August 30: Mountshannon to Killaloe

After two comfortable nights in Mountshannon, we decided to head to Killaloe. At the southern end of Lough Derg, it would be where we turned around to head back North.

The weather was fine, and we passed numerous other boats as we made the one-hour trip down.

A calm day on the water

Sarah driving and navigating

 
Safety pups

As we approached the town, we saw there was space on the jetty on the upriver side of the bridge. Here I made a somewhat novice move. We pulled right up to the jetty and moored facing downriver. All the other boatds were moored facing into the current. While we have a canoe stern, our rudder was catching the eddies in the current, and we moved around a lot. Another lesson learned.

We took Andrea, who had napped almost the whole trip, and wandered into town. The first thing we encountered was a farmers' market. We went a bit crazy with shopping. There was a stand where we got olives, fresh mozzarella and some artisan balsamic vinegar and olive oil. For lunch, we visited a falafal stand.

In the afternoon, we took Andrea to do some shopping, and stopped at an Italian deli on the way back. It was so nice to be back in a larger town with good food!

We found that the shore power wasn't working, and thought to try the jetty on the South side of the bridge. The next morning, we decided to move over. The river was running high, and the opening to get under the bridge is fairly narrow. I tried to balance between going too fast and not having enough thrust to provide steering. I lined us up as best I could, but the current was sweeping us towards one of the pillars. So, I gave it a lot of throttle. This allowed me to gain control and overcome the strong current. It also meant that we went roaring under the bridge at about 10 mph.

We were the only boat on the jetty (rentals aren't allowed to pass the bridge), and there was access to a some nice walks through the woods. We did discover that this was the hangout spot for local teens, but they were all very polite. 

Our boat south of the bridge in Killaloe

 

Payton found a nice spot for a dip in the river.

We enjoyed dinner out the next two nights. We booked early and brought food for Andrea. We all ate together, and he did quite well. We didn't linger and were done just about the time that he needed to get home for bed.

Andrea taking us out for dinner.

On our second night there, a group of young men came down. Four or five were dressed for swimming. They took turns jumping into the water, while a crowd up on the bridge cheered them on. It seemed like some sort of hazing tradition.