#7: [22-May-24]

#5: [01-Aug-08]

#4: [28-Jun-08]

#3: [27-Feb-08]

#2: [09-Oct-04]

#1: [21-May-00]

08-Sep-2017 -- This is the 9^th out of 9 reports reaching confluence points during a one-week cycling trip around Ireland. The story starts at 54°N 7°W.

Coming from 53°N 8°W, it took me 5 hours to cycle 1/360^th around the world, including a lunch break in Roscrea and waiting for a thunderstorm to pass by in Stradbally.

Before I visited the confluence, I reached the lock from 1791 almost at the end of the Grand Canal where it meets the River Barrow (just 130 m from the CP).

The exact spot is right in front of a residential dwelling. The sideway of county road L8068 is in 12 m distance of the confluence point. I didn’t bother to disturb the residents and documented the confluence just from the sideway. The simple one-story house has a mown front lawn. The palm tree, documented in 2008 by Gordon, Ross and Dave is meanwhile gone. Therefore new cypress trees have been planted.

After the visit I made a little deviation to Woodstock Castle (800 m distance), Crom-a-Boo Bridge with its White Castle, and the monument of the famous polar explorer Ernest Shackleton who’s survival in Antarctica had fascinated me in my childhood.

I spent the night in the nearby town Newbridge and cycled to Dublin the next morning.

CP Visit Details:

• Distance of bicycle parking: 12 m
• Time to reach the CP from the road: 0 minutes
• Time at the CP: 4:08 PM
• Measured height: 61 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 12 m
• Position accuracy: 2 m
• Topography: flat
• Vegetation: lawn, cypress trees.
• Weather: thunderstorms, 14° C (felt temperature)
• Given Name: The Ernest Shackleton Confluence

The story finishes here.