This is a RSS file. Copy the URL into your aggregator of choice. If you don't know what this means and want to learn more, please see: http://platial.typepad.com/news/2006/04/really_simple_t.html for more info. http://www.platial.comhttp://www.platial.com/map/Canoe-trips/52517 Feel free to post photos and decriptions of your canoeing exploits. Less paddling-with-the-kiddies-down-the-Dordogne, more strange/unusual/epic stuff. http://www.platial.com/post/2055956 Three or four boats, 6-8 people, tents and cooking gear. It was easy paddling: the occasional grade 2 rapid, some bridges with debris. There are river caves - at water level, and up on the bank where we camped.

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]]> 2007-09-08 03:40:11.109189+00:00 http://www.platial.com/post/2054714
It involved weeks of recconnoitering and checking tide-timetables against our main problem : the five weirs. We needed to catch the turn of the tide, so that we could ride it back up the northern arm under Patrick's Bridge, and on up past the shallows and the weir by the Maltings - to regain our starting point below the weir at the Lee Fields.
There were a dozen bridges,five weirs and a rapids to deal with - two hours, including the wait for the tide at Customs Quay Point. The Cork Examiner covered it - bringing everlasting glory to our little team, for a day. The trip wasn't epic by any means - though the fight back up against the current was exhausting. And the weir in the photo had a killer rotor.

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]]> 2007-09-08 03:11:03.595427+00:00 http://www.platial.com/post/2055959 There's snow on McGillycuddy's Reeks. The trip down through all three lakes is fascinating at every turn. The Upper Lake is my favourite: wilder and less visited, overhung by The Reeks and Purple Mountain (named for the screes of dark slate), and dotted with islands, one of which would make a great camp. Long Range is a stretch of river that links Upper to Muckross Lake, passing under Eagles Rock. Finding your way in to it is tricky - reeds mask entrances or turn out to be deadends.

A fast run-off in the mountainous catchment also means that in heavy rain the level of the entire Upper Lake can sometimes rise by up to a metre in a matter of a few hours.

We found a scuffy dank beach on the main lake, Loch Leane: dripping rhodedendrons out of place next to ancient rotund beeches. It took two of us to effect a tree-hug around one.

For once we were an all-male group - but we were careful to avoid any Iron John stuff, concentrating mainly on getting the damp wood to light, and getting a fair share of the whiskey.

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]]> 2007-09-09 04:39:12.908581+00:00 http://www.platial.com/post/2056606
The moon in the photo is real : none of us could explain its size.

Loch Allua is small, and its pleasures are small-scale too. There's an archeological curiosity - a little island encampment dating to mediaeval times or before, that was reached via a submerged causeway, known only to its defenders.
As you pass along the road from Inchigeelagh towards Ballingeary, after about three miles on your left hand side, it's easy to miss a tiny island situated about 50m. offshore. This crannóg is known locally as Oilean Ui Mhaothagain (Mehigan's Island) named either from a local chieftain or from meathain, Irish for twigs and saplings.
A crannóg is a type of ancient loch-dwelling, built on an artificial island, found throughout Ireland and Scotland and dating mainly from the Early Christian Period, but may be up to 5,000 years old. Many crannógs were built out in the water as defensive homesteads and represented symbols of power and wealth, and some may have been used well into the times of recorded history. It is not unusual to find evidence of jewellery being manufactured on these islands.
In its original state it probably carried a wooden building supported clear of the water on stakes. A raised walkway may have joined it to the shore.
I have added a couple of examples of crannógs in Scotland, restored after considerable archaeological investigation, based on the excavation evidence from the 2,600 year old site of 'Oakbank Crannóg', one of the 18 crannógs in Loch Tay. One summer, of unusually low water levels, I explored the site. It was a tangle of low trees growing among stoney ground. Visible part way around were the stumps of staves, preserved in the acidic peaty water.

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]]> 2007-09-09 02:00:24.102814+00:00 http://www.platial.com/post/2056653
The Gearagh essentially forms an inland delta, where the River Lee breaks into a complex network of channels (2 to 6m wide) weaving through a series of wooded islands. It is the only extensive remains of Alluvial Forest found in western Europe. It is a unique place of streams, narrow channels and small islands.
Here are found some very rare plant and insect specimens which have been investigated and recorded by famous naturalists and scientists since the 19th century. There are 100's of species of flowers, plants and ferns. During the autumn and winter months migratory birds arrive in vast numbers and flocks of wild duck, snipe, woodcock, curlew, lapwing and swans can be seen on the islands. I watched an otter diving repeatedly for eels, and eating them floating on its back, the eel held in its forepaws.
The Gearagh can also be a very dangerous place - it is very easy to get lost, there are deep areas, muddy banks and floods do occur regularly. The photos with the cows show us completely lost and having to haul the boats across several semi-flooded fields to find a road.

In latter years the Gearagh has achieved a certain amount of fame as a source of poitin ('potcheen') - a highly potent raw-tasting alcohol brewed from malt syrup or molasses in illicit stills. The last time I ran a RiverTrek weekend, the weather turned - after a couple of capsizes I called a halt a few miles short of the end. We pulled the boats up high, and struck off across fields in the dusk. The house we stumbled on turned out be that of the elderly brother and sister who I used to buy my poteen from. They welcomed all eight of us, warmed us with a 'hot drop' - and drove us to our cars. The lower part of the Gearagh was flooded to form a reservoir for hydro-electricity - the stumps have all the gloomy horror of a 1st. World War battlefield.

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]]> 2007-09-09 04:24:39.250916+00:00