Soca, Slovenia

1/7/19
This morning we left beautiful Berchtesgarden (Germany) traveling through Austria and Italy to reach Slovenia.
Played 'chicken' with a large black Mercedes.....

Kamp Soca is the only campsite we are re-visiting from the last trip and it's still as beautiful as ever.
We all jumped into the crystal clear freezing waters of the Soca River from various heights in the gorge and you could see the endemic Soca trout swimming.
The next day Alex and I took the bus up the valley to the source of the Soca and hiked the 15km back to the campsite. It was stunning, through old forests with panoramas of the mountains and then next to the gorge for the last few kms. Rog and the girls did a shorter version taking in the gorges with the endemic Soca trout swimming in the waters.
More gorge jumping then weary got back to the van before the storm started.....
wind, hail, rain, rain and RAIN. Some tents were flattened....

Rodelbahn and Almbachklamm

This morning we went a short distance into Austria to a summer rodelbahn. The Austrians have many cunning ways of using ski-lifts in summer! It was a small toboggan on a rail, 2.4km long.. lots of fun.
It was very hot again today so we went to the gorges at Almbachklamm on the way back. We walked up the spectacular gorge, across narrow bridges and through tunnels then jumped in the pool at the end and swam under the waterfall.
Home to the pool and Dad cooked pizza on the BBQ.
Alex and Charlie have developed a 'fitness' routine - tonights killer involved pyramids, running up the campsite hill and doing push ups and sit-ups.

Swimming in the waterfall

Return to Soca Gorge

Soca Gorge is wonderful as ever. But more people....

Berchtesgarden

We arrived in Berchtesgaden at the deluxe campsite. State of the art toilet facilities! Apart from maybe the opaque glass ... don;t stand too close if you have a hairy butt!!
We went into Berchtesgaden on the first afternoon. The old town was very pretty... the kids all got new hiking boots and a special rolled up ice cream.
We had dinner in the restaurant at the campsite which was fantastic (schnitzel and chips for the boys and I had the most enormous salad you have ever seen) with delicious ice cold beer.
The next day we took the Jenner cable car at the entrance to the Berchtesgarden National Park to the MIttel Station and hiked to the top with a vertical climb of 600m. Alex and Charlie had a face off with Bessie the Cow, Alex ran away form a bumble bee and Charlie did not moan at all!!
The views form the top were stunning over the mountains and down to Konnigsee.
We then went on a boat trip on Konnigsee... a bit crowded, but cool trumpet playing... it was apparently an ancient tradition to the monster of the lake (200m deep) and the sound echoed off the mountain. Other highlights included the life rafts (aka cushions) and the Greek gods rowing.

View from the top of Jenner over Konnigsee

View from the pool was pretty special

Berchtesdgaden Camping Allweglehen: Review

Difficult to fault this campsite.

Highlights:

• Fantastic views
• Great restaurant 
• Near perfect bathrooms

This is  just about the best campsite we have stayed in 9/10.

Campingplatz Pilensee, Review

Campingplatz Pilensee is 40 minutes from Munich. The kids loved the lake. The bathrooms were new  and very clean.

Highlights

• The lake with large inflatable 
• The bathrooms
• The location
• Also close to Aldi!!!

7/10

We do it again!! Lake Pilsensee

So the year is 2019 and the kids are 14, 11 and 7

Rog is doing contract work and I have some extended annual leave so we take the kids out of school again (BAD PARENTS) and head off to Europe for 7 weeks.
This time we' ve hired a camper van. Initially I had found a small compact number, sleeping 4 so we'd need a tent but Alex commented 'Mum, we'll kill each other in 7 weeks in that...' so we rented a monster truck.
We left Melbourne on 25.6.19 and flew into Munich and picked up the van after an extensive orientation....

Our first stop is Lake Pilsensee, just 30 minutes outside Munich.

This campsite is on the shores of Lake Pilsensee. There was a fantastic inflatable with a slide and trampoline in the middle which was great fun. Alex and Charlie mastered 'the sausage' and I swam across the lake.

Sunset over Lake Pilsensee