The week had been beautiful; sunshine all the time and 25 degrees. And of course the weather forecast was for it to break by the weekend. I picked Meara up from school at 3.15 with all the stuff packed and we headed off to Portumna. It wasnt a bad journey, meara snoring quietly in the passenger seat. We stayed in a nice bed and breakfast in central portumna and went for a walk, Its a nice place and we went for a 5 Km walk past the castle, the ruins and the harbour into the forest and down to the lake. Despite the sunset the wind was whipping across the lake and it looked a little bit choppy. The lake looked massive, another inland sea on a par with Loch Ree. As the weather was due to deteriorate we were a little nervous.
We returned to the town at about 7.15 for something to eat (in an irish/indian/italian restaurant!) and then into the pub next door to catch the England game. Then early to bed.
In the morning we got up and took the canoe and all the gear down to Portumna bridge, a few heavy rainshowers to accompany us. The wind didn't seem as bad as we expected. Had a brief chat with an eccentric old guy before heading off. Leaving the river and hitting the open water of a lake this size is always a shock. The first section requires heading across the head of the lake across about a kilometre and a half of open water. Although the waves werent enough to worry us we were canoing against the wind and waves, which meant we tired easier, but still managed to take a direct line away from the shore. After the first open section much of the route was along the eastern coast of Lough Derg, crossing a few bays, until we had to cross the lake again to finish. 
The lake was much less busy with cruisers than Loch Ree and particularly at the north end we felt a sense of isolation. We were soon into into our strokes and moving well. The lake was beautiful and we came across a number of little grebes and magnificent pair of great crested grebes popped up close to us at one stage. We took a rest on one of the large islands and found a beautiful spot in still water in the lee of the island, which was to become famous as the site where Meara won the plastic bottle keepy uppy contest final. The sun had come out and the weather for once was proving better than the weather forecast predicted. We had had few showers and the wind was not as strong as it had been on friday night. For the most part the water was relatively calm. We met a few fisherman stood waist deep in water with little tables in the water with them, but they were friendly enough.
After the lunch break we got a lottle lost on the map and were thrown by an inability to find a castle that was marked on the map. A couple of cruisers and speed boats came a little too close and we has a few up and down moments. As we came twards the southern part of the lake there were two large groups of sailing boats and we didnt fancy risking heading through them so crossed over the lake (again a km from either shore nearly) to avoid them. I wasnt really sure where i was so we pulled over to a small island on a headland and i used the GPS on my new phone. It worked perfectly and showed us dead on the little island, with garrykennedy harbour straight across from us. As we headed over the last section the water was calm and clear and we landed in the beautiful harbour just as Tracy arrived. We left the canoe on the harbour side and headed off to Limerick.
All day today I had been trying to get permission from the ESB to continue southwards toward Limerick through Parteen weir. Despite promises to ring me back and my leaving lots of messages it looked as if we wouldnt be able to do this stretch, which was a great dissapointment. I know a seakayaker had been through the lock at Ardnacrusha as I had seen photos but it looked as if they thought an open canoe a greater risk. They could have least returned the call.
We stayed in Limerick that night.
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