One of the most popular and certainly the most visited diving location in Lithuania is lake Plateliai with its several diving clubs and facilities located on its banks. Daivings.Net has been reporting on the diving possibilities in Plateliai with Lithuanian diving club Octopusas in one of our previous stories:

http://www.daivings.net/en/diving-lithuanian-platelai-lake-oktopusas-daivclub

In the following article we would like to draw your attention to other lake diving possibilities in Lithuania and present to you lake Glūkas which has been dived a lot by Lithuanian diving club Extreme d@ivers.

Lake Glūkas

Lake Glūkas is situated in Varėna district, 4 km to the northeast from Old Varėna, ca. 800 m from the road Varėna-Alytus.  Lake Glūkas is a source of a brook that after several dozen meters falls into Lake Varėnis. The lake is surrounded by forests on all sides, and only on the western bank there is Glūkas village. There are several camping places close to the lake.

Hidden in the pinewood and located on an island of absolute tranquility, although only 4 km from the road Vilnius - Gardinas, there is Glūkas Inn that built directly on the lake. This is the only hotel-restaurant that is built on the water. The building was reconstructed in 2001. It has 2 floors and 8 modern cozy two-man rooms with all modern conveniences. All rooms have one entrance from the pub, and another - from the yard. The Inn also has a sauna, rents waterbikes and boats, and has a guarded parking lot. Divers may dive directly from the bridge of the Inn

Diving 

Lake Glūkas is special because of its very clear water. Near the banks, the visibility range reaches up to 15 meters.

The banks of the lake close to the pits are very steep and attractive to divers. During the whole hot season, the water temperature below 9 meters is low - between 5 and 11oC, which requires a dry diving suit for deeper diving. Near the banks there is a lot of whitebait that curiously examine unfamiliar objects. Small schools of fine fish make an excellent sight. When diving at small depth, the lake can be crossed at the middle - the depth between the pits hardly reaches 10 meters.  In the lake, one can find a lot of different parts of mechanisms, and even World War I artillery shells. 

The structure of the lake

The lake consists of two pits - the southern one, at which Glūkas village is situated, and the northern one, which is surrounded by forest. The pits are separated by a shoal. Each pit is ca. 37 m deep. The lake has numerous springs, and thus the water is cold.    

The northern pit is more overgrown with reeds and surrounded by the forest.  This part of the lake is muddy, although the layer of the mud is not too thick - ca. 10 cm. Deeper on, the mud layer becomes thicker. The southern pit is thickly overgrown with submarine plants. On the banks, one side is covered with reeds, and on the other side water touches the roots of trees. Here, the bottom of the lake is covered with pebbles and occasional sand islets.  

Fauna

There are a lot of bleaks in the lake. They are very curious, and when diving at night, impertinently follow the diver, sometimes even annoying with their glittering. Naturally, such large amounts of bleaks attract numerous pikes. The majority of them are ca. 1-2 kg big, although we also noticed some that weighed ca. 3-4 kg.

Eels here are really impressive. They are difficult to meet, but those that we did meet were not less than 2.5 kg. These fish are very timid and flee as soon as they hear any noise made by the diver.

Breams are very common fish in Lake Glūkas. The majority of them are ca. 0.5 kg big. In addition to these fish, one can also meet tench and small perch in the lake.

Historical events

At the end of the 19th century - the beginning of the 20th century, the surroundings of Lake Glūkas were occupied by the Czarist Russian army - there was the Vilnius district polygon and a pontoon bridge over the lake, used by the Czarist Russian army.

The bridge consisted of 6 pontoon boats manufactured in St. Petersburg. The bridge was destroyed during World War I.

In 2004, soldiers of Juozas Vitkus engineer battalion of the Army of Lithuania organized salvaging of these boats.

In total, 5 boats were detected in the lake. They were found at the depth of 4-9 meters; one of them - was found ca. 10 meters from the bank, and the others - at the distance of 50-70 meters. According to Arvydas Pociūnas - the head of the Department of the History of Soldiership of Vytautas Magnus Military Museum, the pontoon link consisted of three boats linked together - the front, the middle, and the tail boat.

There doubts whether it will be possible to locate the missing sixth boat. Soldiers from the engineer battalion said that they heard that several decades ago, one boat that was located close to the bank was taken by locals.

According to A. Pociūnas, the salvaged boats are a unique finding. In European countries, a lot of cannons, equipment, and weapons from the times of World Wars I and II are found, but he said he has not heard about any salvaged pontoon sections. Close to the salvaged boats, a large amount of cannon shells were discovered - in total, ca. 2000 shells.

Home page of Lithuanian Extrime Divers club and Lake Glūdas stories:

http://www.x-diver.lt/?en/view/336