I got rushed last year at Europort was a bit tired after long day so was not in mood for ■■■■■■■■ , main loader was on some sort of get the ship out early bonus so he was waving me up to reverse on , as I was not quick enuff for him he started shouting at me in front of all the hard hats , I jumped out and said if u can do better crack on , he jumped in and spent 5 mins trying to find reverse RENAULT !! Auto. Too a chorus of laughs I politely told him to do one , he then got the hump and made me drive off and come back on can 1st HENCE when arriving in hull I was the only one reversing off caused a few too LOOK lol
Also harwich too Holland stena freighters NICE SHIPS by the way. GET YOU TOO SPIN ROUND just before ramp pitch black and then reverse up to top deck. Then blind in too gap whilst peeing down fully freighted slippery as ■■■■
th2013:
Ireland trip went well.The drive from Carlisle to Cairnryan was the hard part. Great food on the ferry in truckers lounge. Then very enjoyable drive from Belfast right down to almost Cork. Only issue I had was with the services signs on the motorway which seem to direct you to the center of the nearest town/village. Seems you have to discover/ plan in advance where the real services are. Apologies to the residents of Cashel, and thanks to the very nice bloke who gave me directions back to the motorway and some ‘normal’ services!
I was driving the the trusty old white manual FH12 - this was our arrival in Trabolgen near Cork:
You were only about 20 minutes from me in trabolgan. Instead of junction 8 in cashel, come off at junction 9 and head in toward the town. Restaurant called mother Hubbard with parking for about 10 trucks and good reasonable food. Instead of m7 junction 14 for services, come off at 15 for the gandon inn. Old fashioned hotel with good food. 5 euro for a shower in one of the hotel rooms. Old fashioned but warm and clean
I thought there was a Mother Hubbards at Cashel, but it’s quite a few years since I was last in Ireland. I could have remembered it wrongly (nothing unusual there) or they might have shut since my last visit.
Mother Hubbards was a small chain of truckstops, 6 or 8 all together back then. There used to be a bit of a map on their paper place mats, basic as they come. An outline of Ireland with a spot and a town name in roughly the right area. Which is all you need really.
Mother Hubbards were some of the few places where getting a shower was no problem. Parking and eating were easy anywhere, getting a shower wasn’t so easy.
There was no junction 8 or 9 when I went there, there wasn’t even a motorway near Cashel.
There was one motorway from Dundalk (South of) to Dublin. There was the M50 round Dublin, which did about a 1/3rd of a circle and that was it. Happy days. There was also a decent dual that went out to Naas and went to single track near Tommy Toughers. There were a few more duals heading out of Dublin, but most major roads were single track with a narrow hard shoulder
I remember a set of lights at Naas and I remember taking a slip road up to a roundabout for Toughers. I don’t remember if it was twin track still, or if it was a wide single track with slip road junctions. It doesn’t matter much now, everything’s changed, from what I’ve been hearing 
Just a tip,if you charge the illegals £2500 per person you can make a few quid after fines.
First there’s this from Toby:
toby1234abc:
Hi Tim, … Motorway is 56 mph.
Then there’s this from Inselaffe:
Inselaffe:
Motorways and dual carriageways 80kph.
I only believe one of them, but can anybody guess which one?? 
Back in England, adventure over! decent cup of tea in hand. I enjoyed driving over there a lot, it almost seemed easier without huge roundabouts with 5 lanes and confusing signs…!
Only one hiccup, got back to base, congratulating myself on managing everything without any problems, parked trailer, then noticed one of the trailer legs seriously bent. Earlier I’d hear a funny noise when coming down ferry ramp and stopped but couldn’t get out as I was already on the ramp. So I carried on in the end.
But what I don’t get is how one leg is fine and the other is bent, as I was parked directly behind the ramp and dead straight and one would assume a clearence problem would be both sides. Only thing I can think of is maybe air wasn’t fully built up…
Anyway, boss was fine about it and said he’d done the same once, so not losing sleep over it. Maybe next time I should increase ride height to play safe?
Thanks for all the advice, it was very useful. Looking forward to next trip now!