Völkermarkt Reservoir Western Basin

Level of difficulty 2 |  Gastronomy 1 |  Length 8 km |  Time 2 - 3 hours

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Floodplain landscapes and dreamy little islands characterize the western basin of the Völkermarkt Reservoir, as do views as far as the Alpine borders of Carinthia. Yet, stand up paddlers are a rare eye-catcher here.

General information

• Carinthia Card 
• Völkermarkt Reservoir Wikipedia
• Southern Carinthia tourist information
• Tour Video
• Climate
• Wind, waves, weather

Navigation rules

Along this route you pass three nature reserves, all not accessible to vehicles or floating devices of any kind: the two Natura 2000 areas Völkermarkter Stausee (Völkermarkt Reservoir) and Flachwasserbiotop Neudenstein (shallow water biotope Neudenstein) as well as the Vogelschutzgebiet Brenndorfer Au (Brenndorf bird sanctuary). In the area of ​​these protected areas please be quiet and respectful towards nature and take any rubbish with you!

Already from the start, people fish a lot in the area of the Fishery Steffan. Later on as well, since the whole reservoir is a fishing hotspot. Bypass fishermen and their boats early enough!

If you unexpectedly come across swimmers, please make way for them early enough too!

Dangers and risks

The water access at the small bar is steep and earthy, but without any slippery rock formations.

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.

At the start of the tour, you paddle over carpets of aquatic plants and shallow water no more than 50 cm high. Avoid the aquatic plants as best you can so nothing gets caught on the fins and slows you down.

If you get out directly under the reservoir bridge near Völkermarkt, you have to leave the water over the boulders under the bridge and up to the cycle path. This is not particularly difficult, but it does require concentration because it can be slippery and you don't want to step in any bird droppings.

If you ask nicely at the fishing port and get an OK, you can comfortably go ashore at the slipway, but you have to be careful not to slip. In that case it is best to land next to the asphalt

Directions

The Fishery Steffan is best reached by car from all directions, whether from the region or even from Italy or Slovenia.

There are bus stops nearby, but the nearest is 1.3 km km from the Fishery (on foot). Bus stops further away are in the area of ​​Tainach (Tainach Dauhofen, Tainach West), but mean up to 1.7 km more walking. In addition, public connections from Italy and Slovenia are very time-consuming and usually a combination of train and bus.

If you are travelling by public transport, you can try to start on the north bank of the Drava directly under the bridge to save yourself several hundred metres of walking.

The destination of the tour in the town of Völkermarkt is also best reached by private vehicle. You can either drive to the Völkermarkt Reservoir Bridge rest area or to the Völkermarkt boat harbor.

The return journey by bus starts directly in town and requires a walk of at least 1.4 km to get from the Drava uphill to the central bus stop in Völkermarkt. However, large parts of this route run along busy roads without sidewalks.

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

If you want to cross the reservoir, as on this tour, it is best to shuttle with two cars.

For example, you can park the first car near the start of the tour 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 there you walk 150 m to the bar where the tour begins.

You can also park for free at the car park of the former South Carinthia Adventure Ship Company (Erlebnisschifffahrt Südkärnten). However, this shortens the tour by 650 m, as you only board the SUP at the pier of the empty passenger ship Magdalena.

At the end of the tour, you can leave the second car by the river near Völkermarkt. There are only a few public parking lots at the small harbor by the Völkermarkt Reservoir Bridge, behind which is the fishing harbor area. If everything is parked in front, please ask the fishermen whether you can park your car in their area as an exception.

If both are unfortunately not possible, you can simply extend the tour by about a kilometer to the next harbor and park in the area of ​​​​the small restaurant Hafenrast.

Swimming

The reservoir is not a typical bathing lake, but the water on the river in the area of the reservoir is relatively warm and is just under 20° C in summer. You can still find reasonably pleasant water temperatures even in October, when late summer was warm. If you really want to get into the water from your SUP or from the shore, you should still be careful to swim away from possible boats and fishing lines.

If that's not convincing, you can switch to a lot of great swimming lakes south of the reservoir. Lake Klopein, for example, is one of the warmest swimming lakes in the country and is a true holiday paradise in summer. Around it there are also the lakes Turnersee, Sonnegger See and Gösselsdorfer See.

Anyone who wants to swim during the cold season can enjoy the high-quality services at the Bathhouse Klopeinersee. It is open all year round and offers an infinity pool, four saunas, a nudist area and masseurs.

Tour

From the Fishery Steffan in Seidendorf to the Völkermarkt Reservoir Bridge.

Length

8 km

Time

2 - 3 hours

Start and landing

Start at the bar in front of the Fishery Steffan.
Exit in the area of ​​the Völkermarkter Reservoir Bridge.

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

Lagoon-like pleasure on the dammed river

Some people claim that southern Carinthia has 7 ½ lakes. They refer to the Völkermarkt Reservoir as half a lake because it is actually the Drava River. In fact, it is 4.5 times larger than all the other seven real lakes in the region combined. With its 9.3 km², it is the third largest lake in the state and, of course, an absolute showcase area for SUP fans.

Crossing the western basin is just one of countless route options at the reservoir, and we begin our journey at the bar of the Fishery Steffan in Seidendorf. From the car park, we are at the water in just a few steps and carefully climb down the small slope next to the bar's guest tarrace. It is earthy and a little steep, but not a particularly difficult entry.

The water is already heavily dammed here and the somewhat higher flow rate of the Drava a few kilometers upstream is no longer noticeable. However, we have to be careful not to get caught on the underwater plants in the shallow water and destroy them. However, as we are paddling downstream in line with their orientation, we do not get caught on them and can quickly paddle past the fishing lines coming in from the right.

The reservoir was created in 1961 by damming the Edling power plant 15 km away and is barely more than five metres deep in most places. In addition to fishing, it is also particularly interesting for rowers, and its vastness also offers us stand-up paddlers a number of entertaining routes.

Right in front of us, the Tainach Bridge leads over the reservoir and to Lake Klopein. The decommissioned passenger ship Magdalena of the insolvent South Carinthia Adventure Ship Company (Schiffahrt Südkärnten GmbH) has been moored right next to the bridge since 2022 and is slowly decaying. We paddle towards it and inspect the 23 m long relic more closely. A thorough cleaning is certainly in order both inside and out. Add new paint on the outside, a contemporary interior design on the inside, and things are looking a little more inviting again.

It's a shame no one has yet dared to renovate the ship and turn it into a cool boat bar. Paddlers could also start the tour here in the area of ​​the pier and park their car on the shipping company's former parking lot which is still accessible.

We continue in solitude towards the western basin of the reservoir, which is actually the main basin due to its size. Apart from swans and the occasional fishing boat anchored on the bank, there is not much going on on the water today. We have the reservoir to ourselves and rave about the enviable houses that keep appearing over the bank and whose construction would probably be unaffordable today.

A few kilometers ahead of us on the north bank we see the Neudenstein Castle from the 14th century, which is now privately owned. We paddle towards it and inevitably pass a harbor which belongs to the fishing district Stürzenbecher Neudenstein.

It benefits enormously from the high nutrient supply in the water and the resulting abundance of fish in the reservoir. Although not visible from our location in front of the harbor, the seductive atoll of the Neudenstein shallow water biotope stretches out in the middle of this fishing area. The area would certainly be an interesting SUP spot for a short tour, but unfortunately it is not allowed to be paddled as it is a nature reserve.

Meanwhile, we are attracted to an island we see 500 m ahead of us on the southern shore of the reservoir. We paddle towards it quickly, not quite sure whether we will get past it and back into the large basin of the reservoir. It could also just be a small bay with only this one entrance.

We cross the reservoir from the harbor down to the supposed island and enter a secluded quiet zone. Apart from birdsong, you can't hear anything at all in this hidden open-air pool on the southern edge of the reservoir. Adjacent to this hideaway is the Brenndorf Bird Sanctuary, which, according to a sign, is not to be entered.

It is actually a long island, and as we leave it behind us, we discover another tiny island where a fishing boat has positioned itself. The fisherman certainly wasn't expecting two paddlers in this secluded hiding place. This can happen to anyone - including us. Because when we are already in the middle of the main basin a bit later, a small PV system suddenly protrudes from the water.

There is even a connection box attached to the metal post so you can obviously load your electric boat in the middle of the lake. Now we weren't expecting this oddity, and it shoudn't the last before we land.

Without saying a word and with hearty, powerful strokes, we push our boards across the lake and merge with the vastness of the landscape and the rhythm of our movements. From here you can see Carinthia's border mountains to the south and east. The Völkermarkt Reservoir Bridge is getting closer and we slowly nestle up to the north bank to take the shortest route to our destination.

The view up is just forest and blue sky, but when it threatens to become too corny, we discover a discarded car battery on the earthy bank. As experienced garbage collectors on SUPs, we have seen a lot, but something like this really doesn't have to happen.

The battery must have obviously been brought here from the water and placed on the bank, because it would hardly have been possible otherwise. In addition, such a thing weighs around 20 kg, so it is not realy easy to handle.

As we retrieve the battery and place it on one of our SUPs, we stumble upon another battery lying in the water. With almost 40 kg of additional luggage, we paddle the last kilometer to the harbor and go ashore directly under the bridge. Here you have to be careful not to step on bird droppings, apart from that you can get over the boulders and onto the bike path pretty quickly.

We would have preferred to land at the slipway in the harbor, but this time a rather bold fisherman objected because it was a private harbor. What worked without a problem last year on our tour through the eastern basin is simply not possible this year. So just ask nicely and if you get a no, go under the bridge or, if in doubt, end the tour at the next harbor. This SUP tour was definitely worth it - for us and for the now somewhat cleaner shore.

Alternatives: You can start and end this tour at different spots. An alternative starting point would be at the dock of the abandoned passenger ship Magdalena. This shortens the paddling distance by up to 700 m. You could also get off the water at the public boat harbor of Völkermarkt, which in turn extends the tour distance by almost one kilometer.
If you want to experience a half-day tour, you can do this tour as a circular route, or simply paddle further to the eastern basin of the reservoir.