20th - 24th August. On to Dromod, Kilglass, Drumsna, Jamestown and Carrick on Shannon.

John and Brigitte joined us at Richmond Harbour, and we walked up the Royal Canal to the first lock, number 45, which brought back memories of last year.

Next day it was on to Dromod, where once again Noel moved his boat up to make room for us. Your man will be after thinking that we are following him! We do like this sculpture of the herons at Dromod.

We called in at the very short mooring in the side bay between Lough Bofin and Lough Boderg. We are outside the markers here, so came in very carefully. We had to back off the slipway when we grounded on the stoney bottom!

There is a lovely walk through the woods here in the Derrycarne Estate. The house, which was built in the seventeenth century, was demolished in 1952, and the estate now belongs to the land commission.

Carrying on across Lough Boderg, we were treated to another big sky.

Sailing on into the Carnadoe waters, we anchored for lunch in the bay to the left, just before Carnadoe quay. Then it was on to Kilglass for a walk up the road to see the view across the lough.

While at Kilglass we met Terry, Angela, Bruce and Jill from South Africa. Terry asked Shannon if she had run into a bus! She was most affronted! He then tried to dognap her with false promises of steak!

This is the most successful family of cygnets we have seen this year. We are now at Drumsna, having been attracted by the promise of good music at the pub this evening. Our South African friends were there first, keeping seats for us, so Terry was forgiven for maligning Shannon's nose! The 10pm music did not begin until 11.30, and was not worth the wait, so we did not stay for long. Quite a few people left before we did, confirming our opinion.

This view at Drumsna looks downstream to the seven arch limestone road bridge, which was built in about 1840.

On leaving Drumsna, we went along the Jamestown cut to the Ardanaffrin mooring, which is a perfect place to play boules.

Then on to Jamestown village, dating from 1621, with this road bridge which was destroyed by a high truck in 1973.

At Carrick on Shannon the moorings were very busy, so The Puzzler was rafted up to a Riverview barge, near to the trip boat, Moon River. Unfortunately Brigitte hurt her ankle, while climbing over the other barge with Shannon. She bravely saved Shannon from hurting herself. As usual here, we are far out into the river on the finger moorings.

On Friday night Moon River was extremely busy with five separate trips, full of hen parties and stag nights. The girls' costumes were themed, with red dresses, little black dresses, bunny ears, pirates and tutus, to name a few!

28th - 30th July. Richmond Harbour, Roosky, Dromod, Carnadoe, Kilglass, Jamestown and Carrick.

It was strange to see Richmond Harbour with no boats. They have all been cleared out to make room for the National Canoe polo championships which are to take place this weekend.

We stayed on our mooring below the lock and enjoyed a morning's entertainment. There is no quarter given in the mens' matches, as the canoes slide over each other as players try to reach the ball.

On leaving Richmond harbour we set off up the Camlin River, to rejoin the River Shannon and continue northwards. The Camlin River is as pretty as ever.

It is back to reality, as we reach Roosky Lock, going through with more boats than we met on the whole of the Royal Canal.

Dromod Harbour was busy when we arrived. However, friends of ours very kindly  moved their cruiser out to let us moor inside them, against the wall.They could then use our roof for access to dry land.

Near to the harbour, our crew enjoyed the flowers.

The donkey carrying peat is very traditional.

On leaving Dromod, the weather is looking promising, with blue sky behind the clouds.

However, within ten minutes the sky has clouded over, and the rainbow ahead warns us of the rain to come. For a while we were steering quite blind, as no markers at all were visible, through the driving rain.

Half an hour later it was a glorious day again, as we left Lough Boderg to approach Carnadoe. This is so typical of Irish weather!

At Carnadoe Quay, a crew of about thirty sea scouts were preparing to leave. They had been camping overnight. It certainly would not have been a peaceful mooring here last night! A cruiser and  several other small boats helped to transport those who were not canoeing today, on the next leg of their journey to Dromod.

On Kilglass Lough, the clouds were gathering again, but we kept dry this time.

Kilglass jetty is one of the most isolated moorings on the Shannon river system.

On returning to the River Shannon, we continued upstream, through Albert lock and the Jamestown Canal, to visit the Jamestown Rally. The barges are nearly right across the river, but there is still room to pull in to tie on to the outside barge.

We are the seventh boat out from the jetty, in the second of five rows of boats.

After a brief visit, it was back to the end of the Jamestown Canal for a game of boules.

The Irish skies continue to amaze us.

While the reflection is just as good.

Elaine has enjoyed taking the helm.

At Carrick once again, we are still longer than most other boats on the mooring.

The view out of the porthole is interesting, looking upstream towards Carrick Bridge. Elaine and Mary  will leave us early tomorrow morning to return to England.

21st - 23rd May. Jamestown Canal, Dromod, and the Camlin River.

We sailed south down the River Shannon and then on to the Jamestown Canal, which is a pleasant change from the wide river.

After the Jamestown canal it is back on to the River Shannon, which widens out in Lough Boderg. Today the clouds are very threatening, with rather too much wind for comfort, although the rain stayed away.

At Dromod the harbour was quite full overnight. Angiles Delight had arrived ahead of us.

At one end of Dromod is the wall painting of the herons.

They can also be seen as a bog oak sculpture by the fountain at the other end of the High Street. Sadly the goldfish in the fountain are terrified of us, moving away to the other side to hide. Last time we were here there was a small boy trying to drop stones on the fish, or at least he was, until we sent him back to join his mother in her car. She would have been                                                                                          happy for him to carry on!

 On leaving Dromod, with a good send off from Tiger, we carried on to reach Roosky Lock at 1pm. All locks are closed from 1 - 2 pm so there was plenty of time for a lunch break in the lock.

Further down stream we planned to turn left on to the Camlin River. As we approached, it looked as though this hire boat was blocking the entrance to the river.

However as we sailed closer we could see that it had been an optical illusion, and he was tied to the far marker!

The Camlin River is very much narrower than the Shannon, and winds its way through the fields.It is a very pretty river.

At Richmond Harbour we moored below the lock. Our friends on Lazy Witch was already there. A cabin cruiser arrived just ahead of us, moving up to the far end of the jetty. We fitted in tight behind him, with a hireboat squeezing in between The Puzzler and Lazy Witch.

The cruiser in front of us left, to be replaced shortly by another hireboat, which only just fitted in, with our bows overlapped their stern.

At the other end the hireboat stern rested outside our stern.Their bows were touching Lazy Witch.

27th September - 1st October. From Richmond Lock up the Camlin River. On up The Shannon to Dromod, on to the Carnadoe waters, and up Mountain River.

We winded below Richmond Lock, using the current to push The Puzzler round. The lock can be seen behind us to the left in this photo.

Seeing the Camlin River in sunshine this time showed us what a lovely river it is. We are travelling back upstream to rejoin the Shannon.

It is about three miles from Richmond Harbour back to rejoin the Shannon. The Camlin River meanders through the fields and is rather like the upper reaches of the River Thames.

The Shannon opens out into Lough Forbes. Although it is much smaller than Lough Ree, we are still a long way from the shore here.

After a brief shopping stop in Roosky, we continue northwards into Lough Bofin and on to Dromod Harbour. There are not many boats here, compared to last time, when there were 23 in harbour. The weather today has been glorious, with wall to wall sunshine. It was out with the chairs to spend the afternoon enjoying the heat. Catkin found a doggy friend to play with here too.

The private harbour at Dromod seems to be full, with not much boat movement. Since the end of August we have seen far fewer private boats out sailing.

We leave Dromod next morning to sail up Lough Bofin, with an overcast sky and a following wind. However the clouds ahead keep away from us, and we have another glorious afternoon, heading west across the bottom end of Lough Boderg.

Leaving Lough Boderg we are back on a smaller river system, and moor at Carnadoe Quay. This is a pleasant wall mooring, with plenty of short grass for Catkin. Another glorious afternoon here and then our Indian Summer was over! Friday brought torrential rain and by Saturday we could only manage a top temperature of 18 degrees, compared to 29 degrees on the south coast of England. Still, that would be too hot, wouldn't it?!

We were very taken by this attractive thatched cottage at Carnadoe. Considering how many reeds there are along this river system, it is surprising that there are not more thatched cottages. They must be the wrong sort of reeds!

After crossing Carnadoe Lough, we take the left channel at Carrigeen Cut. The way through the reeds is well marked, and we then go right and up Mountain River.

It is not clear at all where the navigation ends on Mountain River. There are some private moorings after about ten minutes, but we continued for a further half an hour, before discretion kicked in! We managed to wind, with the stern held by the bank, as the current helped the bow thruster to push us round. The bows were over the bank as we turned, and another inch would have made it impossible to turn. This corner mooring was a perfect fit for The Puzzler, although the field was extremely wet under foot.

We launched Mini Puzzle, and set off further up Mountain River. One of these swans flew ahead of us, in short bursts, for most of our trip. He eventually caught up with four more, who all paddled along in front of us.

We cruised on for over three miles before turning back, as the banks were closing in on us. The current was quite strong too, and we did not want to get too close to any thorn bushes.

This young beast was quite interested in our progress back downstream.

On approaching this "three spectacle" bridge, we managed to catch some weed on the propeller of the dinghy. It waited until we were nearly at the bridge before really taking hold, and stalling the engine! The current took us directly into the right pillar, so energetic fending off was needed. We finally spun through the smaller right hand arch, while Andy removed the weed, and all was well. We managed to hook the propeller on one rock beyond the bridge on our way upstream and another, or perhaps the same one, on the way back. It all added excitement!

However, we were quite glad to return safely to The Puzzler.