Diving in a flooded meadow

The "Grüner See" (engl. Green Lake) is situated in upper styria, Austria (see geotag). It is amazingly beautiful because of its deep green/blue colour and the surrounding alpine scenery. The lake itself dries up in autumn but fills up with melting water. The water itself of the lake is extremely pure, like glass. The colour is a result of light refraction.

"The night before there seemed to be heavy rain and too much of the pollen were flushed in the water and were floating. So the visibility could be much better, i´ve missed the „crystal clear water. You have to know the Green Lake is famous for its clear water. The good thing for this day was the water level with 9,40m. Spring flowers, plants, benches, hiking trails were below the surface. And i have found out when its the best time during the two to three months "flood" to get in the water - i was to early in this season. Altough the water temperature was between 5 and 6 degrees Celcius i did two dives (85 and 96 minutes long)

My face was well frozen, i can hardly speak afterwards. I hoped this procedure kept my face young and skintight. After watching the footage it seemed to be different."

         (swifttallon)


This reminds me of diving in Hindhede Quarry in the mid 1990s, and sitting in a shed 70 feet under the surface of the water. There were trees, machinery, and vehicles in the clear, bluish waters (and even a large fresh water turtle too). After the dives, we would hurl ourselves off the 3, 4, 5-storey high cliffs in our wetsuits, before lugging the tanks up the long gravel road back to the parking lot. It all came to an end when a fellow diver's friend, a blabber-mouth New Paper reporter hack, tagged along; reneged on her promise to maintain secrecy; subsequently published an alarmist article in the papers the following week; resulting in the activity permanently banned in the locale by NParks.