Mum, a friend of hers and I ventured out to the Toronto Zoo last week Tuesday. If anyone has ever been to the Toronto Zoo before, they know that this is a huge accomplishment when you can't walk. And when I say huge, I mean humongous. This zoo, which is nestled into the ravine system surrounding the city, is more of a natural park than anything else. The map of the zoo is divided into different area. Each area has a trail leading through it and is given an estimate for how much time it will take visitors to walk through it. If you add all the trails together, you are looking at a solid 6 hours of walking. And that, my friends, is a lot of time to walk when you can't walk at all.
Between the wheelchair, my mum's amazing upper arm strength and pushing abilities (along with her perseverance to get me through as much of the zoo as possible), and my trusty crutches, we managed to see almost everything. We only avoided the "Canadian Domain" because that was an extra hour of walking (well, rolling for me) with a steep hill thrown in for fun. We usually avoid this anyways because we normally go to the zoo in the summer when the prospect of a hill under the sweltering sun is completely out of the question. Plus, we already live in Canada; over the years we have seen a lot of the animals that are on display in nature.
So we went to the zoo, and by altering between the wheelchair and using my trusty crutches, we made it through almost the entire park. It was good to go in the fall, because crutching around is hard sweaty work. My abs got the work out of a lifetime. We were all pretty tired (and sore) the next day, but it was completely worth it.
If you are considering going to the zoo, I definitely recommend going in the fall. There are several benefits to going late in the season: The admission fee costs less (because there are less animals on display, although we didn't notice that much of a difference compared to when we were there in the summer); it is cooler, so walking around all day is not as exhausting; there are less people around so it is easier to get a good view of the animals, especially when they are being fed or a zoo employee is giving a talk on a specific animal (less people also made the trip more relaxing); many animals seem to be more active in the cooler weather; and you can enjoy the lovely fall weather and foliage!
Below are some pictures of the day (mum's friend took them, not me).
We saw....
Some walking barcodes
The real culprit behind deforestation...
A large animated rock.
And Canadians in their natural habitat!
On of my favorite animals was the red panda (by far more active and much cuter than the giant pandas on display).
Oh! And I got to ride an elephant XD
One last note about the admission cost: because I was in a wheelchair, I got into the zoo for free and my mum (seen as the caregiver) got in for half price. The zoo does this to encourage people with disabilities to come to the zoo. I think that this is a fantastic idea. The extra cost of having a caregiver accompany you can deter some people from visiting the zoo. Also, despite all the accessible washrooms and ramps, a trip to the zoo while in a wheelchair is a pretty daunting challenge. As I mentioned, it takes about six hours to get through the entire zoo; this is quite difficult in a wheelchair. Wheeling yourself around in a wheelchair is tiring, half the ramps are too steep to get yourself up (or leave you feeling like a run away go cart on the way down; don't even get me started on the hills!), and not all of the doors can open with an automated button. And there were definitely some areas I avoided because of the wheel chair or only managed to get to because of the crutches. Realistically, I wouldn't have been able to manage the day on my own. So kudos to the zoo for this awesome initiative!
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