Diving Germany / Austria

Does anyone have any experience of diving the lakes around the Germany /
Austria border? I'll be there - without a buddy - in the summer, near
Salzburg, and I can see there are several large lakes (Ammersee, Starnberger
See, Chiemsee, Attersee, Traunsee etc.), which might be nice and clear. I
know there are dive ops around there, but some recommendations (esp. for a
non-German speaker) or any local info would be great.

Cheers,

Bernard

bernardlyall <bernardlyall@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Does anyone have any experience of diving the lakes around the Germany /
> Austria border? I'll be there - without a buddy - in the summer, near
> Salzburg, and I can see there are several large lakes (Ammersee, Starnberger
> See, Chiemsee, Attersee, Traunsee etc.), which might be nice and clear. I
> know there are dive ops around there, but some recommendations (esp. for a
> non-German speaker) or any local info would be great.

I've used Taucherof
http://www.taucherhof.de/
They speak English and do nice accomidation too.
I don't know anything else so there maybe hundreds
of dive centers or they might be few and far between.

We were there in the winter so a pickaxe and a big
saw were esential dive kit.

nigelH



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"bernardlyall" <bernardlyall@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:462cb050$0$8749$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net...
> Does anyone have any experience of diving the lakes around the Germany /
> Austria border? I'll be there - without a buddy - in the summer, near
> Salzburg, and I can see there are several large lakes (Ammersee,
> Starnberger See, Chiemsee, Attersee, Traunsee etc.), which might be nice
> and clear. I know there are dive ops around there, but some
> recommendations (esp. for a non-German speaker) or any local info would be
> great.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bernard
>

I have dived Walchensee before. Frankly, I wouldn't bother doing it again
there was near enough to nothing there at all. The bottom was composed of
rocks that were reminiscent of tiles, the only life was some tadpoles at
about 4m and there was some weed. Other parts of the lake have some cars at
60m, if you want to dive to those depths to see something that you probably
wouldn't look at in a breakers yard, be my guest!!!!!!!!!

Chiemsee is in a very beautiful area although I haven't dived it. Ilsesee in
Augsburg is a reasonable lake dive with quite varied life including many
eels and pike. I have heard that there are some good dives to be done in
Lake Constance (Bodensee) including the wreck of a ferry at 40m.

Bear in mind that all of the lakes you mention are at altitude and special
rules will need to be applied to tables. Your computer may need to be set
for altitude or it may do itself, but check which. There are some dive
centres around and PADI courses are generally cheaper than in the UK so I
would consider doing the Altiude spec to cover the different procedures.

Also consider that many of the lakes are holding areas for the melt water
from the top of the mountains or are spring fed. They can be very cold at
the bottom. My dip in Walchensee in May was a balmy 16 deg at the surface
and a nippy 2 deg at 30m. Add this to the altitude and you have a good
recipe for getting narked.

HTH

Keith