Tony has done sterling work on the book in my absence, managing to complete the Liffey, Boyne and Inny during the winter, much of it in high and cold water.

I am heading over to Ireland (hooray!) on Weds. 29th for a week, and we are certainly paddling the Erne through Loughs Gowna and Oughter, and looking forard to camping on islands in peace and quiet.

It will be a welcome change from a whole winter inside for me! There have been some higlights - paddling with Griff Rhys-Jones early last November, my last pre-op trip, for his ‘Rivers’ series, to be screened sometime later this year. The story of the programme filmed in Scotland will be a coast-to-coast trip, west to east  - no, he didn’t paddle it! It is a series of waterside stories along the route. The canoe trip we did was on the Tummel, down to Dunalastair reservoir, a super place, he paddling with my friend Mary Conacher, me behind paddling Ross, the producer, then the camera crew in a rubber dinghy (no comment), and then the safety canoeist.

The story was of them paddling safely through a blockage of trees there is at one spot, needing to be removed for safety. Griff then paddles off by himself with Cadbury, his dog, (having dumped Mary?) .

The end of the trip, with bright autumn sunlight, a snow-covered Schiehallion in the background, blue water, and autumn clours, was fantastic - should be good T.V.

In early March, on crutches, I attended a meeting of the Welsh Assembly Petitions committee, which met at the Scottish Parliament (yes, I know, confusing). The committee had received a petition from canoeists in wales over their lack of access to water, and had come north to hear of the Scottish experience. An interesting experience, the idea progresses, as the committee basically agreed that the current situation in Wales is untenable. Watch this space, a long way to do still.

All the best, back soon, after the Irish trip!

My Board Director role with the SCA is both about overseeing the Access Officer job, and trying to watch ahead for strategic issues and problems. Luckily, recent events have all been enjoyable.

On October 1st and 2nd, we had a visit by Peter Bottomley, M.P. (as in Westminster M.P., we have MSPs in Scotland) , brought up by Tamsin Phipps , English Canoe Assn, to see in person what our access situation is in Scotland. Peter has an all-party role in keeping an eye on sport, and is in interested in both canoeing and rowing, and since the Olympics this year, we have had a lot of attention in Scotland. (Don’t forget that all three of the GB slalom team were Scots!).

On a beautiful atumn day, with blue sky, warm sunshine, and an early frost, we took Peter down the Tay in an open boat, five of us in the whole group. According to noisy troublemakers in England, opposed to any loosening of the access situation, the Tay was ‘a maelstrom of undisciplined canoeing and rafting, chaotic and disorganised, with massive disruption to fishing’. Well, on the busy Edradynate to Grandtully stretch, on a day of medium water, and according to our contacts, very good salmon angling, we saw NO canoes, kayaks or rafts, and ONE angler!!

The point was made. We also showed Peter our slalom site at Grandtully, and our campsite. (I managed to paddle grade 2-3 sitting down)

On Oct. 9th, Mike Dales and myself did a filmed piece for ‘Landward’, the Scottish equivalent of ‘Countryfile’, up at Loch Oich in the Great Glen, to publicise the new Canoe Trail in progress. Windy day, very dodgy, trying to paddle upwind with an inexperiecned bow paddler, and a cameraman sitting inthe middle! Turned out ok. A radio piece for ‘Out of Doors’, a BBC Radio Scotland early Saturday morning programme was also recorded, and I thought was better.

The next day, my paddling buddy Mary Conacher and I spent a day with the Producer for Modern TV, planning to do one of five programmes in Scotland for the next series for Griff Rhys Jones, on ‘Rivers’ (after ‘Mountains’). This was on the River Tummel, this one programme illustrating the west to east coast route on water that I have done once, and is very tough. Filming is in November, so watch this space!

October 25/26 has seen the annual Canoe Exhibition at Perth, Paddle 08, so had the pleasure of seeing my publisher! A great weekend, and I sat solidly for two days on the SCA stand - good to catch up with Franco

 Back from a really enthusiastic and rousing evening in Kendal, Cumbria, showing my Scottish Canoe Classics programme. A super venue at the Brewery Arts Centre, organised by entrepreneur Robin , and with a few Irish slides at the end to whet appetities.

An audience of 127, which makes the journey worthwhile, and a repeat somewhat of the experience at CanoeExpo 2008, which is now a long time ago (largest audience there for any talk, which just shows to go that there is a market for helping new people into canoeing).

My audience on Wednesday night did appear to have many starting canoeists, of varying ages, and all they wanted to know was if the scenery in Scotland was as good as rumoured! Actually, that is a bit inaccurate, some wanted maps as well (point taken), and the questions were very good, mainly about access, especially wild camping i.e. what is, and is not, allowed.

I am now busy negotiating other dates, probably Keswick in March, but others in England as well. Tony and I will hit the road in the Spring with talks on the Irish book as soon as it is published, Tony obviously likely to do any Irish dates (he’s very good!), unless the gate is so large that it can be afforded for me to fly over as well.

If any readers are keen to find out how to host us for an evening (a canoe club could be a very viable host), then please contact me through pesda as per. for any other comment

Look forward to seeing you

Eddei Palmer

September brought a visit over to the Liffey descent, my role this year being photgraphy, as I was certainly not fit enough to kneel in a boat for over 17 miles. The whole eventwas amazing, over 1,200 paddlers, and the traffic was either awesome or awful!

After a tiring day for Tony, who with Paul Carroll from the White Water Club, came in 13th or so in the open canoe event, very creditable, we then on the next day had to go and paddle the Inny, as we hadn’t covered it for the book!

Time has now zoomed on to mid-October, which feels incredible.

The text is finished apart from some detail on two routes, we are debating (our word for arguing) about which mammals, birds or fish we should write about to intersperse in the text, and maps are nearly all done, we have obtained permission from OS Ireland to use their maps etc. etc.

 The final choice of photos is the next large job, and due to Tony’s professionalism, we have some super ones. It is always a problem, the choice of photos - lots of grassy riverbanks which all look the same, or one’s mates messing about in boats, which also look all the same? The answer is a subtle choice of lannscapes, moods and weather, using colour, light and cloud……with the odd canoe in the scene.

 Today (Oct. 14th), I am off to Kendal in Cumbria to speak to an audience aat the Brewery Arts Centre about ‘Scottish Canoe Classics’, with a the first few Irish photos at the end.

 More soon!

Eddie

We left Tony’s car at Belturbet , and the river was racing ,with creamy waves over a brown river, between the bridge arches and over the small weir. The cruiser pontoons below the bridge were awash, and even getting out above the bridge seemed a problem. Ah well, we said, the river will drop (no, it didn’t!).

I won’t go into great detail on the trip - it will all be in the book, but apart from the fishermen (all friendly on the loughs), I don’t think we saw anybody on the land for three days. The Erne was also an interesting challenge - suffice to say that we came across problems at all four of the white water hazards on the river, weirs so high that the tails went high into the trees, and were unshootable for that reason, a l  ng portage at Carraclevin Weir and bridge, al ot of branch sawing (the river was completely blocked in two places) - but great fun!

 Lough Oughter lives up to its reputation as a lovely spot, but camp sites were difficult due to the height of the water. We didn’t get lost - the answer being the OS map, and reading it! The passage around Inishmore at the north end (we took the narrow, easterly one) was not narrow, but like a lough.

And finally, yes ,we did land OK at Belturbet - open canoes can break out fine, even when heavily loaded.

What I can muse on is the contrast between the Erne system once over the border, all facilities, good maps, parking, campsites etc, and in the south, well…..nothing much, although the wildness is attractive.

The whole Erne river and lough system is a fabulous, at least 7 days-worth of paddling, and one of the best trips in Europe. Would be good to see it all linked up, with a bit more help especially with vehicle parking and campsites? I ask the question, not criticise!

We did other stuff as well, looking, photographing, and spending time down near Arklow at Tony’s new place. The Boyne is in as a great paddle, the Meath Blackwater is too small. The lakes in the midlands add up to a great holiday centre for paddling.Only a very few routes left now! We should be on schedule to finish the book by about the end of August.

 Also, on to other issues. An e-mail has gone to Irish governemnt agencies to ask of their definitive statement about acces to water in Ireland. The replies should be interesting

I did write quite a lot a week ago, and it disappeared into the ether, although the photos posted did survive. Well, it’s quite a long time since I added anything new, but the book is progressing!

My sore knee was really sore by the time I got to the end of July (more soon about what I was doing). Without making this a medical treatise, I had suffered several specific injuries to one knee over some years, and had a cartilage operation on it 18 months ago. Went back to my G.P. in late July , saw the same consultant in late August, and was told I needed a partial knee replacement soon, so am on the waiting list. I have no cartilage, or anything else, left between the inner bones in that knee.(so is is painful!).

This led to me having to cancel a planned trip back over to Ireland about now (nice autumn colours for the photos!), but Tony is carrying on, paddling some of the waterways still on our list. I can’t drive much, or walk, or paddle a kayak, or kneel in a canoe, so you can see my limitations.

Back soon

Eddie

My, time flies – it is now May, I have been over to  N. Ireland, and I have not yet finished writing up the April trip!

I travelled up the Blackwater valley on March 31st – lovely river and scenery, and met two Gardai, who warned me that camping on the river would be challenged, and that the Fermoy to Lismore stretch was heavily guarded due to European Protected Species (so what, we paddle these areas in Scotland?). However, they didn’t say “don’t paddle”.

I spent the next day working my way back to Tony’s house at Maynooth via the Slaney (lovely little river), and the Barrow – see why it’s popular! The day after I looked at both of the main canals, the Grand out to Tullamore, and the Royal to Mullingar.

So, lots of mileage, lots of photos, lots to think about.

Between May 1st and 5th, I travelled over to N. Ireland with Mike Dales, our SCA Access and Environment Officer, on a trip paid for by a donor for us to find out about how the Irish were tackling Canoe Trails, and their infrastructure and maps and guides. A full account will appear in ‘Scottish Paddler’ due out in July this year, but we had a great time, real hospitality, great practical help (boats lent to us everywhere), and really helpful information. There are currently four trails; Lough Erne, Lower Bann, Lough Neagh, Blackwater, and a fifth to come, Strangford Lough.

We arrived at Belfast international on the Thursday night, and on Friday 2nd, met two colleagues at Toome, and paddled the first part of the Lower Bann. Then saw various points on Lough Neagh (large sheet of water!), and followed the Armagh Blackwater all the way down, lovely little river. After spending the Friday night near Castlewellan, we paddled Strangford on the Saturday, bit of a shock to me after so long away from sea paddling! The inner lough was fine, although the tide runs fast, but the Narrows were running at about 7 knots. A bit interesting in the afternoon, with wind against tide on the ebb.

Then we trekked over back west to Fermanagh, to stay two nights with Rob Henshaw, he of four circumnavigations of Ireland (kayak, wind surfer, dinghy, Drascombe), and a recent transatlantic sail. A day and a half on upper Lough Erne – fantastic! – the account and photos will appear in the book, but really superior touring canoe territory.

Since then – a weekend canoe sailing on Coniston, Lake District, and last weekend the Scottish Island Peaks Yacht race – life is just sooo busy!

For everyone’s information, I set out below the gist of a very helpful e-mail received from Albert Smith, of ‘Keep Ireland Open’, earlier this year. Albert expressed frustration at the uncertain current legal situation, but said the following;

The canoe union of Ireland made a submission to Comhairle na Tuathe (Irish for the Countryside Commission) in January 2006. You will reach it at the following address. Pages four and five deal with access.

Download the sumbmission to Comhairle na Tuathe as a PDF.

Unfortunately, the access issue in Ireland is a fraught mess. Comhairle na Tuathe has proved completely ineffectual at dealing with it – largely because landowners do not see that they have any interest in negotiating with stakeholders who, under the existing dispensation, have virtually no rights and, therefore, nothing to negotiate with.

This suits the farming organisations just fine and, in the absence of any political will to legislate for access, they can afford to say no to virtually everything and get away with it.

Sadly, there is no statute which ‘governs’ access to Irish waters. There is a great hodge-podge of English and Irish judge-made law and a clatter of ancient statutes, which frequently contradict each other. There is no enabling legislation. Indeed, a seminal High Court judgment in 2006 (Lenoach vs Collen) held that there can be no public right of way to any point unless a landowner puts in writing his intention to dedicate it to public use.

This has effectively put all of the custom and practice rights of way in the country (the kind which many canoeists typically enjoy) in jeopardy. Because it was an appeal from the Circuit Court, it could not be further appealed and we (and you) are stuck with it – even though the judge behaved oddly throughout the case, ignored an completely misrepresented key evidence in his judgment and died of a brain tumour shortly afterwards.

The reality is that we are a long way behind both Scotland and England and Wales with regard to access. This did not matter until recent years as there was generally such an easygoing attitude to leisure users that it was seldom a problem. However, that is no longer the case. Access over private land to lakes and river banks, as much as mountains and even ancient monuments, is increasingly a matter for conflict. The canoeist can argue custom and practice but, given the Lenoach judgment, is on shaky ground. What is needed is a complete overhaul of the law. It is for that we in Keep Ireland Open continue to struggle.

You may be able to get a better update on the position on the river bank from the phone numbers attached to the Canoe Union submission.

Sorry if this sounds a bit negative, Eddie, but there is no point in misleading you.

Ireland is a fantastic place for outdoor pursuits. But there is virtually no legal protection for those enjoying them.

I hope this helps people. For those outside of Scotland both interested and curious about our very 21st century situation, I would only add that nothing moved ahead on water until ALL recreation interests agreed to work together, so that the Ramblers etc supported us. Also, we were in a very new political situation, with a great opportunity. As an outsider to Ireland (except my family came from Ireland), I would keep on stressing the financial/tourism advantage of canoeing.

Regards to everyone

Eddie

It’s interesting that in 17 days in Ireland (north and south), travelling 2,000 miles, and having been in 26 counties out of the 32, we saw no open canoes on cars, and only 2 vehicles with sea kayaks on.

I wanted to get the Blackwater experience down quickly so that anybody might make comments on it.

The start of the story was in early April when I went up from Waterford for a day to see if there were any obvious difficulties. I had paddled the river as a teenager in either 1964 or 65, on a family holiday when my younger brother and I joined an organised holiday party, run by an Irish company. The Blackwater was obviously at that time both a major river, and a very likely contender for the most popular in Ireland – so what happened? I had tried internet sites during the last year, but found only fishing sites – ominous? I had also spoken to paddlers, e-mailed the ICU, and on this visit gone and spoken to both local people, and also tourist information offices, who had neither information, or knowledge.

(A note here – if we had been told that we couldn’t do something, according to Irish law, we would have respected it – i.e. ‘when in Rome…’ )

At Lismore I met two Guards who were looking into a theft from a car the night before. We chatted for a bit, and they soon told me, not that one could not paddle on the river, but that the area was heavily ‘preserved’, and that camping on the banks was not on – they said that people at night had been removed by them if the landowners (mainly Lismore Estate) accused them of poaching (this being by either people from Cork City, or travellers).

They looked a little bemused about canoeing on the river, but their advice was that it was vehicle parking, plus walking on the land without permission that caused problems. They advised paddling straight through, and only stopping on public land.

So, on Monday June 16^th, I met with both Tony, my Irish companion, and three friends from Scotland, at the cottage they had rented for the week at Ballyhooly, between Mallow and Fermoy. Our plan was to do a day above Mallow (this turned out to be right – the river was at a June low, and only possible from Banteer at the highest, (24 km, 16 miles), a day from Mallow to Fermoy, both easy towns to launch from, (33 km, 20.5 miles), and then a long day to go down from Fermoy to Cappoquin (35 km, 22 miles), as I had already determined that both Ballyduff Bridge, and Lismore bridge, on this stretch were impossible to reach the river from.

So, how did we get on? Well, before my moans, let’s recount the good points;

• All the local people we met were very friendly and helpful, and interested in these strange craft (very few had ever seen an open canoe).
• The only people we met who were actually angling (four in all!) were OK.
• There were no ‘No Canoeing’ signs.
• We called in at the campsite at Fermoy, the only one on the river, and the owner was both helpful, and very interested in having more canoeists – he said he had a small trickle of people paddling calling at his site.
• Tourist information at Fermoy (closed when I called in April) is run from a fishing tackle shop by an English woman! She was asking for more trade in the valley, and hinted that the area was a bit backward in many ways – the outdoor activities brochure she had for Kerry and Cork has a white water kayaker on the cover!
• The only points on the river where there is fly fishing (you can see by the strimmed banks) are very limited (out of 92 km!) – 400m at Ballymaquirk bridge at the start, about 800m. between Killavullen and Ballyhooly, and then a few km (2 or 3?), around Ballyduff.

However, we met a real jobsworth at Ballymaquirk Bridge at the start, and all of us were disgusted that this guy, from Yorkshire, kept talking about ‘my river’, ‘my country’ etc. He was a disgrace. Basically, he told us to bugger off, and kept harassing us. (We ended up ignoring him, and refused to talk after a few exchanges).

Amongst the things he said, either to us directly, when three of us were waiting for the other two to do the car shuttle, or to my wife, who luckily had driven them back, and was not leaving a car there (she stayed on the bridge to take photos) were;

• This was a private river, and he ran that part for the landowner.
• We would disturb fishing for the whole day (no one was fishing).
• He got rid of canoeists by persecuting them, and eventually they got the message.
• It wasn’t an idea to leave vehicles there – they got damaged (we knew already).
• We were disturbing the gravel in the river (no, we did not), and there were salmon eggs there (no, there wasn’t, this was June!), and this was an offence.
• ‘Strangers’ were not welcome in these parts - they wanted no visitors (apart from anglers paying to fish, presumably).
• Canoeing is an extremely environmentally unfriendly activity.

Apparently, as we set off, he used his mobile phone to contact two mates downriver – we met no one (in fact, in three days on the river, we met no one!).

So, it appears for a few measly kilometres of river, if that, one person can frighten off part of the tourist trade, in an area that is palpably poorer than many parts of Ireland, and get away with it!

The river is absolutely beautiful, well worth it, not built up at all.

So, what do you think?

I hadn’t really said before, but the only guide of any sort we had found to use was the very old ‘BCU Guide to the Waterways of the British Isles’,and the post-war version of 1960s kept refering to information from Ireland in the 1930s! It is quite remarkable that in fact most of the info was correct, and then in some places, as on the Nore, some former weirs, bridges etc. had just disappeared.

We started off in good spirits - warm sunshine, easy to get to the river, an immediate line-down the large weir, whose tail wave would have swamped us. Again, high water and a good current.

The river was kind to us, interesting small rapids, confusing information on obstacles (maybe some were covered), and at a rest at a broken weir (as in photo) two white water racing kayaks bizarrely shot past withuot a word and disappeared. A bit strange that they didn’t say anything, or wave, as we were the only paddlers out!

An unusual apparant broken weir, with two centre concrete bits holding trees, but easy both sides, and then a sharp bend to the left, a small old weir, anglers, and Thomastown appeared. The weir was quite off-putting, fast, with a definite route down the right side, and the need to avoid soem large waves. We managed it fine, shot through the bridge, and then started down the attractive wooded valley to Inistioge.

The valley lived up to expectations, really attractive, and we had a tea break halfway down, with the canoe bobbing about in the fast curent on its tether.

Tea and cakes were consumed after we had done the shuttle. Then, back to Tramore, for another super meal. The surfers were again just returning from the amazing beach at sunset.

Tomorrow, Tony would have a business meeting in Waterford and then return to Dublin, and I would set out to explore the Cork Blackwater in preparation for our summer holidays. The day after, I would work my way back up to Maynooth, and then spend the Wednesday moving ono ut to the Midlands.

So, prospect, photograph, record, and work out when to paddle the water, and where from to where.

( At this same time, back home a detailed canoe trail guide of the Great Glen was appearing on the SCA website - my colleague Mike Dunthorme and I had made it! - we had planned on writing it during January and February, and March for a map to be completed, and the PDF placed on the site.

To view it, go to www.canoescotland.com, then go to ‘Access and environment’, and scroll down)