Seven Lakes Crossing is a project that has it’s root in my desire to explore the great lakes of Europe by sail boat. The idea emerged about three years ago and started to follow me since then. The goal of the project is to cross some of the largest lakes in Central Europe along their largest diameter single-handed with a dinghy.
The Seven Lakes Seven as a number came up as I had the notion of “Seven Seas” in mind. The analogy to the “Seven Seas” proved to be handy to set the final focus of the project. So, which are the Seven Lakes? I decided to select the lakes after their geographical location in Central Europe and their size. The location was important to keep effort and ecological footprint low. The size was important to have a certain kind of challenge from an adventure perspective. Finally, after some research I came up with the following lakes: Lake Balaton (HU), Lake Neusiedl AT, HU), Lake Atter (AT), Lake Chiem (DE), Lake Constance (A, DE, CH), Lake Geneva (CH, FR) and Lake Garda (IT).
The Mission
This project is not only a physical and mental challenge and therefore adventure for myself but is also intended to carry a message to other people.
- First and above all, I want to point to the importance of our water resources that we are lucky to own here in Central Europe. These water resources are a great treasure that is under threat by increasing frequency and length of dry periods. The cause for these droughts is climate change. Even in some regions of Austria people suffer from periods of drought where water needs to be transported from other regions in Austria. This phenomenon is something completely new and nobody would have ever imagined that a country that is famous for its green pastries, endless forests, snow covered mountains and numerous lakes ever experiences water shortage.
- Second, water resources are not only under threat by shortage but by pollution. It's not only the macro and micro plastic that is increasingly found but the chemicals and biological substances for agricultural business. These pollutants are invisible and cause many bad effects on biodiversity but also human health.
- Third, Central Europeans often are not aware of the nature and wilderness surrounding them. Though largely framed into national parks and nature reserves, Central Europe offers so many facets of wild nature. Among those are the great lakes of Central Europe. They have always been of great importance from a biological, cultural and economical point of view. With this project I want to point to the beauty and importance of these lakes for the region Central Europe and Europe as a whole.
Telling my story about the crossings of the lakes I want to create links between these lakes, the facts and stories surrounding them. It is time that we as Central Europeans get aware of our water resources and the responsibility we have for it. Keep track via my blog entries tagged with
Seven Lakes CrossingThe 7 Lakes
The common criteria to compare lakes by their size is the surface area they cover. A complete list of European lakes is given by this
Wikipedia article. The lakes are quite diverse. There are the two steppe lakes in the east Lake Balaton and Lake Neusiedl with low depth and wide bands of reed along their shore, then there are the great lakes on the northern side of the alps, Lake Atter and Lake Chiem where Lake Chiem is the highest altitude (518m) lake of all seven lakes but has characteristics of a steppe lake. Lake Bodensee and Lake Geneva are the giants among the central European lakes and have weather characteristics like at sea. Lake Garda is special as it is located on lowest altitude (65m), has a unique shape and most picturesque rocky mountain surroundings. I also selected Lake Wörther as a spare lake if any other lake turns out to be not reachable for whatever reason.
The Seven Lakes in numbers (from my original planning notes) For my endeavor to cross the lakes I was most interested in the spatial dimensions. The range with regard to length spans from 79km (Lake Balaton) to 14km (Lake Chiem).
As I found out later, "Seven Lakes" is used for some geographical regions throughout the world, e.g.
Seven Lakes in the Philippines, a community area in North Carolina or Seven Lakes Mountain between California and Nevada.
The Boat and other Equipment
Me, finishing my first lake crossing in Mörbisch, on Sept. 10th 2018 (Foto: Diana F.) The boat with which I plan to cross the lakes is a Weta Trimaran. Details about the boat are to be found via the menu -
my boat. Apart from my boat I have typical dinghy sailing gear including neopren suits for different weather conditions and a waterproof bag. For taking photographs I started with my mobile only first and added a GoPro later. In general, I want to keep the equipment as lean as possible.
See also my postings on
instagram.