Tangible Tours
I sure am glad for my fur at the moment, because it keeps getting colder and colder. In the last little while, Lindy & I tried to escape the cold and soak up as much sun as possible before rugging up properly for Winter by going to the Sunshine Coast.
Taking on the Sunshine Coast
Last September, Lindy and I went to the Sensory Tourism Conference which was organised by Cocky Guides. It was all about sensory travel and tours for blind travellers. We learned all about how they run these tours and when they were planning to run them, so we decided to join the Sunshine Coast trip from the 2nd to 7th of June.
Our wonderful tour guide picked us up at the Brisbane airport and we headed straight towards our first stop, the Ginger factory, for lunch. We were able to ride on the train, and I eyed off all of the scoops of icecream, hoping one would drop and I could swoop in for a taste.
We got to do lots of exciting activities while we were on the tour. I got to visit the Australia Zoo. They didn’t let me go everywhere, because I would scare off all of the tigers, but a fantastic staff member at the zoo looked after me while Lindy went off and fed giraffes or met birds of prey. I am pretty sure I will be able to catch one of the birds next time. We also visited the Eumundi Markets where I got a special bow tie to wear at fancy events and went on a boat cruise on the Noosa river.
The best part of this trip was that I was the only guide dog, so all the travellers wanted to spoil me with treats.
Keeping Our Legs Moving
They say the best way to keep warm is to keep moving, I think the best way is to eat lots of doggie treats. Lindy has been keeping her legs warm by doing lots of races throughout the last little while.
The Queensland Indoor Rowing Championship was held on the 11th June, which was perfect timing for us to stay back for after the Cocky Guides Tour. She also got to go to the Brightwater Parkrun with Maureen as her guide while I got my very important sleep in with Jackie. Brightwater was probably the most accessible parkrun in the Sunshine Coast Area. It is wide and flat on the bike path around the lake. They have a very fun tradition where they introduce all of the visitors and then jog through the friendship tunnel before the start of the run. On this particular week, they happened to have pacers and Maureen and Lindy got assisted by them. They left the pacer at the fourth of five kilometres and finished in just over 33 minutes.
Since getting back from Queensland, Lindy had time to compete in the Canberra Duathlon. It was their trial run in preparation for the Townsville Duathlon in August. Simone guided Lindy through the entire 5k run, 20k bike and the final 2.5k run while I stayed home to eat lots of snacks. They managed to run at a pace that was slightly quicker than they had before, which they seemed very stoked at. During the bike, there was a very tricky U-turn part way through. It was very narrow, and they were worried they wouldn’t be able to get the tandem through it, but Simone managed to navigate them through without crashing into the surroundings. They loved having all of the FIT supporters throughout the route cheering them on.
Even though the months get colder, there are still lots of things we can do out and about. It was so exciting to get to adventure outside of Canberra, but I missed hearing the barking of the neighbours every day. Keep moving and keep warm.
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“Moving is always better than staying still”
This is the tail of Lindy’s Comet
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Woof Woof,
Comet Hou
Comet : comet@lindyhou.com
Lindy: lindy@lindyhou.com
Tel: 0402 113 836 / +61 402 113 836
