Mind’s Eye Travel opens up a world of travel for blind, visually impaired – Courier

Camden — The owner of Mind’s Eye Travel was inspired to open her tour business for people who are blind or visually impaired when her own sight declined due to an inherited condition.

 

Sue Bramhall, of Camden, learned when she was 19 years old that she had retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that causes sight loss. Before RP affected her vision significantly, she enjoyed years of travel and assisted her husband, a magazine editor, with overseas trips for writers and clients. When RP limited her vision, Bramhall said she knew she had to do something else.

 

“As my sight diminished I decided I would put together trips for people like me, along with full-sighted people, who could help.” Since then, Bramhall has opened up a world of possibilities to her customers.

The adventurous Bramhall offers two to three group tours each year for able-bodied, visually impaired or blind travelers. A recent land tour explored Wyoming’s National Parks, and each year there is a summer trip along the Maine coast. Her groups have visited cities around the globe while cruising the Caribbean, the Pacific Ocean from Tokyo to Singapore, European rivers and the Baltic Sea.

In spring 2017, Mind’s Eye Travel will embark on a 13-day Mediterranean cruise with Viking River Cruises with day trips in 10 cities in six different countries. In December 2017, Bramhall is booking another group on a Viking River Cruise along the Danube River with stops in towns from Budapest to Nuremberg, known for its Christmas markets.

“These historic markets offer “holiday flair, all kinds of crafts and wonderful foods,” Bramhall said.

The trip is scheduled in early December so travelers have “time to stock up on Christmas presents and return home for the holidays with their families,” she said.

Bramhall’s groups have traveled with Viking in the past because its smaller ships, walking tours in every port, and service are a perfect fit for her tours.

Bramhall’s groups are a combination of “return clients, some referrals and new people who have found my website,” she said. Some clients have always been blind, while others have lost their sight due to disease or an accident. When a new customer finds Bramhall, she often hears how excited they are at discovering they can continue to travel.

“If people think they can’t travel anymore, it just isn’t so,” she said.

Her tours feature well-crafted itineraries, highlighting destinations that offer a wealth of sensory experiences. She will often present multiple options for day trips, which allow willing travelers to experience unique adventures, as well as time to relax.

Bramhall described a recent tour of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in Wyoming, including the unique sounds, smells and tactile experiences encountered there. At Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, the group listened to and felt the power of the geyser spouting. At one of the geyser basins in the park, they were surrounded by the sulfurous odors and sounds of hot springs.

 

At the Lawrence Rockefeller Preserve near the Grand Tetons, suggested by a local guide, the group touched a diorama of the Grand Tetons while a park ranger described the mountains and surroundings. They experienced the visitor center’s sound room, listening to animal sounds, the flight of birds and quaking aspens. Touching the pelts of fox, wolf and bison added another sensory experience.

 

During a ride on ski gondolas up into the mountains, where there was still snow on the peaks, Bramhall said, they felt the sensation of lifting off the ground into the alpine sky, “up there with the birds and the bugs.”

 

Within a well-planned tour, Bramhall offers options for day trips that allow clients “to seize the moment,” she said. She doesn’t shy away from client’s bucket list items and adventurous choices.

 

“There’s hardly anyone else doing what I’m doing,” she said, where “excursions come up on the trip.”

 

Bramhall recalls that it was one woman’s dream to ride in a hot air balloon. While in Jackson Hole, this woman woke up at 4:30 a.m. to take advantage of the opportunity. She was personally greeted by the owners of the balloon, who picked her up from the hotel. At the balloon’s departure site, she was walked around the balloon’s basket before climbing inside. She got to experience the sensations of climbing into the sky in the basket, hearing the blasts of the propane burner heating the air inside the balloon, and the deepening quiet while ascending and floating in the sky, Bramhall said. When the client returned to the group, Bramhall recalls, “she was over the moon, smiling all day.”

 

On another tour, several clients experienced the thrill of riding a zip line through a tropical rain forest. The occasion was a day trip in St. Lucia on a Caribbean cruise. Bramhall and several clients each rode the zip line connected with their own sighted pilot who was there to assist.

 

It should not be surprising that Bramhall offers adventures to her clients, because she doesn’t set limits on herself. When a sighted friend wanted to try hang gliding, but couldn’t find anyone to go with her, Bramhall volunteered. She described the experience, standing on a mountain, attached to the gear and her own pilot, who was watching for thermals.

 

“The guide said run, and we ran off the top of a mountain. All of a sudden you go to take another step and there’s no land there. It’s the most exhilarating thing,” she said. “I did it, and just loved it.”

 

Bramhall is also experienced with all of the planning and logistics that form the basis of a well-managed trip. The tour price includes assistance with the extensive paperwork often required for a cruise or overseas trip, including immigration documents, airline bookings, boarding passes and cruise line bag tags. On the ground, Mind’s Eye Travel assists with cruise embarkation and disembarkation, orienting the group to the cruise ship, and planning shore excursions with sighted guides.

 

In a presentation via teleconference at Hadley School for the Blind, Bramhall shared many of her practices for setting out on a cruise. For the cruise to Hawaii in 2014, the group flew to San Francisco, stayed at a nearby hotel at the airport, where they had time to get acquainted. Bramhall ensures that her group can board the cruise ship together, rather than by themselves, In boarding, she takes advantage of the special access line for anyone who is handicapped, avoiding the long lines.

On the ship, Bramhall and guides orient everyone in the group to their staterooms. Thermostats are adjusted for comfort, television remotes are set to the channel that broadcasts all of the cruise activities each day, and raised dots are adding on the stateroom telephone, next to the room service line. Bramhall is in touch with the maitre’d and cruise director about the groups’ needs and arranging a ship tour and safety drill. She makes sure that in the dining room her group can eat together, and is seated close to the front of the room, which is easiest to reach, and provides some extra space for any guide dogs that may be on the trip.

 

Bramhall puts “big, colorful signs” on the stateroom doors of those with low vision, so they can more easily identify they are in the right place, and uses raised dots to mark corridors the group travels every day, “so they can verify that they’re on the right side of the ship.” Bramhall said she knows that “little things like that help a great deal.” She said that after a while, most people can find their way around the ship, to the pool, health club, pizza place and shops.

 

Bramhall has trained a group of volunteer, sighted guides who travel on her tours, and who help make it possible for everyone to participate in activities. The guides will offer a shoulder to lean on or an elbow to hold, during walking tours, or while finding a seat at a theater on a cruise ship. On the day trips included in a tour, guides describe the sights and stories of each place in vivid detail. Travelers may also chose to bring a sighted family member or friend.

 

“We all go slow,” said Bramhall. “Some people with a sighted guide, some with a guide dog or a cane.”

 

People travel from all of the country to take one of Bramhall’s Maine tours. Most fly into Boston, and then are picked up by a van and travel to the Midcoast, where they enjoy day sails on schooners and a traditional lobster boat that offers a lobster fishing ecotour. A visit to Rockport Harbor is an opportunity to learn about history and Andre the seal. During four days touring Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, Bramhall picks experiences that are tactile, such as riding the horse-drawn carriages in the park. This year, the group traveled to Campobello, and where they “had a marvelous tour of the [Roosevelt] house and tea with Eleanor. It’s fantastic,” Bramhall said.

 

At the end of this summer’s tour of Maine, Bramhall asked the two couples who served as guides if they were “worn out” from the trip. To her surprise, and delight, they replied, “No. We’re honored.”

 

“I felt I was honored to have them volunteer, and they were honored to help people who need it,” she said.

Courier Publications reporter Susan Mustapich can be reached at 236-8511 or by email at smustapich@villagesoup.com.