Austria Part two

Zell is a pretty town. And very much into its extreme sports. As I sat at the campsite a paragliding stunt contest (now I sound like a proper dad with that expression) was being held over the lake. It was a warm and relatively clear day, although slightly cloudy. Here I realised that there is a silver lining to all this rain. The cold and the storms had so far protected me from one of the most feared aspects of the European summer- the Euro-trunks, yes that’s right the dreaded speedos. And as I write this, a man is bent over searching for something in the boot of his car and …well let’s just leave it there. We have all suffered this awful experience and so let’s never talk about it again.

It was here whilst mum, dad and Jimmy were on their climbing holiday that dad was attacked by a swan and knocked off his lilo. Tough!

The journey through the Thurn Pass was beautiful and stunning. Austin tackled the loops and bends up through the pass with grace and aplomb. And we stopped for a stately photo at the top. We had a quick posing session and then made our way down. This is where things started to get a little serious. Did I say 'serious, I meant dangerous. Thankfully there were few other travellers on the road, at least behind me, but as we pulled out of the second view spot I noticed a smell of burning. Now several times I have smelt similar worrying odours but a little fortitude and patience have meant that everything had worked out fine. But as we made our way down through the alps on fifty year old breaks the smell began to increase. I had already dropped to third gear, taking it slow and only using the foot brake on the corners when I needed both hands for the wheel and couldn’t use the handbrake to aid our slowing. The smell of burning followed us both down the hill through each of the bends and corners like a comet's tail. Eventually a little rattled we pulled into a supermarket car park to cool and gather our nerves whilst the smell of fresh roasting chickens tormented my stomach.

Not nearly as cool.

After all that I was still to be distress further by the Euro-trunk!!


Our attempts to get though the Grossglockner Pass is a story for another day, and a fortifying beer.
I have been videoing bits and pieces and was going to make a video but they take too long to upload so I thought I might put in a few of the wobbly and unedited clips for your viewing pleasure. Have a laugh at this-

Don’t forget there are loads of Galleries over at the Facebook page, just click like.
Have a good week folks


Cheers Matt