Beautiful park underwater

Chamari Senanayake

You normally don’t find grass under a lake, nor expect to see fish swimming under roots of trees. But there is such a place, a place that is breathtaking. It has an entire world underwater, with tree branches, roots, green lush grass and foot path.

Not only that, lovely park benches to sit down and relax if you are a diver. In this place the water is emerald green and sun shine comes brightly across the water showing you how green the grass at the bottom.

This is all because, half of the year this place is over ground. This lake dries out almost completely in the fall. In the spring the lake is filled with snow melt runoff. This gives the lake crystal- clear water, the existing rocks and meadow give the lake its green color.

It is called the ‘Green Lake’ in Tragoess, Styria, which sits at the foot of snow-capped Hochschwab mountains in Austria.

Throughout the frozen winter months, the area is almost completely dry and is used as a county park. It is a particular favourite site for hikers, as it has breathtaking views of snow- capped mountains, stunning green forests.

But as soon as the temperatures begin to rise in spring, the ice and snow on the mountaintops begins to melt and runs down into the basin of land below. Then the park fills up with ice-cold crystal- clear water.

The water levels rise from about one or two metres deep in the winter to as much as 10 metres in the late spring and early summer.

The waters are at their highest in June when it becomes a very popular destination for divers keen to explore the rare phenomenon, before the waters recede at the end of July.