Lake Königssee

Day eight of my motorcycle tour across Europe brought me to Berchtesgaden, Hitler's summer retreat in the Bavarian Alps.

The morning started with a sticky-hot 29°c ride through the mountains to a little town called Königgsee, where I caught a ferry across to the other side of its deep black lake, which sits wedged on all sides by sheer rock-face.

Mid-way through the trip, the pilot stepped up, told us how amazing the echoes were in this valley and pulled out a trumpet. Standing on the side of the boat, he played a German folk song, while the mountain played its crystal-clear harmony in return. It was quite bizarre.

When the boat docked at the other side, I hiked a little way to another much smaller aquamarine lake called Obersee, hidden deep in one of the valleys. It was really quite a magical place. Farmers live and work there still; their small holdings only accessible by boat.

After a bit of a paddle to cool my aching feet, I hiked for about an hour to find the epic Röthbachfall waterfall, but was disappointed to find nothing but a dried-up old scar up on the ridge.

These photographs were taken with my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and the extraordinary Canon 35 mm f/1.4 L II USM .