getting lost on my way to cork

thefuturehead

or avoiding that...

i'm driving down to cork from dublin for a gig tomorrow night - only driving a few months though and not in any great rush to get lost or stuck in traffic. any tips? i'm prone to making dumb mistakes but have to make it to this gig on time or my mates will do bad things to me.

biko

Drive on left side of road.
Leave extra early as you will take a wrong turn somewhere.

Jimbo

Follow the signs, is a pretty straight forward road.

JohnnyChimpo

go down the straight road until you get to cork?? jesus christy brown

Dave!

Take a map with you

thefuturehead

yeah cheers johnnychimpo - i realise the question sounded a bit stupid - i meant more particularly if there were particular spots on the way that might be bad given the weekend that's in it

Sierra Oscar

Just watch out for the Gardai - you can bet they will be out in force this weekend due to Paddy's weekend.

Rhyme

Print off an AA Roadplanner thingy (http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/routes/) and leave early. Jams and such will crop up in a ton of places, an early start will let you bypass a lot of them like Cashel and such.

Gran Hermano

Getting lost and not arriving in Cork could be seen as a win-win situation

leninbenjamin

DaveMcG wrote: »

Take a map with you

somehow i think this concept might be a bit alien to the OP...

Dudess

It's a straightforward but very long drive. I'd recommend you don't get too wrecked tonight. What part of Dublin are you coming from? I'm not familiar with going by the M50, I always go the Heuston Station route. But either way, once you get to Citiwest, it's pretty much a straight run. Urlingford, County Kilkenny is halfway and boy do the locals capitalise on it! There's a couple of garages which I'd say are absolute goldmines. Josephine's (an institution at this stage) has a petrol station, shop and café. Plenty of parking there too. Not fancy but not a horrible kip either. It's been done up over the years and is not a bad place at all.

Gran Hermano wrote: »

Getting lost and not arriving in Cork could be seen as a win-win situation

Meh, jealousy. A terrible affliction...

Rhyme

Dudess wrote: »

Josephine's (an institution at this stage) has a petrol station, shop and café.

Their breakfast menu isn't great to be honest but when you're that hungry, it's solid gold.

There is a little café in Durrow (Laois) called the Copper Kettle, great food.

Dudess

Never thought about that - but then I've never done that journey early in the morning.

Yeah, Durrow's pretty much halfway too - it's not long before Urlingford. The bus sometimes stops in Durrow as an alternative to the 'ford, as it's affectionately known - well by me anyway.
I've a bit of an attachment to the 'ford. Once came out of the shop only to see my bus trundling down the road, so I was stuck in Urlingford for over two hours til the next bus came (at least I had my bag with me). I became quite close to the auld place during that unforgettable time between 2.15 and 4.30 one drizzly Friday afternoon in October 2005...

invincibleirish

M50 Red Cow-M/N7 to Portlaoise-N/M8 to Cork

Oh pray to be when the rest of the M8 opens, Tipperary, Kilkenny & Laois ( or fields,Sheep & crappy little towns with traffic jams as they are also known as) good riddance!

if you are a learner take non Motorway routes to Cork (like everyone else;)), whatever crazy R roads they are.

Kold

What's on?

Voodu Child

invincibleirish wrote: »

if you are a learner take non Motorway routes to Cork (like everyone else;)), whatever crazy R roads they are.

Bad idea. Learners and crappy roads don't mix. Stick to the motorways. Dublin-Cork is a straighforward but long drive. You might get lost once you get into Cork, but it'd be near impossible to go wrong on the way down. Take your time and drive safe.

Kold

voodoo_child wrote: »

Bad idea. Learners and crappy roads don't mix. Stick to the motorways. Dublin-Cork is a straighforward but long drive. You might get lost once you get into Cork, but it'd be near impossible to go wrong on the way down. Take your time and drive safe.

Are you allowed on a motorway as a learner?

Supercell

Gran Hermano wrote: »

Getting lost and not arriving in Cork could be seen as a win-win situation

Oh how I lolled bai

emeraldstar

Kold wrote: »

Are you allowed on a motorway as a learner?

No

Stephen

Saw some L-plater trundling along in the hard shoulder of the M8 today, heading towards Cork. :rolleyes:
Some people need protecting from themselves.

PaulKK

voodoo_child wrote: »

Bad idea. Learners and crappy roads don't mix. Stick to the motorways. Dublin-Cork is a straighforward but long drive.

In fairness that may be the case, but its still illegal for learners to be on the motorway, and with the gaurds out in force this weekend, perhaps not ideal to be on the motorways as a learner.


In fairness, as long as your not in a 1l car and you know the shortcut around abbeyleix etc when its busy, its not that long a drive. You'd be talking about 3 and half hours max from the red cow to cork city, allowing no holdups etc. The new dual carraigeway from cashel to cahir and the Fermoy bypass really speed up the journey.

invincibleirish

voodoo_child wrote: »

Bad idea. Learners and crappy roads don't mix. Stick to the motorways. Dublin-Cork is a straighforward but long drive. You might get lost once you get into Cork, but it'd be near impossible to go wrong on the way down. Take your time and drive safe.

You miss my point, L plate drivers are banned from Motorways, so they will have to travel on non M roads.

On a side note, has anyone ever heard of anyone caught driving on the Motorway even though they are a learner driver?

when i was coming down the M8 last summer and passed one of the Garda lookout slips with a Garda car in it, an L-plate jeep cruised past me on the outside lane at about 140km, did the Gardai do anything? did he ****, he was probably having his lunch :rolleyes:.

off topic as well but there is a security firm in Cork whose vehicles have the the exact same reflective signage on the back of their cars as Garda vehicles, im always getting caught out by them!

PaulKK

invincibleirish wrote: »

You miss my point, L plate drivers are banned from Motorways, so they will have to travel on non M roads.

On a side note, has anyone ever heard of anyone caught driving on the Motorway even though they are a learner driver?

I know its illegal, but in fairness i've never heard of anyone nabbed for it. TBH the only way they are actually going to catch you is if your acting the maggot and get caught and pulled over for speeding or something, and I presume any learners that use the motorway would be being careful etc.

Not that I'm condoning learners using the motorway or anything the rules are the rules!

Victor

Dudess wrote: »

It's a straightforward but very long drive. I'd recommend you don't get too wrecked tonight. What part of Dublin are you coming from? I'm not familiar with going by the M50, I always go the Heuston Station route. But either way, once you get to Citiwest, it's pretty much a straight run.

Except for the all important left turn at Port Laoise.

Sierra Oscar

I wonder if he got lost in the end. . . . . .:D

Dudess

Victor wrote: »

Except for the all important left turn at Port Laoise.

Ah well, that's only a minor concern...