Last weekend was a “Bank Holiday” in England meaning we got a whole extra day off – woohoo. What it also means is that the weather is guaranteed to be fucking shite, especially as it’s supposed to be summertime. And it didn’t disappoint. It pissed with rain and blew a gale exactly as expected, but being British that didn’t stop me from booking the weekend away in Braunton, a quaint little village/town in north Devon with my mum and, of course, the dog.

One thing I’ve REALLY missed since becoming more “challenged” in the mobility department is having a bath. Oh how I would love to run myself a bubble bath and lounge in there, relaxing, for a hour. So I asked on a Facebook group I belong to “Accessible, Adapted or Disabled Holiday Let’s and Days Out” (https://www.facebook.com/share/g/szf1UH8kyZjSpRyX/?mibextid=K35XfP) for recommendations of any accessible properties anywhere in the south of England with an accessible bath. And this property popped up so I got on and booked it! It wasn’t cheap, nothing with the word “accessible ever is – much like adding the with ‘wedding’ to anything the price tends to double or triple, add to that the fact it was a bank holiday and you have a recipe for a costly booking. But I WANTED that bath!! Unfortunately it didn’t pan out quite how I’d have liked.

The bungalow itself was lovely, Saunton Beach Villas have done a great job in creating a safe and functional home-from-home with some brilliant features. The main bathroom was a fully equipped wet room with everything you’d expect, plus it had a tracked hoist running from the wet room to the bedroom. The kitchen had cool features like height adjustable work surfaces incorporating the sink and, separately, the hob. A Uccello tilting kettle, pull-down baskets for the high level kitchen cabinets, a riser-recliner chair in the living area. Plus, as you’d expect it was all level and where it wasn’t there were ramps.

What wasn’t so great was that the accessible bath was in the smaller bathroom where I couldn’t get my wheelchair and it also didn’t have a raised seat area so if I managed to get in it I’d be sat flat on the floor leaving me with the distinct possibility of having to stay there forever as I probably wouldn’t be able to get back up. So the whole point of my choice of holiday let turned out to be an almighty fucking disappointment in that respect. The beds were also all too high for me to get into, meaning I had to sleep in the lounge. Just like I do at home.

We went to the beach on the Saturday, we had a “beach wheelchair“ reserved only it became apparent very quickly I couldn’t transfer into the fucking thing, even with the help of the guy from the shop (he was older and pretty scrawny, not filling me with confidence that he’d be able to take my weight) So with a large audience I didn’t fancy making a spectacle of myself should I end up on my fat arse on the floor so I gave up and sat with a beer while my mum went for a stroll down to the water. Turns out the dog didn’t much feel like going with her so he stayed with me and behaved like a complete prick when the surfing school started handing out surf boards. Apparently surfboards are the work of the devil which he must protect me from! More embarrassment. Good job I’m pretty thick skinned!

We did have a reservation at the Beach Bar & Grill for dinner but turned out they only allowed dogs on the balcony… even though my mum checked he would be allowed, it didn’t quite translate as the balcony, you guessed it, was upstairs. So we went for a drive along the coast and then headed home for the evening and ordered a takeout from Burger King. Just to round off the day our food arrived almost an hour late and totally wrong! Honestly, you couldn’t make this shit up.

Sunday brought rain and wind in abundance and after a quick search around we found some board games in a cupboard so we had fun playing Scrabble and eating snacks all day, mum got the dog out for a quick walk in between showers and then our weekend was over. The weather was glorious for the long 4-hour drive home on Monday, of course.

It might sound like a complete disaster but I actually really enjoyed it. Different surroundings, getting out to the beach and all importantly NOT having to drag myself up any stairs to shower, was a joy. I didn’t get to have the wonderful bath I’d been dreaming about for so long but we can’t have everything we wish for, can we.