Park Eifel and the Urft Dam (with video)
Full screen gallery below
Long on the list and after some research we (with Marc Duiker) drove to Park Eifel. A nature reserver situated near the south east of The Netherlands. It is a long drive, but we figured it is worth it as there are hiking trails, forests and the Urft Dam.
The Fujifilm X-T2 was present with the Fujinon 10-24mm. The DJI Sprak was with me as well, but windy and hazy conditions really did not work with the drone footage. Some turned out to be ok, see for yourself . The Fuji gear worked flawless in the cold, wet and windy conditions. However I did struggled with the cold, man really need to find good warm hiking gear.
We expected snow and misty woods and thick forests. However I made the mistake of not looking if the forests where leaf or pine trees. Obviously it was the latter and all the leafs where already gone. Which made the forests a bit well, boring.
Nonetheless the Dam was quite amazing and the hiking towards it was quite fun, although unnecessary we later figured out. There was a way of getting to the dam by car, but in the end that would have been half of the fun, right.
The Urft dam is a curved gravity dam with its convex side facing upstream and an earth embankment (an Intze Wedge) on the reservoir side that reaches to about half the height of the dam wall. It is situated around 6.8 kilometres, as the crow flies, west-northwest of Gemünd, the northern part of the town of Schleiden in Euskirchen district.
The Urft Dam was built between 1900 and 1905. The overall plan for the dam was developed by Prof. Dr. Otto Intze from Aachen and built according to the so-called Intze Principle; Intze also led the construction. To build the dam wall a railway line was laid from Gemünd to the site to transport men and materiel. The barrage is made of rubble stone composed of greywacke and slate that was quarried locally and rises 58.5 metres above its base (Gründungssohle). At its crown, it is around 226 metres long and 6 metres wide, and is 50.5 metres wide at its foot. The Urft Dam was also the highest in Europe until the construction of the Bober Dam in the Giant Mountains of Silesia in 1912.
On its completion, the Urft Dam became the model for many other projects at home and abroad after water management for industrialization became increasingly important after the end of the 19th century. The trial impoundment of the river began in November 1904, its use in water management started on 26 August 1905. -source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urft_Dam-
All in all a very nice experience with ok-ish photos, but an adventure nonetheless. View the whole set here and click for lager versions.
