Diving in lakes, although not very appealing to many due to its low visibility, low temperatures and limited aquatic life, is a very common activity in southern Germany and in the alpine region in general. In the middle of the Bavarian Alps, 75 kilometres from Munich, is the beautiful Lake Walchensee. It is surrounded by snowy mountains but has white sandy beaches that makes it resemble a tropical place. It is definitely the ideal getaway location for a sunny day. Walchensee is the deepest lake in Germany, reaching 192,3 meters of maximum depth! Albeit Bodensee is much more deep (254 meters) its deepest point is in the Swiss territory, not in Germany.
I had the opportunity of going to Walchensee on a hot sunny day with a small group of friends: Ben Spaeh, a passionate traveller who has been around the world following exotic aquatic creatures, Sttefi Neurieder, an adventurous girl who lived in South Africa for a few months and enjoys outdoors activities like natural photography, and Reinhard Mantei, an SSI instructor trainer with a broad experience and expertise on diving in the Alpine States lakes. With such a cool group of people it was not a surprise for me to have an awesome diving day! We planned to go up to 30 meters deep where the temperature of the water could possibly reach 4°C, so it was necessary to use something to isolate our bodies from the cold water. This time the temperature in the deep was 6°C. So, for the first time, I tried my brand new Whites Fusion FIT with a Thermal under suit from Fourth Element and it was extremely comfortable. I have to admit that even though I thought diving in a drysuit was going to be similar to diving in a wetsuit, the experience was completely different. The drysuit provides thermal insulation or passive thermal protection to the diver while he/she is immersed in water. At a certain point of the dive I couldn’t control my buoyancy and turned upside down due to the air bubbles around my feet! It was a very funny, but stressful situation because I couldn’t do anything to control the orientation of my body. Luckily my dive buddies were around to bail me out.
Ben and Reinhard guided me through every step of the dive. The most challenging task for me was putting on the equipment at 30 degrees. We had to do it very slowly to avoid getting too hot before entering to the water. Initially I found it very tough to handle all the pieces of the equipment simultaneously, but I got used to it after a while. Every single piece is essential. After putting the whole equipment on, we went down the mountain and immediately after touching the water, I could feel the effect of the cold water on my skin. The visibility was surprisingly good but at certain points, while we were descending, I could only see a cloud of dirt. Luckily my dive partners were always close by. We saw two species of fishes, or rather, two individuals. They were so fast that I could not identify them. The only other living thing we saw were funny tiny tadpoles.
Diving in Walchensee was a very interesting experience. I felt I was over the moon. In fact the drysuit made me feel like I was wearing an astronaut suit. If you are interested in diving there, do not hesitate to contact the locals Ben and Reinhard. They will make the whole experience fun, comfortable and safe.
