28th - 30th May. On to Fisherstown and Athy on the Barrow Line. The River Barrow to Leighlin Bridge.

The reflections are good today. We have been very lucky with the weather during Debbie's visit.

Shannon is learning that bridge holes are useful pickup points, after a morning walk along the towpath from last night's mooring.

Debbie helps Dad at the tiller.

The road lift bridge at Monasterevin is always the place to annoy passsing cars! The aqueduct over the River Barrow immediately after this bridge shows a quiet river below us this year.

We spent a lot of time at Fisherstown last year, waiting for the floods on the River Barrow to abate.

Once again, Tuesday night is music night at the Fisherstown Thatched Inn. With nine musicians there, it was really good.

Apart from Lowtown at the Grand Canal junction, then  Monasterevin, Vicarstown is only the third place to see many moored boats on the Barrow Line.

At Athy, we lock down on to the River Barrow.

Our first night on the river was above Maganey Lock. This was a lovely quiet spot.

Shannon went exploring across the top lock gates on her own.

She spends a lot of time reclining on the roof of The Puzzler, enjoying the scenery along the river.

When approaching Carlow, some moorings can be seen to the right of this island. However, do take care here. The navigation channel runs to the left of the island. There is a long sandbank which lies upstream of the island, running out in front of it, where we went too close and ran aground last year!

After passing to the left of the island, and going through the left arch of Carlow Bridge, it is then a sharp right across the top of the weir to reach Carlow lock safely. Visitors may find this a little scary!

However the water is gentle enough today for the heron to stand on the weir for a spot of fishing.

It is an attractive view, looking across the river to the Mill at Milford. Carlow was the first town to have electricity in Ireland, which was generated here, and Milford Mill is still in use, generating electricity.

The first cygnets of the year are now hatching. We saw this family soon after Milford Lock.

Shannon loves sitting on Debbie's knee.

The bridge at Leighlin Bridge is the oldest on the river, being built in 1320 by Maurice Jakis, a canon of Kildare Cathedral, to facilitate movement within his diocese. It is a very pleasant mooring. We are able to moor on this bank as The Puzzler does not draw too much water.

Shannon was not allowed to chew Toad when he was visiting, much to her disgust. She did not realise that this is the famous Toad Rawnsley, who cycled to South Africa and also has his own page on Facebook!

4th July. Up The River Barrow on high water! Back up The Barrow Line to The Fisherman's Thatched Inn at Fisherstown.

We walked across to see the weir at Milford. The lock cut leaves the river just above the weir, going off to the left, at the top left of this picture.

The Strong Stream Mill at Milford generates electricity and this town was the first in Ireland to have electricity, because of this. There is certainly a strong stream here, below the weir!

We were still safely above Milford lock but the river level was rising so we conferred with the lockkeeper. More rain being forecast, he contacted his supervisor for permission for us to return immediately up the river. He felt that our engine was powerful enough to do this so that we could reach the safety of the canal. We had to go down the lock to turn round, with a strong hand on the front rope to help.

Once below the lock, Andy took the stern out to catch the current.

Two seconds later, he was heading back into Milford lock, feeling rather giddy at the speed of the turn!

We reached the lock at Carlow safely, although on narrow parts of the river we were barely reaching two mph against the strong current. Above the lock can be seen the weir.

Instead of crossing in front of the island, above the weir, as boats would do on lower water levels, we are going straight ahead behind the island. This is only possible because the water is so high. Do click on this picture to see the normal navigation channel, which goes in front of the island across the weir!

The Puzzzler only just managed to squeeze through this low arch of the bridge. The bows were then stuck in some reeds, but a friendly passerby came to help our invaluable lockkeeper push us out. As we crossed above the bridge to regain the navigation channel, Andy found that we were not making a lot of headway, due to weed picked up by the bridge. He managed to get across and we got a line to our lockkeeper on the bank, before we disappeared back downstream towards the bridge! Having removed the weed we were fit to carry on.

We are now passing the point where we were stuck on a sandbank, only two days ago. The sandbank is in front of the island, and extends out quite a long way. Our rope went from the boat to the wall on the left, beyond the steps, where our lockkeeper had his van to pull us off.

Some cattle were paddling through the swirling water on the edge of the river. It seemed a risky game they were playing, but then, the grass is always greener!

We were glad to return up through Levitstown lock and know that it was not so far to go on the river.

Crossing above the weir beyond Levitstown's long lock cut was the next hazard to overcome, but that too went well. I was going to take a photo of the weir at Athy as we passed it, but there was too much water for us to see where it was!

The evening clouds welcomed us back on to the Barrow Line. We have never been more pleased to reach any canal! Our trip up from Milford took us seven hours to complete at an average speed of two miles an hour.

There was a lovely sunset, with the rays shining down from the clouds. We continued on up the Barrow Line to Fisherstown, for a last visit to see Old Sean at the Fisherman's Thatched Inn. He is a wonderful landlord in a very special pub. After that we returned for drinks next door, with a lovely family from Capetown, who had arrived at the mooring earlier that evening in their boat.

15th - 24th June 2012. The Barrow Line to Lowtown, then The Grand Canal to Hazelhurst and back to Fisherstown.

As the River Barrow is still closed to navigation, we are now cruising back up the Barrow Line.

Going back up lock 24 is quite tricky as there are no ground paddles at the middle gates of this staircase lock.

These donkeys are a popular garden ornament in Ireland.

The only boats on the move seem to be the weedcutters, which come in all shapes and sizes.

We can now see what he has done with the weeds he has collected.

At last we have found a water tap which will fit our hose. However, putting a water tap beside the bridge immediately by the bottom gates of lock 19 is not very convenient for anyone! The lockkeeper asked the council if it could be moved on to the jetty below the bridge, but was refused permission. We are now back on the Grand Canal, heading towards Dublin.

Mooring is quite difficult on this canal, but the stone wall above lock 15 is perfectly adequate. There is no lock mooring here. Our canal guide tells us that one of the lockkeepers lives at this cottage by the lock.

The paddles on the bottom gates are extremely heavy to work.

The relief lockkeeper told us he would let us work this staircase lock on our own as it would be fun for us! The top chamber holds much more water than the lower one, which certainly made it interesting! It is like this because an extra lock was removed in 1783, and lock 13 was converted into a double lock. The strange wider shape of the upper chamber is a remnant of an original larger lock.

Lyons House was formerly the home of the Cloncurrys, who were actively involved in the early days of the canal.

We went through Hazelhatch and on for three more miles before turning to return up the Grand Canal. At this point we are only ten miles from the centre of Dublin, and have decided to go no nearer. Hazelhatch is full of boats. We counted 61 boats there, and apparently 43 of them are liveaboards. Being non-continuous cruisers, they are all illegal, and are a real problem for Waterways Ireland. We did find one vacant mooring beside the pub here for our brief stop.

We found a mooring beside Stacumney, with deep water right up to the towpath. We seem to be specialising in mooring near to a ruin!

We decided not to climb inside this old lock house at Stacumney!

Two weedcutters were ahead of us at staircase lock 13. They filled the bottom half from a full top chamber of water without using any ropes at all. We felt sorry for the man in the front boat as he was really thrown about by the incoming water. There are only gate paddles between the two chambers.

The lockkeeper arrived while they were still in the lock, and was not impressed by their method. He let us up extremely gently by using an empty top chamber, and running the water through from the top.

Above lock 13 can be found the Village at Lyons. This is part of the Lyons Estate and incorporates a restaurant, a cafe and several shops, as well as a cookery school. There seem to have been a few barbeques in this building!

We moored above lock 15 again and found a good place for playing boules beside the lock.

The River Morell runs underneath the Grand Canal here, which lies along the left of this picture. We were surprised when a group of lads arrived behind our game of boules. They had been swimming on the far side of the canal, and must have come through these pipes to get under the canal!

This is the first time we have seen a heron in a tree.

                        
We returned through Sallins. This is another place with many boats and few moorings.

Robertstown ahead. This is the most attractive village which we have seen on the Grand Canal. We went to Charlie Weld's pub for our Irish music. Grandad on the accordian with his 14 year old grandson on guitar and vocals were very good. Other ladies, including an 83 year old, also came up to sing, accompanied by a man playing the spoons. Another entertaining evening.

These weedcutters just keep on coming!

Back to Fisherstown so that John and Brigitte can go home. We have had a good time, despite not being able to visit The Barrow River.
 A barge came to share the mooring overnight. It is quite an occasion to see another boat on the move. We plan to stay here until The Barrow is navigable.