"Blind Date" trail
A sensual nature experience to complement the nature trail
![Barefoot section on our "Blind Date" trail, © Naturpark Purkersdorf](http://www.naturpark-purkersdorf.at/images/pnxc5swwf6y-/barfusspfad.jpg "Barefoot section on our "Blind Date" trail, © Naturpark Purkersdorf")
![Feel and smell nature at the "Blind Date" trail, © Naturpark Purkersdorf](http://www.naturpark-purkersdorf.at/images/lnhp6e8biwc-/spueren-und-riechen.jpg "Feel and smell nature at the "Blind Date" trail, © Naturpark Purkersdorf")
![Feel the writing on the "Blind Date" trail, © Naturpark Purkersdorf](http://www.naturpark-purkersdorf.at/images/yknjtmwmkw8-/schriften-fuehlen.jpg "Feel the writing on the "Blind Date" trail, © Naturpark Purkersdorf")
![Information board on the "Blind Date" trail, © Naturpark Purkersdorf](http://www.naturpark-purkersdorf.at/images/fgxt3gvguvc-/information-board-on-the-blind-date-trail.jpg "Information board on the "Blind Date" trail, © Naturpark Purkersdorf")
With the Blind Date trail, we offer people with impaired vision an intensive nature experience in which we address all senses except the eyes. It also allows those with good vision to learn how to perceive the environment other than with their eyes.
The "Blind Date" trail complements the nature trail on its first part. It is about 1 km long.
18 tactile information panels with both typographic letters and Braille letters accompany the visitors and refer to special natural phenomena or features. On each panel, we offer a special "Blind Date" tip related to the station's theme.
Handrails are installed at potentially dangerous areas or inclines, and wooden stakes provide a better orientation.
An area with natural soil materials allows to "see" nature with the soles of one's feet. The main theme is to experience the special advanced capabilities that visually challenged people have in order to find their way in our often exclusively optically-oriented world.
In this way, we offer people who have impaired vision an intensive experience of nature in which we address all the senses except the eyes. At the same time, we show those visitors with good vision how the environment can be perceived other than with just the eyes and to experience how nature can be perceived with senses other than the eyes.
Access
The "Blind Date" educational trail starts at the P&R parking lot on the B44, which can be reached in a few minutes from the Purkersdorf-Zentrum train station via the Säckingersteg that leads over the Wien River. The first "Blind Date" station is located directly at the access point at the nature park bridge over the B44.
Note: The path from the Purkersdorf-Zentrum train station to the beginning of the "Blind Date" trail at P&R parking lot is not part of the trail and thus sufficiently suitable for unaccompanied or unexperienced visually impaired visitors.
This project was funded by the EU, the federal province of Lower Austria, the Austrian Education Promotion Fund and the Municipality of Purkersdorf.