Kreidesee Hemmoor · Germany · Wall · Freshwater
Der Wald
Drowned trees on the slope, best seen flying over the canopy at 25 m
Area photo: User:Raboe001 · CC BY-SA 2.5
Below the drop-off near Einstieg 5, drowned trees up to 10 metres tall still stand rooted on the slope where the old quarry bank continues down past 25 metres. The best view is from directly above, at around 25 metres, looking down over the canopy; trying to dive between the trunks near the bottom is close to impossible, since they stand too tightly packed to pass through.
Also known as The Sunken Forest.
Where it is and how deep
53.7004° N, 9.1346° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The trees are the shoreline vegetation that stood here before the pit flooded, still rooted on the slope where the near-vertical wall above eases into a steep bank. Divers who try to swim among the trunks near the bottom find the gaps too tight and the branches brittle: they snap easily, and each broken one sheds a fall of fine chalk sediment that quickly clouds the water for anyone following.
The better approach, and the one the dive base recommends, is to stay up around 25 metres and fly over the canopy rather than through it, keeping enough distance from the crowns to avoid breaking branches. Seen this way the trees read as a drowned woodland rather than a scattering of dead wood, an effect divers who arrive expecting little describe as more striking than it sounds.
The forest sits on the same stretch of slope as the Steilhang drop-off, a short swim away, so many divers plan the two as a single profile: the wall on the way out, the canopy on the way back, holding around 25 metres depth for most of the swim rather than chasing the full depth of either feature.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Kreidesee Hemmoor: Diveable year-round in a drysuit; semidry season runs April to November. Deep water stays near 5°C year-round; clarity depends more on weather and diver traffic than on the calendar.
Know before you go
- A second first-stage regulator is compulsory across the whole lake, including this site.
- Branches near the trunks are brittle and break easily, dropping chalk sediment that clouds the water for other divers.
- The rooted base of the forest lies past 35 m and the slope beneath runs on to 55 m, well past a beginner depth.
Sources
- Tauchplätze – Kreidesee Hemmoor — Tauchbasis Kreidesee
- Hemmoor — Taucher.Net
- OpenStreetMap node: Wald — OpenStreetMap contributors
In The Logbook
- Freshwater diving: lakes, springs and quarriesFreshwater · 15 min read
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Artificial reef
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