It’s not a typical sight: two young Australian travellers piggybacking their way through iconic landmarks and tourist destinations around the world.<\/p>\n
Fletcher Crowley and Lachie Bennett know it looks unusual.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“People jump to conclusions. [They think], ‘What are these hooligans doing?'” Lachie says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fletcher and Lachie piggybacked up 268 steps to the Tian Tan Buddha (or Big Buddha) in Hong Kong. (Supplied: Two Mates 1 Chair)<\/p>\n
But Lachie has nailed the art of ignoring what people think after piggybacking his friend Fletcher Crowley at all sorts of locations: up hundreds of stairs to the Big Buddha in Hong Kong, through caves in Brazil, to the top of theme park rides, and anywhere else the pair wants to go.<\/p>\n
“To be fair, though,” Fletcher says, “we probably do look like we’re taking the piss half the time.”<\/p>\n
But it’s not some stunt or prank.<\/p>\n
This is just one of the ways these 20-year-old mates from Sydney are pushing the boundaries of what’s accessible.<\/p>\n
“In Africa, we piggybacked up a lighthouse, and this lady goes, ‘Are you playing fun and games?'” Fletcher says, laughing at the memory.<\/p>\n
“And I was like, ‘No, I can’t walk.'”Loading…’I love scaring myself’<\/p>\n
Before and since the accident that changed his life at 17 years old, Fletcher has thrived on adventure and adrenaline.<\/p>\n
“Surfing, skating, mountain biking, skiing \u2026 I just love scaring myself,” he says.<\/p>\n
Fletcher was left paraplegic after breaking two vertebrae attempting a mountain biking jump.<\/p>\n
Though he has some sensation and movement in his legs, he says he now can’t walk more than 20 metres without feeling “absolutely wrecked”.<\/p>\n
There was pain and anger in the days following the accident, Fletcher says, but he wouldn’t let it linger.<\/p>\n
“This has happened. What are we doing now?” Fletcher says.<\/p>\n
“I got straight into researching what you can do and all the adaptive sports, all the ways to travel, and all the different opportunities.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fletcher Crowley has used a wheelchair since he was 17. (Supplied: Two Mates 1 Chair)<\/p>\n
As part of his recovery, Fletcher spent time at a resort built for people with spinal cord injuries.<\/p>\n
It was there that another thing changed his life: becoming friends with Lachie Bennett.<\/p>\n
“I can obviously do everything to survive and to live,” Fletcher says.<\/p>\n
“But to really push living and do all this cool shit we want to do, that’s where Lachie comes in.”<\/p>\n
The pair quickly discovered they had a lot in common: a love for travel, sports and pushing boundaries. (Supplied: Two Mates 1 Chair)<\/p>\n
Two mates, 1 chair<\/p>\n
They’d gone to the same school and had mutual friends, but it was after meeting at the resort where Lachie worked that the pair became friends.<\/p>\n
Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n
Two years later, thousands of followers know them as Two Mates 1 Chair on social media, where they share their lives and travels.<\/p>\n
“We just clicked. Our brains are very, very similar,” Fletcher says.<\/p>\n
Wanting to push the boundaries to make adventure accessible is also in Lachie’s nature. For work, he does recreational support in adaptive surfing, biking, kayaking and more.<\/p>\n
One day, driving past theme parks on the Gold Coast, the pair tried something that would go on to help them travel the world.<\/p>\n
“I was like, ‘We should go to Wet’n’Wild,'” Lachie says.<\/p>\n
“And Fletcher was like, ‘How’s that going to work?’<\/p>\n
“And that’s where the piggyback started.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Piggybacking is one of the ways Lachie and Fletcher navigate places that would otherwise be inaccessible. (Supplied: Two Mates 1 Chair)<\/p>\n
The pros of travelling with a wheelchair<\/p>\n
Lachie and Fletcher have just returned from a three-month trip spanning four continents.<\/p>\n
In what they call “the trip of a lifetime”, they travelled to Hong Kong, Brazil, South Africa and across Europe.<\/p>\n
“We thought about the accessibility of each place, but it didn’t affect at all if we were going to visit.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fletcher and Lachie love finding new ways to get around. (Supplied: Two Mates 1 Chair)<\/p>\n
And despite the barriers one might assume travelling in a wheelchair imposes, Fletcher and Lachie’s trip was as spontaneous and on-the-fly as anyone else’s; they set off with a rental car and just a few nights of accommodation booked.<\/p>\n
“People would reach out to us and say, ‘Come stay with us,'” Fletcher says.<\/p>\n
“In Switzerland, we stayed with a family the whole time.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fletcher and Lachie stayed with families and met many locals along their journey. (Supplied: Two Mates 1 Chair)<\/p>\n
There were some situations where accessibility was an issue, such as in the snow and on trains, they say, but together, they made it work.<\/p>\n
“We get the shits when it’s just three steps. You should just have a ramp at that point,” Lachie says.<\/p>\n
“We went into it thinking it was going to be a lot harder,” Fletcher says.<\/p>\n
Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n
In fact, they’re both keen to point out the pros of travelling with a wheelchair.<\/p>\n
“It’s front-row parking with this bloke,” Lachie laughs.<\/p>\n
“[Under my chair] is carrying two backpacks around permanently. It’s literally a personal boot with me 24\/7.”<\/p>\n
And then there’s their unique mode of transport, “piggybacking the world” as they say on TikTok, which opened up a lot of possibilities.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s kind of our thing now: just finding tall things to piggyback,” Fletcher says.<\/p>\n
“I reckon Lachie came back so much fitter than when he left.”<\/p>\n
“On this trip, we learnt a lot to just ignore what people think,” Lachie says.<\/p>\n
“We just do us.”<\/p>\n
The impact of their story<\/p>\n
Through their social media channels, Lachie and Fletcher hope to change how people view the possibilities of travelling with a disability.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had a fair few people in chairs, and not even just in chairs, [saying], ‘You guys proved to me that we can travel.'”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They both love adventure sports. (Supplied: Two Mates 1 Chair)<\/p>\n
They acknowledge their style of travel is not possible for many.<\/p>\n
“It looks so different for everyone else as well. Each disability is so different.”<\/p>\n
With the ultimate goal of one day assisting others to experience what they have, the mates also hope their adventures show the power of community and friendship.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s a matter of trusting yourself, trusting your friends,” Fletcher says.<\/p>\n
“Anywhere in the world you are, we’ve learnt, there’ll be someone who will help.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Both Fletcher and Lachie say their friendship has opened up a world of opportunities and possibilities. (Supplied: Two Mates 1 Chair)<\/p>\n
For Lachie, being able to assist someone “brings me so much joy”.<\/p>\n
“Life wouldn’t be as good without mates,” he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’ll always enjoy it more, even if it’s a stranger or a mate. It’s so much more fulfilling if you can share a scream or a giggle with someone else.”<\/p>\n
Fletcher feels the same.<\/p>\n
“Mateship’s a big thing for us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s not a typical sight: two young Australian travellers piggybacking their way through iconic landmarks and tourist destinations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28209,22,21,3893,28211,28207,28210,224,9745,28208,6220],"class_list":["post-30519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-accessibility","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-disability","tag-fletcher-crowley","tag-lachie-bennett","tag-paraplegia","tag-travel","tag-triple-j-hack","tag-two-mates-1-chair","tag-wheelchair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}