14th - 19th August. Up Lough Ree to Lecarrow and Portrunny, then on to Ballyleague and Richmond Harbour.

From Athlone we set off towards Lough Ree, pausing for a break at Hodson Bay, as the weather was getting worse. However, it cleared up in the afternoon, and we had a calm journey on up the lough. Shannon enjoys resting on the roof, fitting well into this corner at the stern.

She moved inside later on though, as the sky became really threatening again, but there was no more rain.

Along the Lecarrow canal it is obvious from the banks how low the water level is at the moment. The weed has been cut recently and is no problem in the navigation channel. Shannon is inspecting it all carefully!

The harbour at Lecarrow was nearly full, but we managed to moor across the bows of a cruiser, with our bows against the wall. We could get off the roof of The Puzzler on to the harbour wall. In retrospect, we should have ignored the No Mooring sign on the pumpout. It would have made access to the bank a lot easier!

In Lecarrow we went to see Nellie's Rock. These are ancient Dolmen Stones, where a poor woman is reputed to have reared a child under the shelter of the rock. The Yew Tree restaurant in the village provided us with an excellent meal, and this was followed up by music at Coffey's pub. Most of the boaters from the harbour were there.

Moving on to Portrunny, we met up with Gerry and Ann again, and there was good craic all evening.The next day they left us, but new friends, Brian and Elaine arrived with Silver and Magic, two lovely retrievers.

Once again Shannon did her "roadkill" impression. It was the Heritage boaters in Athlone who likened her to this! We thought it was rather unkind!

We left Portrunny late on Sunday, once the wind had lessened, and the sun lit up Dog Island as we sailed past.

Clouds behind us gave a strange effect, but again we avoided any rain.

We moored at Ballyleague overnight, leaving  the barge 4E there when we left to continue up the River Shannon.

We left the River Shannon below Tarmonbarry, to go along the Clondra Canal and up the lock at Clondra. This lock mooring was under water when we came down Clondra lock in the spring.

Our summer lockkeeper wasted no time in bringing us up the lock!

Noel moved his boat up to make room for us, on the lower mooring below Richmond Harbour.

29th - 30th April From the Inner Lakes across Lough Ree. From Athlone down the River Shannon to Clonmacnoise.

We stayed by Coosan Lough for three nights and loved the peace there. One small speed boat came through the narrow entrance to the lough at full speed, which was a bit bouncy. Let's be charitable and think that he did not see us tucked in behind a tree. However as he returned at the same speed later, perhaps not!

Our return journey across the south of Lough Ree was much calmer than it had been on the way.

We paused briefly in Athlone for a shopping stop. Shannon enjoyed watching the town as we sailed past.

This swan had built her nest in a very safe spot, on a small island in the river. She will be fine so long as the water does not rise much higher. We have never seen as much water in the Shannon as there is at present. It is well out of its banks, and across the adjoining meadows. We are told that, as a dry spell of weather is forecast, the water is being retained in the Shannon basin by the Ardnacrusha Dam, rather than being allowed to flow away naturally. In this way the water will be available for hydro-electricity later in the summer. This policy naturally annoys the farmers, who would like to be able to use their riverside fields for their stock. The idea of dry weather sounds good though!

Further downstream Clonmacnoise is as impressive as ever. This was a monastic settlement founded by St Ciaran in about AD 545. It grew to be a great monastic city, famed throughout Europe, but suffered attacks by the Vikings during the 8th, 9th and 10th Centuries. It was also attacked by Irish Kings and then by English soldiers in 1552, and the churches were in ruins by the end of the 16th Century. It is well worth a visit.

There were some fishermen at Clonmacnoise when we arrived, and this one was delighted to catch a pike, which weighed in at 21 and a half pounds! It put up a real struggle, and almost caused a problem for a German family on a hire boat. While the fisherman was working the fish in the water, he was on the end of the jetty. The hire boat approached, wanting to moor on that jetty, even though the other side of the mooring was nearly empty. The fisherman firmly waved them away and carried on fighting his pike. Eventually they went round to moor on the other side, but were a bit grumpy about it. Once the pike was out of the water it seemed quite resigned to being held up for a photograph, and to being weighed. You got the impression that it had been there before!

The afternoon light was shining on the ruins of St. John's Castle, which lies quite near to Clonmacnoise monastery. This castle, was built in 1214 by the English Judiciar, John de Gray. The ruins can be seen of the gatehouse, courtyard and keep, which were destroyed by an explosion, many years ago.

23rd - 28th April. On down The River Shannon, across Lough Ree and into the Inner Lakes.

From Leitrim we joined the River Shannon. It is quite narrow at first but soon widens out into a seriously wide river. Going through Carrick-on-Shannon there are very few hire boats out, and there are not many private boats on the finger jetties there either. it is still early in the boating season. We go on as far as the end of the Jamestown canal, where we join Inis Cealtra, a Waterways Ireland workboat. He has been working on marker replacement.

The sloping bank above the mooring is a good place for exercise.

All the black markers on this part of the Shannon have been replaced with green ones, which are much easier to see. On the approach to Dromod there is a wide curve of green markers to follow, which keep boats out of the shallow water. However we heard of two private boats which were seen to go far inside these markers with impunity. With a depth sounder, much more of the loughs, beyond the markers, would be safe for us to explore.

When we arrived at Dromod, it was quite busy, but several hire boats left before dark, presumably being on a tight schedule.

As we sailed down the Camlin River, the weather to our left was lovely, and we were glad to be going in that direction.

Eyes right and it was a different story! We did manage to reach Clondra before the rain arrived! The weather generally is lovely sunshine then really heavy spring showers.

Shannon enjoys helping in the galley.

Coming along the cutting towards Clondra lock, we can see the hills beyond the lock. This lock at Clondra is operated by the Tarmonbarry lockkeeper, so he cycles down to find us, as soon as he is free to do so. He was disappointed not to find a Carrick cruiser there too.

At Lanesborough there was a fine collection of barges. Three of us will be making our way down Lough Ree, as soon as the wind is favourable. We had a great evening on Talitha II, with lots of good craic.

We left the harbour at Lanesborough at 6am, and enjoyed looking back to see the sun rising over the turf fuelled power station.

Waterways Ireland are making a new floating jetty off Warren Point, near to Rindoon, which can be seen on the land behind the workboat. This was the site of of a very early Norman town, dating from the early thirteenth century. The remains of a massive stone castle include the ruined tower, curtain walls and a gatehouse surrounded by a moat. It will be interesting to come here later in the year, and use our dinghy to go and visit the ruins.

The wind followed us down Lough Ree, so we had quite a comfortable crossing. The waves looked worse out of the window than they felt!

Going diagonally across the lough from marker 3, we reached the Inner Lakes within four hours, and found the narrow entrance to Lough Coosan, among the reeds. This entrance only becomes visible, once the boat is level with it, and you begin to wonder if it is still there!

We took this wild mooring, looking out on to Lough Coosan. What an idyllic place!

April to July 2012. Update on our route on the Waterway Maps of Ireland.

In 2012 we left Enniskillen in April and went to the south through Upper Lough Erne.Turning westwards, we then crossed over to the Shannon on the Shannon-Erne Waterway. At Leitrim it was a detour to the north to visit Lough Allen. We missed this desolate, but attactive, lough last year as the weather was never suitable when we were passing. Next it was on to Lough Key, with a visit to Boyle again, before continuing on down The River Shannon.

Our original plan this year was to go on to The Royal Canal at Richmond Harbour, and do a there and back trip along the Royal, but not go into Dublin. However there was currently a water shortage on the summit level of the Royal Canal, so it was closed to navigation. Because of this we headed on southwards, through Lough Ree, with a trip up the River Inny and on past Athlone. At Shannon Harbour we joined the Grand Canal to go eastwards towards Dublin, planning to turn back at lock 12, and then go to see the River Barrow, before returning along the Grand Canal to the Shannon. We managed to go down the River Barrow for about a third of its length before having to turn back, due to too much water in the river. The plan now is to complete the Grand Canal to Dublin, then return to the Shannon on the Royal Canal.

24th - 28th May. Down Lough Ree to Barley Harbour, Inny River and Quigleys' Marina

On leaving the mooring below Richmond Harbour, we have to back out and wind below the lock.

Then it is on down the Clondra canal to Clondra lock, having rung the lockkeeper to ask for a passage through the lock. The same lockkeeper also operates Tarmonbarry lock and the Tarmonbarry road lifting bridge so he is a busy person. We were told that he would be there in about an hour, which he was. We tried, and failed, to fit The Puzzler into the lock with a hireboat to pass the time while we waited.

Below Clondra lock we rejoined the River Shannon and sailed on to Lanesborough, where the bridge leads us out on to Lough Ree.

On Lough Ree all the black markers have been painted green since we were here in the autumn. It certainly makes them much easier to see.

The lough is calm this afternoon, except when boats overtake us at this speed! It is amazing how much their wash throws us about.

Barley Harbour is a lovely mooring to visit on our way down the Lough Ree.

Andy spent the rest of the day sunbathing. There were a lot of lads swimming in the harbour until quite late and they then sat and chatted loudly until 9pm. Apparently the crowd the previous evening were there until the early hours of the morning, so we got off lightly! Near Barley Harbour is the studio of Martin Casey, who made the bog oak sculpture at Dromod. He has done some lovely work.

We set off early next morning, to beat the wind, which was forecast for later in the day. Despite early sunshine, it became quite misty on the lough, and we had to go from one marker to the next, as we could not see further than that.

We reached the Inny River and found that it was much wider than expected. We had been told that we would need to back down to the lough to turn! We carried on to wind just before Red Bridge, which is a couple of miles from Lough Ree.

This is just like a river mooring in England! There has been glorious sunshine all week but we were very glad not to be out on the lough with the winds we have had.

We inflated Mini Puzzle, our dinghy, and carried on upstream beyond Red Bridge, which is the limit of navigation.

We carried on up the Inny River for about three miles.

 The yellow flag irises are in full bloom now.

These horses were surprised to see us going past.

The sun was nearly down by the time we returned to The Puzzler.

We made an early start to return to Lough Ree, as there was not a breath of wind. On this section of the lough, which is new to us, we had to be careful to follow the markers, as the safe channel winds behind Inchmore Island and back to the centre of Lough Ree, before heading southwards again.The water was like a mirror, it was so calm.

After we reached Quigleys' marina, the wind became quite strong, and it was not very comfortable, as the boat bounced up and down. However we were pinned to the jetty by the wind so had to ride it out.