The families of four people, including three Irish, killed in a rafting accident, visited the scene yesterday and laid flowers - in one case a single rose - on the water.
A police escort and representatives from the Irish and British embassies accompanied the families, who supported each other as they walked down the rough path to the spot where the ill-fated expedition should have landed safely. At this point, the Salzach river is about 15 metres wide, heavily wooded on one side, and the water moves slowly downstream and under the nearby safety rope before it plunges over a man-made weir known as the Eschenauer Step and into a powerful whirlpool.
The families stood in silence for a while at the side of the river where the raft should have berthed. Instead, for reasons not yet known, it carried on with all eight riders on board, slipping under the safety rope that is still stretched a few metres further downstream. The raft and riders went over the Eschenauer Step into the whirlpool.
Nick Stillwell, an experienced British rafter who coached the Austrian national team and once operated rafts on the Salzach, said: "To berth the raft you have to paddle it around into the current, and then deal with the problems of getting everyone off. If the passengers are all inexperienced, the guide has to do everything."
On the raft everyone was wearing a life vest - the current was so strong that four were pulled under and not seen again until their bodies were spotted by three construction workers on a bridge located six kilometres downstream.
British embassy representative Ms Helga Danmayr said the autopsies had already been carried out and the bodies handed over to the undertaker for transport home. This was being handled by the holiday tour operators and insurance firms.
The owner of the rafting centre, Mr Trevor Hamer, was with the families of the deceased as they walked to the river bank. They stood for 10 minutes at the river's edge before heading back to Salzburg, where the bodies of the four are being kept. Before leaving they placed flower pots with daisies and sunflowers at the spot.
A simple white card on one of the pots said: "To our darling brother John, you were the most wonderful person in the world, so special to all of us. We will always miss you, but you will be in our hearts forever."
A police investigation is continuing into the accident, and rafting firms on the river have announced a voluntary stop to all activities while they await the results of the inquiry in about three weeks' time.