the bus driver would be happy to help me, including getting on and off the toilet. They helped me the entire week and by the end of the trip we were calling ourselves the three “hermados”, or brothers.

I really come alive in Asia. I think the vibrancy of the continent is contagious. Everywhere I went, whether Singapore, Indonesia, Fiji, Thailand, Hong Kong or Japan, people fell over themselves to help. On arriving in Tokyo, I took the chair-friendly subway into Tokyo, only to find that the subway station I wanted to use had no elevator! The problem was solved when six subway attendants appeared and lifted me up the numerous flights of stairs to the surface and then arranged a taxi to my hotel at their expense! In Thailand, I used a local taxi-driver so much for the first three days that for the remainder of my visit he wouldn’t accept any more money. He became a good friend and introduced me to his wife and sister.

Prior to visiting New Zealand for the first time, I could not find a place to stay in Christchurch. Rex, a bloke on a Bulletin Board System discussion board (pre-internet), read about my problem and took it upon himself to drive all over town checking out possible accommodation. He then reported back to me and picked me up at the airport. He later moved to Australia and we have become great friends.

In Cairns, the staff of the catamaran trip to the Great Barrier Reef assisted me down onto a semi-submersible so that I would be able to enjoy the under-water sea life. Later, the staff were also able to arrange a small watercraft and took me on a personal tour around the small island we were lunching on.

Over those 20 years, I have found that disabled people are treated with respect in western countries. Even in less developed countries I was always treated properly, although I think that local disabled people are not generally treated as well. In 2005, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I once observed a father and his disabled daughter waiting in line to board a ferry. They had to wait until everyone else had boarded before they themselves could board. In North America, most people would have let them jump the queue. It was a small thing but it left a big impression.

There have been some barriers during my travels. Tour buses are problematic when travelling alone.

Sometimes, bus drivers will help you on or off so you can take the tour but most won’t. I was unable to visit the Kakadu National Park in Australia for this reason. Sometimes washrooms can be inaccessible, too. But when this happens, I just use a facecloth and wash outside, sometimes for a week or more. But I’m not bothered.

As for my favourite country in all those I’ve visited: Kenya for the wildlife, Argentina for its natural diversity, New Zealand and Australia for their scenery and hospitality, and Japan and Thailand for their exotic and unique cultures. The next destinations on my list are India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

As for access, Holland was the most accessible, Hungary the least. Earlier in my adventures, I would become down-hearted if confronted with access barriers but quickly learnt that the world isn’t built with a ramp.

When my buddies wanted to climb a volcano in Chile, I just gave them my camera and had a beer at the bottom, enjoying the view and the plume of steam coming out of the top.

Over the years, you learn the ins and the outs of travel. I’m not as homesick now as I used to be before the internet. And as inclusive tourism starts to grow with the ageing populations, I believe that more and more people with mobility impairments will do what I have done and travel the world.

• Walt Balenovich is author of Travels in a Blue Chair: Alaska to Zambia, Ushuaia to Uluru; ISBN 0-595-46149-2, published by iUniverse. Copies, priced $25.95 (about £13), are available from Amazon or Tesco, or via your local bookshop. For more information, visit www.bluechairbook.com

TRAVEL TIPS

Phone ahead

Make sure your airline accepts lone disabled passengers. Some airlines, such as Ryanair, make you ring a number to inform them of your booking so they can limit the number of disabled passengers on each flight.

Keep the first nights simple

Use the internet to book an accessible place to stay for the first few nights of your trip. Once you have arrived, you can talk to locals in the tourist industry to determine what else is on offer.

People are usually helpful

Don’t be afraid to ask: an activity that seems impossible may be within reach. People may be able to help you up and down stairs. Usually, people will fall over themselves to be helpful.