Back to Discussion Board

Touring advice

Posted by Rich Horn on 20 April 2009

Hi everyone,

The girlfriend and I like to get out for a few days at a time with our Old Town Discovery. We like getting out into the wilds, a nice flow but not too mad (Grade 2-3 sufficient), a bit of fishing, a bit of wild camping.

We are visiting Eire in July. Can anyone recommend some good touring water for us? We are heading to Carrick-on-Shannon to visit the relatives first, so thought we would spend a few days coming down the Shannon, but a little concerned that it might be busy with motor boats etc.

Any advice very welcome, or a pointer to other forums?

Thanks.

Reply

RE: Touring advice

Posted by Paul Flannery on 21 April 2009

Hi Rich,

I paddled down the Shannon last Summer, from Carrick-On-Shannon to Ballina / Killaloe at the bottom of Lough Derg (200km approx).

There are plenty of opportunities for wild camping, or if you wish you can camp alongside the public marinas and avail of their facilities, local restaurants, Pubs, etc. Other river traffic won't be a major problem, and there are some nice towns and villages to visit along the way.

River conditions should be generally calm. However, you do need to be wary on the two big lakes - Lough Ree and Lough Derg - they can get quiet rough in windy conditions, and it is possible to get a little disoriented in mist / fog conditions. A compass is useful, even on inland lakes.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip, and I can highly recommend it. There was also another German couple doing the same trip in a Klepper fold-up canoe, and there was good camradarie with the other river users met along the way.

Any questions, you can contact me directly at paul_flannery@hotmail.com

Best of Luck, Paul.

Executed 1 queries in 0.24543309211731 seconds Average query length: 0.24543309211731 seconds Queries per second: 4.0744301893977 Longest query length: 0.24543309211731 Longest query: SELECT `postsDetails`.* FROM `postsDetails` WHERE (category LIKE 'page')