opencanoe

Hi all,

This post details a trip in an Old Town Discovery 158 open canoe in July 2009 down the River Barrow.
Also mentioned is an aborted trip down the Blackwater. Co Cork.

Advice was kindly given us in advance on these forums here ; http://opencanoe.freeforums.org/touring ... 8.html#192

I hope the details below will be of use/interest;

The Barrow;

Photos here; http://www.richhorn.net/river_barrow/

We had a lovely time, spending 6 days coming down the 50-odd miles from Athy to New Ross.
Going was pretty slow, we weren't in any hurry, we took 2 days off just sitting by the river with a nice fire in beautiful spots. No-one bothered us.

Before launch we stayed at Forest Farm camp-site in Athy initially. Which was large, empty, cheap and with good facilities. They also let us leave the car for free while we were on the river.

We launched from the centre of Athy – a nice easy pontoon to set out from.

The scenery was pretty, if not stunning and we found good camping spots every night. Firewood wasn't plentiful higher up the river, the further down we got the more there was.

Although the river was full what with all the rain, the flow was pretty slow (this due, of course, to the river's management with weirs and locks), with only a few exciting fast bits.
The weirs were the main excitement.
The water was high, and we had a full canoe – two of us plus full gear, drinking-water etc.
We tried the first two fully-loaded but were swamped with water both times ... a bit hairy ... we were too heavy to shoot them without unloading one person and some gear which we did from then on down. This wasn't generally a big hassle as the locks made it easy but it did slow us down and meant that only one person got the fun of it!
The weirs were straight-forward enough with a lighter load but still had to be approached with caution!

The river is tidal from St Mullins down. We spoke to the owner of The Mullicháin Café by the bank there who kindly let us camp – which was just as well as there were no spots lower down with the tide low as it was. We left then at the crack of dawn which got us to New Ross at a high-ish tide. We landed at the boat club on the right-hand side of the river which was very convenient and the owner was very helpful. With the benefit of the boat club's pontoon, we could have landed at lower water had we needed to, I imagine.
Claire then waited with the boat while I caught the bus to Waterford, the train to Athy, a taxi to the camp-site and then drove the car back to collect her.

All-in-all a wonderful trip/.


The Blackwater;

Well, we had to abandon the planned Blackwater trip due to the amount of rain. We were warned by several locals that the river rises and falls very rapidly and floods its banks even in the summer. The word 'treacherous' kept coming up.
A great shame as it looked like a joy of a river from the safety of the bank (we drove the length of it) – good flow, fantastic scenery and plenty not-too-hectic white water. It was quite a lot bigger than we had imagined and very wide after it turns south at Cappoquin.
Disappointing.
Still, there's always next time.

Thanks again to all who offered advice on this forum – it was very useful.
We will come back to Ireland to canoe again – hopefully it will not be quite so wet!