Shannon wild camp cruise

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SaltyDan

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Hi everyone.

I am planning to take my West Wight Potter 14 to Ireland in May/June and do a tour down the river Shannon, wild camping and fishing along the way. It looks the abundant lough islands will offer plenty of decent wild camping opportunities.

I would quite like to start in lough Allen (if I can find somewhere to launch and leave the boat) and finish in Killaloe, lough Derg. Is two weeks enough for such a trip I wonder? I will have to drive 7 hrs to Hollyhead, take the ferry, drive to start point, leave boat afloat, drive to end point, leave car and trailer somewhere, and return to start point on public transport... Although I expect that most of these phases of travel would be enjoyable in their own right.

If anyone could offer suggestions, recommendations or advice it would be much appreciated!
 
No suggestions other than to say that it sounds like a great plan and I'd love to do something similar! I've often thought about a cruise down the Shannon-Erne waterway and wondered how to do it without spending a fortune, and I think a very small trailer sailor would be great for the trip in a lot of ways.
 
Thanks MisterBaxter, I think so too! Also, looking at the width of much of the river, it seems that even the sections between the loughs should be wide enough to sail a small boat on given an appropriate wind.
 
I think the only concern would be that heading down river you're going south or south west most of the time and the prevailing wind is south west, so you might spend a lot of time beating up narrow rivers...
 
It's an interesting consideration. The main stretches would indeed be in the SW direction if going downriver. And from what I can glean online the river flow is slow, so perhaps best to go with the wind, which on rivers often seems to be either in your face or from behind.

I could perhaps make the final decision depending on the weather forecast at the time, although the idea of up-rivering now seems perhaps a better idea.

Also, Killaloe maybe a more convenient start point, and deciding whether I have time to explore both lough Allen and lough Key would be more sensible at the end of the trip rather than the start.

Am I overlooking anything? I am normally a "go with the flow" kind of person!
 
It might be worth getting hold of as much detailed seasonal flow rate information as possible - May or June might be early enough in the year to have a bit more water moving down river. As I understand it, big sections are pretty much unnavigable in the winter because of the rate of flow.
 
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