Watch out for these deadly spots at Lake Balaton!

Lake Balaton, often referred to as the “Hungarian Sea,” is a popular destination for tourists and locals alike. While you do not have to worry about dangerous sea creatures, Balaton has its dangers. Contrary to popular belief among beachgoers, you cannot walk for kilometres into Lake Balaton without encountering deep waters. Despite the lake’s reputation for shallow stretches, the trench-like lines often lie surprisingly close to the shore, causing the water to deepen abruptly.

A potential danger at Lake Balaton

As Pénzcentrum writes, no buoys are marking the line of Lake Balaton, so beach-goers and sportsmen should be aware of the potential danger. Roland Szakter, Geodetic and Geoinformatics Officer of the Central Transdanubian Water Directorate, has told vizimentok.hu that many may believe that Lake Balaton is very shallow, especially the Southern shore.

The Northern coast of Lake Balaton has a quickly but steadily deepening bed. In contrast, the south coast has more shallow water, but as you reach the trench-like formation line, the water gets drastically deeper. According to the expert, the water could get two metres deeper within walking/swimming just 30-40-50 metres.

Staying within the buoys

Roland Szakter says that staying within the buoys is usually a safe choice. “But you should know that there are two milled lines on the south coast. The first is the abrupt line, which starts from 150-180 centimetres deep, but there is also a line closer to the shore due to the waves. There it is a much smaller drop of about half a metre,” says Szakter.

“This is when we see that 50 metres inwards, the water is knee-deep for the other swimmer and knee-deep for me, but between us, there may be a 50-60 centimetre drop. That’s the outer drop-off line. To this must be added the elevations, the so-called swells, which the water builds up from the depths, from the material that has been freed from the drop-off line,” he adds.

Even good swimmers tend to panic

The Hungarian legislation allows swimmers to go as far as 1 km from the coast. People with pedaloes or SUPs tend to go even further sometimes. It is quite understandable that pedaloes go further in, as it would be dangerous to jump or slide into shallow water. However, if someone goes as far as one kilometre, it is granted that they will encounter these so-called drop-off lines.

If you jump or slide into the water multiple times from the pedalo, you may change your position slightly without noticing. It happened to multiple people that after a few jumps, they found themselves in surprisingly deep water. Even good swimmers tend to panic in such situations, leading to tragedies.

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