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.

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.

On up the River Shannon to Carrick 13-14 April

It was too windy to sail this morning, with waves going upstream past the boat. We were only about 100 yards above the lock, so they had formed very quickly. After lunch we set off and under Tarmonbarry bridge, which has a lifting section for most boats, but we are low enough to go under it.

We sailed on upstream, through Lough Forbes, and on to Roosky Lock. Below the lock is a large development of new apartments with moorings on the river. However most of both the apartments and the moorings are empty. We had planned to go further today but found an attractive mooring soon after the lock. We had our own concrete platform with a wooden edge to protect the boat. There were steps up to the quiet road from the mooring and our own water tap too. Andy washed the cratch cover, after Sally had mended it, on our own piece of mown grass.

We walked to Roosky and found this attractive church, with cherry blossom, which is reminiscent of Japan.

Today there is no wind so we sailed on through Lough Bofin, Lough Boderg and Lough Tap. All of these are quite large lakes but are still part of the Shannon navigation. We met a working tug with three barges, the first two being welded together. At Lough Nanoge, which is merely a slight widening of the river, we go left into the Jamestown Canal. This short canal cuts through to Jamestown,via Albert lock, avoiding an unnavigable stretch of river.

Albert Lock is very attractive, with a flower bed on the approach, and red bollards all round the lock.

At the north end of Jamestown we found a wonderful mooring, just beyond the bridge. The wall was a little high so that Catkin had to be lifted up, but there were benches and mown grass, with bushes in flower beds. After lunch we played boules on the grass and planned to stay there.


However our peace was destroyed when twelve youths arrived with their fishing rods and their beer. As Sally came out to untie the bows, one of the fishermen started to chat.
Fisherman "Do you like Ireland?"
Sally "Yes, it's grand" (lengthening the a in grand as the Irish do)
Fisherman "Oh, you're from Dublin then"
Sally "No,we came from England a week ago"
Fisherman "Oh, whereabouts are you from?"
Sally "Norfolk"
At this the young man turned to his friend and expressed his displeasure in colourful language. Apparently he had thought that I said, "No f***" ! However his friend corrected him and he apologised to me.
His friend then took on the conversation.
Fisherman 2 "You are two lads on a boat then. Oh no, you are a lassie, are you not?"
I agreed that I was.
Fisherman 2 "Well it's beautiful that you are then, indeed you are!"

We sailed off and left them to their fishing.

We continued up the river Shannon to Carrick-on-Shannon, past a superb riverside development.

Carrick itself was not very exciting. This was our first short jetty mooring, but by using both middle ropes to separate mooring cleats, we felt secure.