THE mission: From Slane, Co Meath, to Limerick city via Cashel and Bansha in Co Tipperary. The means: a Nissan Sunny and an Milemaster2 printout. In reserve: a conventional road map of Ireland (just in case!).
The two page printout from AA Milemaster 2 contained a detailed set of instructions with an estimated journey time of three hours 44 minutes for a journey of 167.2 miles. Intermediate mileages and times were also given. The instructions worked well, the map stayed in the glove compartment and, dare I say it, our arrival time was slightly in advance of the estimated one. AA Milemaster2 contains over 40,000 place names in Ireland and Britain and a further 8,000 for the Continent. It's easy to use, being mouse or keyboard driven, but Windows fans may be disappointed to find it is DOS based.
The package allows a variety of route planning considerations to be taken into account. The "avoid" function allows you to steer clear of particular towns, motorways, low bridges or other places to which you have an unaccountable aversion.
Routes can be printed out as text or charts. However, some of the automatic avoid functions, such as height restrictions for lorries, are available in Britain only.
A selection of random destinations can be entered and the shortest and most efficient use calculated. The package will calculate mileages and expenses. While aimed at the commercial market, at £80 the package is within the reach of the ordinary motor enthusiast.
AA Milemaster2, version 1.2, costs £80 including VAT, and updates, which are available twice a year, cost £50 (earlier versions didn't contain sufficient Irish information to be of much use here).
Hardware requirements: IBM compatible 386computer; two megabytes of RAM and 20 megabytes hard disk space; however, you can reduce the amount of disk space needed by only installing the particular database of interest, e.g. Ireland.