Skate

The Duck Hunter

In 1978 The Deer Hunter won 5 Academy Awards including best picture. The movie meditates and explores the moral and mental consequences of war violence and politically-manipulated patriotism upon the meaning of friendship, honor, and family in a tightly-knit community and deals with controversial issues such as drug abuse and mental illness among others.

30 years later the sequel has arrived. Benjamin Wilkinson (playing himself) is a young but adventurous soul searching for answers. The questions to these answers see him travel and explore not only himself, but many of the greatest campsites in southern Sweden. During his stay at one of these holiday destinations, Benjamin comes face to face with the stark realisation that he is not alone in his search. He then decides to become...The Duck Hunter

The Happiness Before the Storm

After a fantastic summer holiday, Benjamin was a little tanned, a real blondini and very, very happy. Little did we know a massive bout of sickness was just around the corner...

Hailelujah!

Golf balls from above and no one even shouted "fore".

We were blessed with the weather this summer but there was the odd occasion when the weather caught up with us. This was one of those days. Luckily we had not checked into a campground at this stage and we managed to wait out the golf ball sized hail in the car. We managed to find a small roof at the supermarket to park under which gave the car shelter. Lucky too, as when it was all over there were people running their fingers over their cars checking for dents and quite a few people miffed about the situation.

Swimming, Sipping and Shopping

Viva la Deustchland! After an almost heavenly high altitude drive through the summery meadows of alpine Austria, we descended to Germany, where the weather deteriorated (see next post) but our shopping instincts kicked in. We went particularly crazy (even for us) at one store in Fusser (home to the Neuschwanstein Castle). Our destination was Munich where Sara bought everything she saw, I bought everything in the wrong size and Benji just tried on things. We also used each store as a base to rewrite the rules of how to feed your child. See above pic. Needless to say it was a blast and Munich certainly has it's own unique charm. Conveniently a 2 hour drive down the autobahn, which has to be driven at least once in everyone's life, we were home at Åsa's house in little Lochau.

Swings

Our holiday home!

We finally arrived at our holiday home in Germany. We rented this castle for a week. It was ok I suppose!

Hotel Schloss Fernsteinsee

Somewhere in the Austrian Alps, deep in the green rolling expansive valleys and amongst the sheer granite mountain tops we discovered a sublime place. Not by accident, in fact during a little research I stumbled across an article which in plain print told us that this was one of 'the' mountain campsites not to be missed. Not one to ignore the appealings of an overworked and maybe travel starved British journalist, we duly obliged and stopped in on Schloss Fernsteinsee and wasn't disappointed. A magical castle awaits you as you wind off the busy main road and after descending thorough tree fronds and dense forest you arrive at a pleasant little campground with views towards the castle itself. The campground was well run and possessed all the qualities you'd expect. The one thing it was hiding was it's stunning castle-side lake complete with boats and it's very own flock of bossy geese. Although the superbly clean water surrounds a well manicured grassy island subtly inviting you in, the amphitheater of steep mountains surrounding the lake reminds you that this water will not only be clean but also cold. Really cold!

Sunsets

We somehow left these photos out. These were from our trip down to southern Sweden. Yes that's right Sweden, and yes that is the sun! Superb stuff. Benjamin took both photos!

Camping Austria!

Benji gets results

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.
Roger Bannister

High Altitude Training

Benjamin often demands the most of himself. This is never more apparent when he is in the mountains of Austria during a training session.