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Published: June 30th 2016
Waiting at the lock
Wearing the waterproof jacket so it must have been the last dayThis post is a little different. It isn't just about us. This time there is a group involved. Not a tour, just a group of people who came together to sail up, or down, the Shannon.
It all started on the Mary River in the Northern Territory of Australia too many years ago to remember. The Mary is a very big river in the tropical Wet season and still big enough in the Dry season that you can drive a houseboat about on it. A group of people who worked or played together, or just knew each other met every year early in the Dry season and float about. Some played cards, others slept, read books, some occasionally fished, others just counted the crocodiles – and the Mary has more than any other river in the world – and everyone ate and drank good food and drink to their capacity.
Some of us are a little older now and no longer work for money, while others, of course, remain gainfully employed. Many of us no longer live in the Territory so it seemed to make sense to share the joy with other rivers. Last time it was the Murray
Early morning at Terryglass.
We were in the boat on the right, the name of which is hard to pronounce if you try to read it but easier if you just listen. (in Australia). This time we decided on the Shannon.
Just eleven made the final cut. The rest just couldn't make it. The requirements were precise. We had to make our way to the Northern Hemisphere and agree to meet for the same week to hire a couple of penichettes to drive up and down the Shannon from Athlone.
We picked up our boats and were given a briefing on how to drive and operate them by the staff of Locaboat at Lough Ree upstream from Athlone on the Shannon. The boats had the capacity to accommodate a few more people but we were comfortable with six on the larger and five on the smaller boat. All needed to understand how carry out the basic tasks of tying up and casting off the boats from moorings and the basic rules of river navigation. Each boat had a nominated skipper who was the most experienced boat handler and who could take charge when the need arose. We were lucky to have Bill and Tony along.
Provisioning for our previous trips on the Mary was a major matter. There were no towns or villages out there. Food and drink to
What building?
In-joke after this was the response from a number of people we asked about the purpose of the big building 'over there'. Turned out to be the peat-fired power station at Shannonbridge. last for the period of the cruise needed to be purchased, cooking rosters were organised, increasingly elaborate menus were developed by some crews, ice and large eskies were a major consideration. The Shannon was different but there were occasional echoes.
There are towns and villages everywhere in Ireland, particularly along waterways, and very few seem to be without a pub or two or more. There were supermarkets as well. Provisioning was really only required for breakfast and for food to allow grazing during travelling or when sitting in the sun, or discussing the excellent work of the skippers and crews in dealing with the occasional locks and the docking of the boats.
Champagne, though, was an issue that seemed to require constant attention. Our champagne drinkers had very specific needs, or, to be a little more accurate, some required really good champagne. You can get really good champagne at towns along the Shannon. Athlone, Shannonbridge and Banagher all provided supplies. It was indeed excellent and, being excellent, was consumed with fervour. There never seemed to be a time when the champagne drinkers were totally convinced that there would be enough to survive the next stage.
The wine
Family outing
So why aren't they called swanlings? drinkers found supplies readily available in off-licences or supermarkets in each of our stops and, of course, every pub provided Guinness and other local beers so some remained happy and relaxed for the whole time.
Pub food is what it is, some better than others but mostly pretty ok and available in most pubs along the way. There were some outstanding meals along the way. The Thyme Restaurant in Athlone served excellent food and had a very good wine list. The Fort in Shannonbridge was a surprise. It didn't really look the part from the outside but the food served was of very good quality. We made it down the river as far as Terryglass on Lough Derg and had the chance to try the Derg Inn which has been awarded commendations as the best 'Gastro Pub' in the province and even in Ireland I think for a couple of years. We had to get over our first Australian interpretation of a 'gastro' pub but it was a very good feed.
I would note that we had a discussion with the publican at the Derg Inn about Guinness. He made the point that the process of pouring of
Bit cold on the water
No rain doesn't necessarily mean warmer temperatures! a pint of Guinness has a clear effect on the taste and quality. We took the opportunity to test his assertion and I can confirm that whatever he was doing he was right. I believe it had a lot to do with clean lines and, possibly, what he cleans his lines with.
It wasn't all about food and drink. Music was a player as well. Banagher was the pick. JJ Hough's pub was the location. We dropped into Banagher on the way down the River and again on the way back and on both occasions some of us went to JJ Hough's. This pub claims to have music every night. The publican is a musician and a good singer. On the nights we were there we enjoyed a concertina player who was an excellent musician and a big, young bloke with a guitar and a great, gravelly voice. It was a lot of fun.
Killeen's Pub in Shannonbridge deserves a mention. It was a lovely little pub that was established over 200 years ago – if I have it right – and in the same family for the last 96.
Handling the boats was relatively straightforward. As
Calves
Lots of baby things along the river I noted earlier, we had at least one person on each boat who had experience, albeit with smaller boats. This helped a lot but the river is not difficult. The current can be strong in a couple of places but it is by no means wild. The channel is well marked and there is plenty of room for the number of boats moving about.
It is useful to understand the protocols of the river. With a lot of boats on the river during the first couple of days – a bank holiday weekend – it was necessary for boats to tie up alongside each other. We hadn't struck this before although we had seen it done. It didn't take much to work out how it all worked. The locks had lock-keepers and it was all very simple to work. It would have been more work if we had had to open and close the lock ourselves but there are none of those on this stretch of the Shannon.
All of this was very different from our times on the Mary. There the only real drama was in ensuring there were no large crocodiles hanging about when you hopped
Old shed
Gradually being eaten by the trees off to tie the boat to a tree or a star picket. On the Shannon we passed through green fields occupied by fat and happy cattle, with the occasional people fishing from the banks. Swans were in abundance, most with a squad of cygnets in tow. The cobs (males) were aggressive to anyone or thing that looked like it or they could cause danger to the brood. The pens (females) just swanned along looking proud. Ducks, mainly mallards, and herons were also about, along with smaller birds, mainly on the shore.
The major attraction is the River, of course, but along the way we passed both Portumna and Clonmacnoise. The latter is a well known and popular site established in the 6
th Century by Saint Ciaran. This is a major pilgrimage site for many and attracts many boats and buses. It is an impressive site and most would spend a few hours viewing the displays and wandering among the ancient churches and gravestones. Entry was the fairly normal 5 Euros for seniors. We did visit at a time before the bulk of the buses arrived. There is a dock at Clonmacnoise but no pub or food establishment here. We
looked after ourselves very well.
Portumna is an attractive town but we had stopped there to visit and a quickly organised guided tout of a Workhouse that has been restored as a museum to show how a major part of the population lived and were treated during the period from the late 1830s until 1920.
Workhouses were a form of welfare. They aimed to feed and house people who could not do so for themselves. They were designed to be unattractive. Only entire families could enter a workhouse but when they were accepted they were separated. Men and women were split up as were the boys and girls. A woman with a baby kept it for a while but it was removed from her sooner than sounds sane these days. All very repressive.
You would only enter a workhouse if you were absolutely desperate and sadly, at that time much of the population of Ireland was in desperate circumstances caused by the potato blight and the greed of most of the landowners. Unfortunately, such places and policies have their counterparts in some of the more ridiculous policies in place these days in relation to those who are
in desperate straits.
The Bridge at Shannonbridge was constructed in 1757 to connect Counties Offally and Roscommon. The Fort was constructed by the English during the Napoleonic era. Shannonbridge was having a celebration when we docked there. We were able to see our very first donkey derby and our first tractor rally. Tractors of all sizes and shapes all gathered together, people had a chat and perhaps and drink and drove off again. Tractors on the roads are a topic we will get to again in this series of posts.
We can't end this post without a mention of the famous Irish weather. There is a tendency for the weather to get bad reviews and, to be completely honest, it can be pretty crook at times. For our week on the Shannon it was as close to perfect as you could ask. Sun every day and all day until the very last day as we moved to the final mooring. It rained then but just so that we could experience that facet of the weather. As someone pointed out, you can't return from a trip to Ireland and say you missed out on the rain.
I am
Towering
over David and Bill pretty sure that the group all enjoyed their time on the Shannon. We certainly did and look forward to gathering again sometime, somewhere in a similar sort of place for a similar reunion.Time soon for the thinking caps to come out so we can start listing the possibilities.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Perfect Project Management
What an outstanding story of friends following tradition. Life is too short to drink cheap champagne! Life on the river, stopping at the pubs, enjoying the music, friends and foods. Sounds like a perfect adventure.