roemin around

Amazing. Not a cloud in the sky to start the day, but the first shower had kicked in by 10 and they continue all day. Too windy for fly fishing from the shore but not for spinning. This time I caught a pike, a tiny specimen by pike standards at 18", but my first ever. Man 1 - Fish 1.  There are a pair of rare white tailed eagles on Bushy Island which is just off shore from where we are pitched. I spotted them with binoculars this afternoon but they are too far away for a decent photo. A couple of trout fisherman walk past our pitch on their way from the boats to the caravans. They are drenched, this is not my sort of fishing. An Irishman on a small (25ft'ish) sailing boat boat in the sites small 'marina' caught an eel - definitely not Rosemarys sort of fish!

Left Loch Ree  and drove south crossing the River Shannon twice, at Shannon Bridge and Shannon Harbour. We stopped at Clonmacnoise an important religious site on the Shannon since 900AD with many well preserved celtic crosses. Several tourist busses in the car park and the sun even came out briefly here. Next was the northern point of Loch Derg at Portuna where the Shannon joins. We finally reached our weekend destination, Lakeside caravan site , at Mountshannon. A really well laid out site with wooded clearings and lakeside (Loch) pitches. We chose the latter and are currently being battered by rain and strong winds off the Loch. Hope to do a bit of fishing if the weather will allow. Rosemary made a fish pie without using an oven. Another gastronomic first.

Well it's raining on and off again, so we are off again. Went into Athlone, a large town with a shopping centre. I had a Costa coffee while Rosemary shopped at Tesco. Then we parked by the castle and had crepes at a small cafe and did the tour round the castle. Very informative multimedia history of Athlone and the castle. Drove north along the west shore of Loch Ree to Galey Bay site. This was to be my first go at fly fishing. Just man versus fish and the fish won! Well at least I had an hours casting practice, until I broke my fly and it rained again.

Drove around the Burren after leaving Doolin and on to Loch Ree just skirting Galway. Took the M6 to Athlone and did it rain! The small site on shores of Loch Ree was awash but we found a bit of hardstanding and it eventually stopped raining. I was determined to do a bit of fishing but not for long, it was cold and windy. A local fisherman told me about the how poor the fishing has become - not what I wanted to hear. Zebra mussels are eating all the plankton and Poles are catching/netting and eating all the fish!

While the UK has been basking in sunshine, rain and low cloud has been sweeping in off the Atlantic since Friday, spoiling the local holiday weekend here. We have moved north today to Doolin on the wild west coast close to the famous Cliffs of Mohar, so more rain no doubt. Doolin is the Irish folk music capital so we went to Fitzpatricks B ar for a Guinness and enjoy some folk music in the bar. First session was a solo singer with guitar and later a typical scratch group of friends (8) with a couple of fiddles, accordion, flute and assorted instruments. Very enjoyable for an or two but it got very crowded later.

We took the van out to the Muckross Estate and had guided tour of the house (rather boring). The roast beef Sunday lunch was excellent and we strolled a bit of it off in the gardens which were much more interesting. However it was a rather murky day with a cool wind off the lakes so we returned to site mid afternoon after a brief stop at Ross Castle. Evening watching a bit of English TV and blogging. Hope weather is better tomorrow, can hardly see the mountains today!

The morning started with soft rain, the sort you cannot see or feel but soaks you anyway. It dried up later so we walked into Killarney. It's a  pleasant touristy town with lots of bars, an imposing catholic cathedral and a friary. Not to mention a fleet of jaunting carriages to wisk you off to the nearby attractions in the park. It was the weekend of The Rally of the Lakes so lots of noisy boy racers in town and various road closures in the national park. We tried to walk thru the Killarney House gardens but they were closed due to the damage from fallen trees in a big storm a few  weeks ago.  We walked about 5 miles overall and I got the satellite recriver working when we got back in the evening.