
Drava - Gallizien to Seidendorf
Address
Gallizien
GPS
46.562600437201, 14.483735561371
Level of difficulty 2 | Gastronomy 1 | Length 7.8 km | Time 2 - 3 hours

Between the two largest reservoirs in Carinthia, you paddle along hidden cycle paths, steep rock faces and wooded banks. Well fed by tributaries, the Drava flows surprisingly fast here and saves stand-up paddlers a lot of effort.
General information
- Carinthia Card
- Rosental Valley tourist information
- Southern Carinthia tourist information
- Tour Video
- Climate
- Wind, waves, weather
Navigation rules
Be quiet and respectful, especially in the floodplain landscape Seidendorfer Au! Please do not enter the wetland area away from the water and take any rubbish with you!
Fishing is particularly popular in the area of the Fishery Steffan up to the old railway bridge. Bypass fishermen and their boats early enough!
Dangers and risks
The water access under the Annabrücke power station is a bit steep and leads over boulders. If possible, wear sturdy bathing shoes or something similar at least when climbing down. If you then paddle to the middle of the river, there may be small overlapping waves on the water, as the currents of the stream and the weir intersect.
Along the route, small turbulence keeps splashing up to the water surface like mushrooms. If you are on it with your SUP, it can sometimes feel unnavigable for a moment and may feel like paddling into a void. It is best to go around such water mushrooms or glide over them without paddling and with body tension. If you are unsure, you should paddle with a life jacket or kneel at times.
Expect a flow rate of around 2 km/h for most of this river tour, which is why you can move quite quickly with reasonably powerful paddle strokes.
Fishing is particularly popular in the area of the Fishery. So here you should orient yourself towards the middle and away from the right bank. For the entire tour you should evade fishing boats in order to avoid problems with the fishermen and prevent getting caught in fishing lines.
Starting at the new railway bridge, you paddle over carpets of aquatic plants and over shallow water of a maximum height of 50 cm until the end of the tour. Avoid the aquatic plants as best you can so nothing gets caught on the fins and slows down the journey.
The landing at the small bar is steep and earthy, but there are no slippery rock formations.
At the few bridges along the route, always keep a sufficient distance from the bridge pillars! Driftwood may collect on these, which requires even more distance when passing by.


Directions
To get to the start of the tour, you should travel by car, as there are no public transport connections there. There are two parking options - one under the dam crest, the other on the dirt road on the other side of the power station. Both are only a few hundred meters apart and can be easily reached by car from all directions.
The other end of the tour at the Fishery Steffan is also easily accessible by car, whether from the region or even from Italy or Slovenia. There you either drive to the parking lots in front of the Fishery or to the former excursion boat.
Regarding the return journey, there are also options using public transport. There are bus stops near the far end of the tour, but the nearest is 1.3 km km from the Fishery and can be reached on foot on the other side of the Drave. Bus stops further away are in the area of the village of Tainach (Tainach Dauhofen, Tainach West), but mean up to 1.7 km more walking.
The bus is only useful if you are only taken to the starting point and don't have to go back there because no car is parked there anyway. In addition, the public connections from Italy and Slovenia are very time-consuming and usually a combination of train and bus.
If you are dropped off at the start and want to travel back by public transport after the SUP tour, you can try to land on the north bank of the Drava directly under the bridge in order to save yourself several hundred meters of walking.
National and international bus, train and flight connections can be found via the comparison portals Omio, Busbud as well as RailEurope. If you arrive by plane, you will either land in Klagenfurt or in Ljubljana.
Parking
At the start of the tour in the area of the Annabrücke power station there are two good places where you can park your car. One is the wide roadside under the dam, where there is enough space on the bend. However, it is about 720 m to the tour start from there.
On the other hand - and in an ideal location - you will find a parking space along the dirt road leading down to the water access. It is best to park at the fork in the road and make sure other vehicles can pass unhindered. But this is also easily possible.
For example, you can park the shuttle vehicle at the Fishery Steffan in one of the non-reserved parking spaces. The parking spaces for hotel guests are marked and should be avoided accordingly. From the bar where you dock, it is then a 150 m walk to the car.
You can also park for free at the car park of the former South Carinthia Ship Company (Erlebnisschifffahrt Südkärnten). This extends the tour by up to 700 m, as you disembark near the pier of the empty passenger ship Magdalena.

Swimming
Since the Drava is not dammed along this section, swimming is not recommended. If you still don't want to miss out on a refreshing dip, you should at least stay next to the SUP and use it as a swimming buoy.
In midsummer, when the air is around 30°C warm, expect water temperatures of around 15°C in undammed areas of the Drava. So it's great for cooling off. Away from flowing water sections the water is a bit warmer and you can always get off the SUP and jump into it. From time to time you can also see people going into the water from the banks.
Swimming alternatives in the region are offered by the lakes Linsendorfer See, the Reßnig See, the Ratzteich, the Klopiner See and the Turnersee, but also the Freibach Reservoir. In suitable places you can also swim in the Drava reservoirs (Völkermarkt, Annabrücke).

Tour
From the Annabrücke power station to the Fishery Steffan in Seidendorf.
Length
7.8 km
Time
2 - 3 hours
Start and landing
Entry under the Annabrücke power plant.
Exit at the bar in front of the Fishery Steffan.
SUP rental
Draupaddelweg
Dahlienweg 14, 9161 Maria Rain
Phone +43 (0)463 2032 30100
SUP2GETHER
Mobile SUP rental
Am Birkengrund 26, 9073 Klagenfurt
Phone +43 (0)463 20323020

Straight through gentle bends
Since the Drava is regulated and dammed over large parts of southern Carinthia, the section between the Annabrücke Reservoir and the Völkermarkt Reservoir offers a welcome gentle ride with a current which is noticeable almost all the time. This current is of course fed right at the start of the tour by the falling water of the Annabrücke power station.
We initially wanted to park our car under the crest of the reservoir dam, as we already know this parking lot from our last tour over the Annabrücke Reservoir. From there, the walk to the starting point of this tour is quite long (approx. 720 m), so we spontaneously look for an alternative and promptly find one at the planned water entry point.
At the signpost of the Draupaddelweg (Drava paddling trail), a small dirt road leads towards the river, and you can park your car there. There is no prohibition sign, but enough space to park. Our other car is already parked at the Fishery Steffan at the other end of today's paddling route.
The gravel path to the water is quickly behind us and we immediately enjoy the unexpectedly optimal water access just 300 m from the weir. The boulders down to the water should be climbed down carefully, but they do not pose a great challenge. Since not only the river's main stream flows over the dam from the right, but also a small creek makes its way into the Drava, there may be minor wave intersections on the water.
We start the SUP day under slightly mystical conditions because the late summer morning fog has covered the entire region. The dark green hills and forests to the left above us flow into a white-grey veil hiding the vertical rocks of Mt. Skarbin from us for the time being. However, this veil cannot hide the turquoise-green colour of the Drava from us, which today presents us with its mirror-smooth water.
It is only brought into subtle waves by occasional, small eddies and moves entertainingly towards the east at an estimated 2 km/h. The water level at the Annabrücke power station is currently around -22 cm, the flow rate is 210 m³/s - all completely normal values for this measuring station. The fact that we keep coming across traces of beavers also seems to be quite normal here.

Since the route is straight, there is initially a lack of variety, but this deficit is quickly remedied as soon as we pass the estuary of the river Vellach. Suddenly the river bank forest thins out, a tree felled by a beaver protrudes into the water and a shallow basin is revealed, at the end of which the water falls from a small weir into the Drava.
This gives us an extra boost and propels us through a barely perceptible bend in the Drava. On the south bank, along our right-hand side, the popular and worth seeing Drava cycle path R1 runs behind the trees. The first cyclists are already visible here and there, as they started their tour just as early as we did.
As a reward, the sun now begins to shine brightly, sending its rays down between the dissolving clouds. This paves the way for a clear view of the Karawanks Mountains to the right in front of us, and as we turn back we can now see the vertical rocks of the Skarbin. These in turn remind us of the Kossiach Rocks upstream near the Annabrücke Reservoir, which are only a beeline of about 10 km behind us.
After all the kilometers through wooded areas, a sign of civilization appears before us again: the old Tainach railway bridge from the 19th century. What we don't see, however, because our eyes are directed up at the bridge and forward, is that the Gurk River flows into the Drava from the left. It carries its sediment-rich, darker water into the Drava, and so gently that we don't notice it at all on our SUPs.
Meanwhile, the flow rate has decreased considerably and we pull a little harder on the paddle shaft to turn right into the floodplain landscape called Seidendorfer Au just 500 m after this old railway bridge. Actually, this floodplain landscape begins in the area of the old railway bridge and stretches on both sides of the Drava and to the next road bridge, which leads to Lake Klopeiner See. The wetland is a breeding ground for mute swans, coots, great crested grebes, grey geese, mallards and tufted ducks. It also serves as a migration area and resting place for little egrets.
The floodplain landscape is therefore a real natural paradise, but its downfall was that it is not a nature reserve and therefore construction of a new railway bridge began in 2012. In order to realize this controversial project, even decades-old weekend houses were redeemed and demolished so that supposed progress could show its capitalist face in the middle of nature.
The fishermen in their small boats are an indication that the true owners of this little piece of land - the animals - are not easily driven away. Here, away from the main stream, the water is sometimes barely more than half a meter deep and is teeming with aquatic plants. Try to avoid them as best you can out of respect for the flora. But also so that no organic material can stick to your fins and slow you down.
On the left, only a thin and long strip of land separates the wetland from the Drava. On the right, an equally narrow cycle path leads past the former so-called Seidendorf ponds. These were merged in 2016 and now form a fishing area of almost 15 hectares called Lagune I (Lagoon I), at the end of which there is a protected area.

We have burned quite a few calories today, which is why the small bar with a view over the water is just what we need. It is part of the Fishery Steffan, a fishing resort with small wooden log cabins which is not only a hot tip among fishermen, but also has rooms for non-fishing guests.
We land right in front of the terrace and climb up the earthy bank full of anticipation. There we are not only greeted by cool drinks and small self-service snacks, but also by a wonderful view of the floodplain landscape and the river beyond. What a crowning conclusion over the water.
Alternatives: Of course you can stay on the main stream of the Drava in the area of the railway bridges, but then you miss the still quite natural idyll of the Seidendorfer Au around the right bank of the river. You can also continue this tour seamlessly into the Völkermarkt Reservoir, as fortunately there is no barrage along the way. The next power station is another 15 km away (Edling power plant).
There are also two alternative exits for this tour: one could disembark at the ship dock after the bridge, or at the other end of the bridge on the northern bank of the Drava.




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