When Fletcher Crowley broke his back in a biking accident three years ago, doctors diagnosed him as paraplegic and told him he would never walk again.
But over the past three months, the Australian and his friend, Lachie Bennett, have summited mountains, crossed snowy peaks and taken adrenaline-filled adventures in Europe, Asia, Africa an d South America.
Demonstrating how friendship and a “Say yes” mindset can open the world, they’ve found ways to experience landmarks that are typically inaccessible to wheelchair users, from riding piggyback up the 268 steps that lead to Hong Kong’s Big Buddha, to hitching a ride up the snowy Swiss Dolomites and cruising as an e-bike–wheelchair tandem along the French Riviera.
“Our plan was just to show us, and the chair is tagging along,” Crowley told CNN during their final days in South Africa, as they drove through a mountain pass en route to a paragliding experience.
“Most of the stuff we do would not be under the general term of ‘accessible’ — we’ve definitely pushed that. Some things have to be done a bit differently and we have to work a little harder for them, but they are so much more rewarding.”
