The level of the lakes in Switzerland are lowered every winter for a number of reasons, including the necessity to allow for additional snow melt and for inspection. The water authorities are also granted permission to lower the lake to an exceptional level every four years, during which time building and maintenance work may be carried out on constructions and properties around the lake shore. I wrote about this back in 2016, in a post entitled “Below the water line”, when I photographed a few places around the southern side of the lake.
We walked at Gwatt nature reserve this afternoon and took advantage of the low water levels to walk a good way out from the shore. The lake bed is particularly flat here, so the reduction in water levels by almost a metre have quite an effect on the surroundings.
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