Wheelchair Thailand in Hotel Willow Park

November 11, 2011
Hotel Willow Park, Johannesburg, South Africa

Late at night we arrived at Hotel Willow Park in Johannesburg after a short drive in Alfie's wheelchair accessible safari truck. After the access ramp into the hotel we noticed Jan could drive in his wheelchair through the hotel without any steps to be taken. The ground floor room has a spacious bathroom with hand rails near the toilet and a roll in shower with hand rails. Perfect for a wheelchair user for the first two nights. We went to sleep immediately.

The first morning we started with breakfast in the restaurant. The hotel has a breakfast buffet with a small choice in eggs, bacon, cereal, milk, yochurt, fruit, coffee, etc.
 
After breakfast we walked around in the Park. And here we saw our first wildlife, a few skoorsteenveeer (South African). Looks like a stork. Beautiful to see them walking around on the grass early in the morning looking for food. Took a few pictures. One of these pictures can be seen in my webalbum. Click here to go to this album. We found two swimming pools, the bar and the reception area with wireless internet as well. So we fetched our laptop and checked out our email. And surprise, surprise, we had a online reservation for our apartment in France for mobility reduced people in wheelchairs, a returning guest. A quick answer and a shut down and of we go to enjoy our holiday again. We went for lunch in the restaurant, also a buffet with a variety of dishes for a reasonable price.

In the afternoon we went shopping with Alfie and 4 British able bodied tour members in Johannesburg. We had to buy plugs for the South African outlets to be able to charge Jan's powered wheelchair. After buying plugs, some sandwiches for tonight and some snacks and drinks for tomorrow during the day we went back to the hotel.

Around 5 pm we met the other members of the Krugerpark tour in the bar. The group consisted of 4 British able bodied persons, one disabled British woman with girl friend, one Dutch wheelchair user with two teens (arriving tonight) and the two of us. We order a drink like everyone else and listen to Alfie who tells us about the tour and also that we are leaving around 6.30 am. Is this holiday?

So Krugerpark here we come. We are looking forward to it.

To be continued.