Dringis is one of the best known and best liked lakes of Aukštaitija National Park. It belongs to the Žeimena basin which means that if you start your boating trip in Dringis you can get as far as the Curonian Lagoon. Nearly all lovers of water tourism while boating in the lakes of Aukštaitija National Park find themselves on the waters of lake Dringis.

 

Dringis was mentioned in the writings of both professional and amateur writers. M. Eidrigonis described one of the first tourist routes ( in Lithuanian ) in his booklet “500 km on Lithuanian Lakes” published in 1940. D. Šniukas published his booklet “Sailing the Lakes of Eastern Lithuania” in ? . Later publications increased almost in geometrical progression.

 

According to literary sources lake Dringis has the surface area of 721hectares, and is 4,46 km long. Its average width is 1,5 km while in its northern part it is even 3 km wide. It is of an average depth 8,5, but in places reaches 24 metres deep. The lake is 140,2 m above sea level, it has 5 islands and islets, a lot of bays and capes. Its winding shoreline extends up to 31 km.

 

It is of interest that different names of bays and capes written down by various linguists differ in their stress. Therefore, we may assume that representatives of different dialects used to live around the lake. Lake Dringis is on the borderland of two ancient Lithuanian lands (tribes) (Nalšia and Deltuva). To the north of lake Dringis there used to live a Baltic tribe Sėliai, approximately until the 13th century.