On Saturday, we took my S for a birthday treat to Calke Abbey, a NT property in Derbyshire, which I'm sure many of you will know. The manorial house is very much downhill from the reception and visitor centre, and Mrs O, still using a walking stick, was able to descend the slope, but I felt going back up would be a different matter.
So what you can do there is ask for one of the two electric golf buggies they have at the front of the reception to come and pick you up, and it would then take you along the estate roads back to base. When it arrived, it was being driven by an elderly NT volunteer with corduroy jacket and bristling white mustache who rather resembled a WW2 fighter pilot!
The golf buggies are 6-seater, and with the pilot and an estate worker who wanted a lift to the manor's church up front, Mrs O and my S got into the forward-facing seats behind them, leaving me and another estate worker to sit on the rear-facing seats at the back, These were entirely open apart from a small stanchion in the middle.
"Entirely up to you if you want to use seat-belts", said the fighter pilot.
Then without warning he let the clutch out or whatever, and took off - 0 to 15 mph in about 2 seconds!
How I did not pitch out of the back and land up on my nose in the dirt, I have absolutely no idea!!
What followed was a most exhilarating ride and well worth the £9 admission price on its own. Every time he went up a slope, I had to hang on grimly to avoid doing a parachute roll off the rear-end!
If you ever go there, do hire a trip on a golf buggy - but make sure you're well-padded!
