Danube Altarmweg
The Danube Altarmweg is an approximately eight kilometer long cross-state regional circular hiking trail around the Danube Altarm Wallsee near the Danube power station Wallsee-Mitterkirchen .
description
The hiking trail leads through the municipal areas of the Upper Austrian market town of Mitterkirchen im Machland and the Lower Austrian communities Wallsee-Sindelburg and Strengberg , was redesigned in 2010 and reopened as part of the Upper Austrian-Lower Austrian joint exhibition Danube - Curse and Blessing .
The circular hiking trail, which can be walked on and is signposted in both directions, starts at the Danube oxbow bridge at the rowing club. On the way, the three rivers that flow into the oxbow lake , the Danube - oxbow tributary , Aubach and Erlabach, are crossed.
Other local hiking trails partially overlap with the Altarmweg: Donaumandl-Kraftwerksweg, Rohrmühlenweg and Panorama-Donaublickweg.
One section of the route is also part of the east-west route of the Austrian Jakobweg , the Danube Heights circular route and the Mostviertel circular route. Since 2002 the Wallseer Verein Laufsportfreunde “Donaumandl” has been running the Wallseer Donau-Altarmlauf on the hiking trail, in which around 500 people take part.
Wallsee arm of the Danube
After the regulation of the Danube around 1826 in the 19th and 20th centuries, the old arm of the Danube was the main channel of the Danube in this section and was preserved after the Danube was diverted into a new river bed on the occasion of the construction of the Danube power plant Wallsee-Mitterkirchen in 1968 .
The Danube oxbow lake Wallsee has a length of around 3.8 kilometers and a maximum width of 280 meters. It lies to the right of the Danube between river kilometers 2097 and 2093 upstream of the market town of Wallsee-Sindelburg .
It is the only large oxbow lake in the reservoir of the Danube power plant Ybbs-Persenbeug and it forms a special habitat for the flora and fauna. To maintain a species-rich fish fauna, open oxbow lakes with the option to alternate between the Danube river and the oxbow lake are of great importance. The oxbow lake was revitalized from 1999 to 2005 after progressive silting up.