Day Three- Hill of Down to Mullingar

Meara praying for an outboard motor...

The weather forecast for the past three days had been 'cloudy but dry, cloudy with light showers and showers with some sunshine.' In actual fact all three mean the same- clouds and rain with the occasional sunny patch. At least the first days had been still. Today unfortunately it was starting to get windy and inevitably the wind was blowing against us.


We had difficulty getting up this morning. Dead to the world, and so a little late in leaving and setting off. Hazel and family turned up to wave goodbye which was lovely. This stretch from Hill of Down to Killucan had clear water and was full of fish- huge shoals of them. Its also one of the most picturesque parts of the canal. The locks are pretty but with 8 of them in quick succession they became a horrible sight. The canoe is a 158 Discovery by Old Town, a lovely canoe for a family but when you have to keep taking it out the water and dragging it, its a little bit heavy.


We made great time on the first stretch; and covered the 13 km to Killucan very quickly. It was encouraging to be canoeing patches of the canal we were familiar with, having used them for training. Even better because I had left the map and waterproof bag in the car so we were canoeing blind.

At Killucan northwards there are eight locks in short succession. This section was really slow and soon began to take its toll on my legs. In many places you can see the next lock from the top of the last.

After Killucan you also enter peaty soil and the water changes to a reddish brown.


By one o'clock we were very optomistic that we were well ahead of schedule, which wasnt too sensible given that we had no map. 24km also seem a lot longer when you have to keep taking the canoe in and out of the water. The next section the water turned muddy brown and the weeds started to clog up the canal. We met Waterways Ireland staff later with a broken down dredger.

By three o'clock we had left the N4 and thought we were nearly at the pick up point. The wind, weeds and tiring arms meant we still a had a way to go. We did manage to overtake a motor boat on this stretch which was good for the ego. We finally arrived in Mullingar about 4.45. I was so happy to see the finish line, and so happy that having reached Mullingar we could have a rest day on Wednesday and a massage to look forward to tonight!