Grübl See

At a depth of 9m, the water is clear and remains so, as divers gently descend. Even from the surface, you can see many curious fish, which show up as soon as you begin your dive. They approach fearlessly and swim among your bubbles, while searching for food that is normally found along the shore. There is a ban on fishing but controlled feeding is allowed.

When the sun shines from a clear blue sky and the thermometer reaches a simmering 34°C, there is not really much else to do than to get into the water as soon as possible. So, we were in the middle of Austria, more accurately by the River Traun in Upper Austria—eight people, neoprene dressed and full of expectations, standing on a cliff about three meters above the River Traun, getting ready to jump. This was the spectacular start of a 1.5-hour snorkeling trip in refreshing crystal clear water.

If ever there was a dive location worth mentioning, with a house reef in a lake far from the ocean, it would be the one found in Austria’s Salzkammergut region—more precisely, in the picturesque town of Traunkirchen, on the west shore of Traunsee (Lake Traun).

Together with countries like Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland, mountainous Austria is one of the areas in Europe richest in freshwater. And the water is clean. Ninety-nine percent of Austrians have access to potable ground- and spring water. Austria boasts a whopping 9,000 lakes, of which two thirds are natural and the last third are man-made. The man-made lakes are mostly created to support hydroelectric plants.