26th May - Rahan to Daingean

Another hot sunny morning in the 70sF, 20sC and I am writing the start of this post after a fairly late breakfast. The keeper of the next lock is expecting us at 10:00 am. Its 10 am now and the next lock is 30 mins sail away, beside Ballycowan Castle, locally fondly known as Biffoville, Irish people will know why. Interestingly this is also listed as a refuse disposal point, very handy.

Oh, oh, the lock keeper is on the phone asking where we are ... as we may be the only boat on the canal today. So, it is time for us to leave our docking point in front of The Thatch ...

10:55 am we are off, and have learned our lock keeper of the day is young John Canty ...

11:15 am, oh, oh, smoke belching from the engine and smothering us in fumes,Mbr /> urgent pull in to the bank.

Alas, no marine mechanics around in Tullamore. The one mechanic is away on vacation awhile. I suppose there is not much call for boat repairs around here yet, though we did pass one boat from the other direction before we belched smoke.

I had an idea that our prop may still be full of weed, so I started the motor again, put into full throttle reverse and indeed a huge buch of weed emerged and surfaced. 12:00 noon, and we are on our way again. Engine sounds a lot smoother and there is no smoke :-)

1:00 pm, and we have reached the lock by Shra Castle that will let us to enter the Tullamore surburbia, but there are two more locks before we are into Tullamore town.

From here on passing through locks is going to be frequent.

Lock keeper John said he will not be here until 1:30 pm. I assume its to take a lunch break as he will be quite active with our locks needs through the afternoon.

2:10 pm, and the lock keeper John returns.

So for the afternoon it was short cruising stretches through the canal surburbia of Tullamore, another lock, etc.

During the stopping times I did attempted maintenance as Claire phoned people "in the know" for instructions. Weed filter was cleaned and the broken water cooler tank was plugged with a towel.

When I checked to see if the water cooler tank was ok the boiling water from the engine gushed up. Thanks so much to my wide brimmed hat that totally prevented a whole face scalding.
Not a scald at all.

It was also very windy during the time of going through these locks. Kenmor is a very light boat and very responsive to wind and the gushing of water being let into the locks.

At one point Claire found her arms were not strong enough to push the boat away from the lock walls, so she tried another part of her anatomy ... and it worked. Before long men who have refered to a woman's exclusive anatomy as bristols, hooters and the rack may be adding "fenders" to their vocabulary.

Of some interest to us was the passing of the Tullamore Dew distillery and warehousing building, now a visitor's centre ...

and some of the elegant canal side houses ...

overall a very interesting stretch of urban waterway ...

5:30 pm, at last we have passed through the other 7 locks through Tullamore.

At the 7th of these locks was this big heritage boat coming the other way, only the second boat we have seen on our journey so far, but this took some maneuvering around.

and the lock keeper's cottage here, at Lock 22 on the Grand Canal, Cappyroe Bridge,
is quite unique ...

6:00 pm, arriving at the next lock, Lock 21 just before Chenevix Bridge at Ballycommon. Past the other side of this lock, our friends Corrina and John are here to greet us, and pampered us with a picnic basket of cakes and other refreshments. We decided to moor up here for awhile and indulge.

John also armed with tools rolled up his sleeves and started work on a temp repair job on our broken engine water tank. Corrina and Claire went away to shop for more supplies for the boat.

John had to go back home to get more tools and materials so I used this time to investigate and explore the junction with the now closed off Kilbeggan branch canal.

Yes, there are ducks here too ...

This closed canal branch was once important for transporting supplies to and from the active Kilbeggan distilleries.

It looks like this was once a pretty canal. Towpaths are still in tact and are signed and styled as walking paths.

The old lock keepers cottages are still here, empty.

Oh, I've been away awhile exploring. John, Corrina and Claire have returned
and are waiting for me ...

As I crossed the bridge, looking into the garden the other side I saw this.
Is it a real well or garden ornament?

No time to ask the owners, I am being called.

As I approach the boat I see my first kingfisher of the journey, those beautiful blue and orange birds. We had been told that we will probably see several. Alas, I could not get this one on camera. It flew to perch on the well I had just taken a pic of.

Back at the boat John had completed a stunning temp repair job on the cooling tank with an arrangement of a few pieces of wood holding the cap down tight.

7:30 pm, after a few more snacks and tea, we set off from Ballycommon with Corrina and John on board. The cruising now is very smooth and with the evening cooler sun very pleasant.

8:40 pm, arrived and moored up at Daingean.

We had been told about an excellent restaurant here,
so after a change of clothes off we all went to dine.

Sadly, the restaurant was closed, as was most of the businesses of Daingean. On our journey so far we had already heard several tales of businesses closing, young men heading off to Western Australia for work, and this breaking up the local hurling teams by taking away their stars.

This is still a pride here though, the town was all newly painted, full of flowers and very clean. It seems they have won awards for this, but I did not find out what. There are posters promoting an upcoming 5 day festival in August that looks as if it will be incredibly lively.

For food, all that was open was a fish n'chip shop, but outside there is a friend of John and Corrina's who offered to drive us up to the local golf club where good meals are served.

Alas, it was one of those chefs that stops cooking and serving at 8:30,
so back to the fish n'chip shop it is.

The "friend" was also friends with what seemed to be the only pub that was open, a pub with many rooms. She arranged for us to have our own social room to eat our fish n'chips with a couple of beers, so a merry social time we have together. Why I do not have photos of this unique time,
I do not know

11:00 pm, it's dark, a good time had, taxi ordered to take John and Corrina home, and Claire and I returned to the cozy boat for the night, certainly not feeling hungry.

25th May - Shannon Harbour to Rahan

9:00 am lazing around on another warm (hot in Ireland) day here at Shannon Harbour.

It is a little cooler due to haze and some breeze but its still going to be in the low 70sF, 20sC.

It is indeed a relaxing space between the two locks of Shannon Harbour. At first, we are not sure where the town is but here, where we are moored, there are many trees and many singing birds. Surprisingly, no ducks as they usually congregate in a place like this.

We are not on a marina or mooring but tied to a grassy bank. There are several wide stone cursus' here, too wide for walls. I am sure they are ancient. I thought about going back to take pics but really something like this needs an aerial shot.

Before setting sail we decided to explore around the village awhile. The first thing that strikes our imagination are the ruins of a canal-side hotel here. This indicates this was once a major leisure destination.

From here we decided to see what extra food supplies we could hansel for our ships supplies. The village has one store, well a pub with a grocery store combined, a touch of old Ireland remaining.

We are curious to see if we could purchase some prepared food for lunch, considering the Shannon Harbour sign carries the spoon and fork symbol, indicating food ready to eat and catered. Our discovery is that frozen pizza could be heated up and served. Enough to warrant the village earning the catering symbol on their sign, we thought.

That aside the people here full of courtesy and hospitality, and maybe there just is not the catering demand here that we may believe there is.

Claire and I are not sure what our destination goal is today. I don't think we have one.

We have already discovered this is not wise to do on the waterways.

For some reason, Thomas Roche wrote very little about their travels on the Grand Canal

Thomas Roche finishes his journey log with "At Shannon Harbour we enter the Grand Canal, picturesque but disturbed by the noisy motor barges which ply day and night".

Those industrial and commercial barge days are now gone and Shannon Harbour is at peace now, though there is an artistic melancholy of some abandoned boats. Boats of once loved times that are slowly becoming a very intimate part of the water and lush banks which will eventually make them invisible.

Shannon Harbour is now a quiet place, but not as derelict as when Thomas reported.
People do live here.

And some of these boat residents have made themselves completely at home here ...

Thomas Roche actually finishes his report of the entire waterways triangle with a single line about their entire Grand Canal adventure, "We drop down by easy stages to Inchicore and return through the city (Dublin) to the Liffey at Ringsend."

9:55 am we set off from our mooring between the locks of Shannon Harbour, but stop awhile on the other side of the second lock. We need to charge our phones and iPad, that is recording this journal. We can do this at the lock keeper's office.

12:00 we leave Shannon Harbour

12:10 pm arrive at Clononey Bridge lock and meet our entertaining lock keeper of the day,
Alan Wynne.

12:30 pm left Clononey Bridge lock.

12:50 pm arrived at Belmont Bridge and pass through the slightly complicated double lock
by 1:50 pm.

Time for lunch.

We pull in at the moorings at the other side of the locks, where lock keeper Alan has his well equipped kitchen and office with a sofa.

Alan invited us to charge up iPad and phones for awhile during lunch, as they had not been fully charged at the Shannon Harbour office. Alan's session of telling us stories of the canal and people of the canal, made sure we were here long enough for our gadgets to be fully charged.

3:15 pm we are on our way again.

4:30 pm pass under the Noggus and Armstrong bridges. The landscape changes from straight canal bordered by grazing farmland to a kind of winding river with woodlands and remains of ancient buildings.

6:00 pm we pass through Pollagh. Some friends had raved about here and its wonderful pub. At one point we thought this was to be our destination for the day. I'm glad it is not. This is, from what we could see from the canal, a modern building village with the pub having the ultra moderm look ... so we sail on.

I am attracted to a field with a row of elegant horse chestnut trees here, though.

6:20 pm Arrive at Cornalour bridge lock, two locks here, the second nearby a few minutes away at Ballincloughin Bridge.

6:50 pm Time to say our farewells to our amazing lock keeper of the day, Alan Wynne.

7:30 pm We arrive by The Thatch outside of Rahan, Co. Offaly. It does not seem as if there is anywhere to moor up, so we keep sailing.

Further along the canal, and with a desire for someone else to cook and feed us this evening, we turn around and returned back towards The Thatch pub. Indeed, this time, we discover an ancient stone mooring hidden within the grassy bank rightin front of the pub.

7:50 pm we are moored up outside The Thatch pub :-)

The Thatch pub, which does not have a thatch any more, was once a wayside inn owned by the local Corcoran family of landowners.

By the mooring is an old warehouse and remains of other buildings that made up a kind of trading posts in the area. It looks like it was never a huge traffic trading area but adequate for a rural stop. During 1838 it is recorded that 350 people stopped and used the facilities here.

Entering The Thatch we are hopeful of a meal and beverages. The menu is pizza, chips, chicken dijons and sausage rolls.

Pizza and chips it is but, to the delight of locals, beer is 3 euros a pint here.

The landlord and the people here are the kindest, friendliest and helpful that can be. Its actually a major venue for music sometimes. Upcoming are Lisa Hannigan and Aslan. In the past they boast they had Oasis perform here.

Tonight is supposed to be traditional music night.

One man turned up, intriguingly called Paddy, and played tunes brilliantly on the pub's own guitar. Overall, it was a good social evening of jokes and stories.

The Thatch is a "real" Irish pub, the type that visitors to Ireland rarely find because its not in a place or an area that they will visit ... yes this is deep in real Ireland where there are many more hurlers than leprechauns.