Ballinamore to Castlefore Lock 1st - 4th July

We stayed in Ballinamore to drain The Puzzler's water tank, and remove the cover. There was not as much rust inside as we had feared. It did not take too long to scrape it off and clean the tank thoroughly, leaving it overnight to dry. On Friday we painted inside the tank with potable bitumen, Sally doing the athletic squeeze into the tank, to do all the tricky corners. Well, after all, Andy had done most of the cleaning!

There were cattle in the field opposite the mooring. This one was admiring herself in the water.

We saw footpath signs so set off to find the walk. However, this is as good as it gets! Walking like the man in the picture does give you backache though!




As the water tank is to be left empty for a few days, we filled all our water containers, before leaving the handy water tap, which was right beside the boat.

We set off, going through Ballyduff lock with a cruiser, before turning off the main channel to go into Kiltybardan Lough. The jetty, at the far end of the lough, is not connected to land at all.

Here are the evening reflections over Kiltybardan Lough.

A Swiss family on a peniche arrived to join us, but we had to leave at 10pm as Catkin could not cope with the lack of grass! We returned to the mouth of the lough to moor at a works jetty, which Andy had spotted earlier. It was the shortest mooring we had ever had!

Moving on, we came to Castlefore lock, which must be the deepest lock on this waterway. It reminded us of Tuel Lane lock on the Rochdale Canal.

The paddles let the water in quite fast, but by using just one paddle, as shown here, we do not need to use any ropes. The water keeps us pinned to our side of the lock chamber.

We moored on the offside of the waterway, immediately above the lock. This is the first time we have moored on stakes for a long time.