Back in May, when Ireland was under cloudless blue skies and enjoying a bit of a heat wave, I decided to take off for a short adventure on my paddle board.
After checking out the Waterways Ireland website, which is a great source of information, I decided on a couple of days paddle/camping trip along the Royal Canal.
The Royal Canal is approximately 145km and was built for freight and passenger transportation from the River Liffey in Dublin, west across the country to the River Shannon. Work on the canal started in 1790 and lasted 27 years, when it eventually reached the Shannon in 1817.
So, I packed my gear up and drove down to Dublin. Starting point was the 12th lock at Blanchardstown, as I didn't fancy making my way through the city, either by car or SUP.
The restaurant that is at the 12th lock was closed down, but no worries, I had someone to take my car, as I didn't want to leave it parked there while I was away. This turned out to be a good idea, as there was a group of men, already merry from the contents of their blue bags, that seemed to reside in the area!
Pumped up the board, loaded it up with kit and onto the water. Relief it floats! This was the first proper stand up paddling I would have done. I'd only done a couple of laps of a local calm lake to 'find my feet' beforehand (after first watching a couple of how-to YouTube videos!!).
Off I paddled, down the canal in the warm evening sun. Starting in the evening, I'd only have a couple of hours paddling before setting up my tent for the night.
Plenty of people were out walking and jogging along the towpath, a few were very inquisitive as to what I was doing and where I was going!
After a short paddle away from the lock, the canal goes into what is called the deep sinking. This is where the canal narrows and cuts through the rock running a lot lower than the towpath above it.
Unfortunately, there was a family of swans in front of me and I couldn't get round them before the deep sinking as they kept swimming forward. Swans look massive when you're on the water level with them. They're also quite intimidating when splaying their wings and hissing at you!
I dropped back and gave them some space, they had no way to get off the canal, as the sides were 30 foot walled banks. Every so often I stopped for a bit, as the wee baby signets were paddling like mad and I didn't want them to get too exhausted! Once the canal opened out a bit, it was wide enough for them all to go to one side and feel safe enough to stop and I was able to then get past them and on my way.
The sun was starting to go down and it was a lovely hour paddling in the dusk, before arriving at the Royal Canal amenity site. There were a few fishermen on the bank and a couple of dog walkers on the path as I came in to the jetty to get off my board. I put up my tent in the small grassy area behind the shed, had some food then got into my sleeping bag.
Only several kms from where I started, but it was good to get the feel for the board with the weight of my kit on it and practice my paddling techniques!
DAY 2 HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment