As regular readers of this column know, I’m on the road a fair bit. I reckon I clock up in or around 56,000 kilometres a year. It’s a fair hunk of time out of my life. Thank God with all the driving I do I have been accident-free so far. The new motorways are very safe but for me are not without their challenges.

I’ve written before about how intimidating I find it to overtake lorries when the central median is a concrete wall. If it’s a green hedge I haven’t a problem in the world and I don’t mind overtaking lorries on local roads. But the combination of a concrete barrier, inward curved road, not to mention splash back from lorries on a wet day and I freeze. It is so frustrating. There I am on an empty road with a lorry doing 100km/h and I’m toddling along behind, unable to overtake. When I try, I feel so hemmed in by both the lorry and the wall that I literally panic. Instead of speeding up I actually slow down and it takes what seems like minutes to pass the lorry.

When I do attempt to overtake, I can only do so when there’s no traffic behind me. The last thing I need is an angry 4x4 flashing me to get a move on. That’s pressure I just can’t cope with at that moment.

After a recent particularly frustrating journey from Dublin to Limerick, I made contact with the Irish Driving Instructors Association looking for help. A nice lady listened while I explained the claustrophobic feeling I get when overtaking lorries when the central median is a concrete wall. She was totally sympathetic and said my problem was far more common than people think. She advised me when passing a lorry to keep my eyes focused on the road ahead. I was not to look at either the central median or the lorry. She said it was also a good idea to drop down a gear to give the car enough power when overtaking. She kindly offered to take me out to practise overtaking lorries if I didn’t make progress following her advice.

Practical advice

So, for the past couple of months I’ve been doing exactly as she advised. And the good news is that it has worked. No longer do I dread it when I see a lorry ahead. Now I can overtake without feeling like I’m about to be crushed. I still have problems with inward facing curves as I can’t see enough of the road ahead but I can live with that. Thanks, Cathy, for your sound advice.

Talking about driving, two weeks ago I was on Barker’s Road out of Bunclody and it was a road I was never on before in my life. Then would you believe it I was on the road again five days later to visit Erika and Werner Marten’s lovely garden as part of the Carlow Garden Festival. There must have been up to 150 people there and with a lovely garden, expert talk from June Blake and afternoon tea, it couldn’t have been better.

Finally, we’ve extended the deadline for entry to the FBD National Farmyard Awards by a week, so get your entries in – there’s €17,000 in prize money that has to be won. See page 2. CL