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!

31st July - 5th August. Back down the River Shannon to Jamestown Heritage Festival.

Our visitors having left us, we returned down the Shannon to Jamestown to join the rally. We are now the eighth boat out from land on our line. Andy has been putting out the bunting.

The Puzzler can just be seen on the end of the third row of barges, upstream from Jamestown Bridge. There are two more rows of boats, mostly barges, in front of us.

There are already over 60 boats here, with more expected to arrive during the week. Jamestown Heritage Festival takes place here once every four years. Jamestown was first built in the reign of James1 in 1621. It was besieged during the rebellion of 1641 and taken by the Confederate army in 1649. Forty years later it was captured by the Williamite army, who were then defeated by Sarsfield's army. A battle reenactment will take place on Sunday.

Our easiest route to the jetty is over and round the bows of the barges.

This is one of the easier crossings! On some barges there is no way through, so it is a question of climbing over the rails.

Rambler was moored on the other bank. This barge was recently featured in a television programme, where she crossed the Royal Canal from Dublin to the River Shannon. She had been unable to return to the Shannon for 40 years until the Royal canal was reopened at its western end late in 2010. During the week four more boats were moored outside Rambler, and two more on the line in front of us, so the river was nearly bridged by boats.

There was plenty of time during the week for good craic. Donnacha is telling Andy how he lived on this barge when he was first married.

There is so much history behind all these barges, and no two are the same.

On Saturday there was plenty of entertainment at Jamestown Quay, starting with these drummers, who used one of the barges as their stage.

The River Rats Calendar for 2013 has been a great success. Thirteen of the boatmen have been painted for this calendar and we saw art in progress for an official launch today. We hear that there was an earlier launch in May, but who cares! The calendar can be found at shop.iwai.ie and all the proceeds go to the Irish Cancer Society.

Here are all the calendar boys, but with clothes on!

Photo call for Donna, the artist, too.

On Saturday night all the Jamestown villagers came to the party at the Quay, provided by the boaters. A good time was had by all.

The boats were all lit up, with an engine start and horn blowing to liven up the evening. Sixty+ boats can make quite a noise!

The children lit and launched Chinese lanterns. There have been activities for the children all week and small lifejacketed figures were very much in evidence at all times. It has been great to see.

The lanterns seemed to go up and away for ever.

On Sunday it was the turn of the village. The Jamestown Arch, which had to be taken down in 1973 after being struck by a truck, has been temporarily restored.

The dignitaries arrived in style today in this pony trap.

Next we all go to see the battle reenactment. The English army are preparing to fight.

Meanwhile the rebels are creeping up to attack from behind.

At one point there was a duel too, but in the end we are not sure who won!

The next development was an attack on the town by an army of barge skippers, armed with boathooks and oars. We did not see the ensuing battle between them and the army in the field, but hear that some of the rebels joined them to put the rest to rout. Did they change the course of history?!

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.