The Hawthorn Blog

'Have you ever been up Mountain River?' It's a question we've been asked on numerous occasions and, until very recently, one we could only reply 'not yet' to. Well we've now been up, and returned with more questions than answers.

As long as it isn't crowded with boats and the weather is favourable, there are few overnight moorings more peaceful than the jetty at  Clonmacnoise.  Or so we thought when intending to do so Friday last.

Fireworks on the river in Carrick on Shannon prove tempting, so we take a late dinghy run from Jamestown.

Someone's moved the barge at Jamestown...

Dirty doings at Dromod? Not really: Waterways Ireland have just shifted the pump out.

Just a very quick update of some changes we noticed when passing through Rooskey.

 

I'm sure we're not alone in not being able to look at a thin blue line on a map without wondering if the dinghy will fit, and if it does how far we'll be able to go, but here's four 'minor' rivers we've played on recently.

 

The joy of being at one with the river's flow returns as we move away from Athlone. Shannon Harbour and Banagher are exotic enough for our first few days, and we have friends to see, work to do, and bridges to survey.

A run to Lanesborough sees us try the Steamer Channel for the first time. We head up the Inny River and cycle to join the HBA.

With a need to visit Portaneena Marina to do a little work we make the most of a glorious winter's day for a brief cruise. The CSIG project goes from strength to strength.

 

Some praise for Athlone, and the joy of shore-power.

We continue to return south down the flooded Shannon. Hawthorn copes well with the high water levels, and Waterways Ireland's staff look after us - a combination that delivers us safely to Shannon Harbour in good spirits having enjoyed a run we'd anticipated being more than a little hairy.  

We move again, upstream to Carrick on Shannon and then down to Richmond Harbour. There's high excitement at Jamestown, and some testing times on the River Camlin.

If you're a subscribed reader to this blog, you might be wondering what's happened to the email notification - sadly the last upgrade wiped out all the saved subscribers and you may need to subscribe again. I believe the RSS feed is as was, should it not be you may need to re-subscribe to that.

Apologies - it's all way above my limited computing skills!

Possibly because our first contact with the Irish boating public en masse was at the Shannon Harbour rally back in 09, we've always had a bit of a soft spot for this gathering and, having missed last year's when we were down the River Barrow, we thought we'd return again this year. There is a theory, and one we normally practice, of not returning to an event, or occasion, with high expectations of enjoying it as much as previously. Would this rally match our memories?

We cruise downstream to Derg, where we are joined by a family visitor and do 'proper' tourist things ourselves for once. Having spent a few days exploring the Burren we return to boating on Derg on what is the hottest weekend in three years.

We return to the Shannon for a run to Ballyleague. The river is quiet, but there are lots of small boats about with men in yellow jackets and fancy GPRS units - they're surveyors, which could be very bad news in the long run. At Ballyleague we cope with the least dog friendly access ramps we know. And I fix a window.

A day out with a difference brings a little adventure and some thoughts to ponder before we decide on a winter destination. We visit the National Ploughing Championhsips yet somehow manage to take shelter in a waterways environment!

A windy day on Ree and a lunatic hire boat make life interesting on the Shannon. We arrive at Shannon Harbour to find the quay walls still jammed but the new live-aboard moorings free...

A summary of a few weeks wandering around the northern end of the system. We strike a rock and get rocked by a speeding boat.

Another upstream run on the River Shannon. This time we pause to explore the fort at Shannonbridge. Onwards to Richmond Harbour, the Camlin River and into Carnadoe to undertake some work.