Im going back "ome" to Co Cork Ireland for Christmas. I'm contemplating taking my gear with me.
2 Days with my parents and it gets painfully boring.
questions

1 what is the situation with flying with caving gear?
2 is there anybody on this forum from Cork who is interested in a trip or 2

I am armed with my Caves Of Co Cork. but i have no intention of doing anything on my own!
I have only used SRT in a cave once.... ish (miss gracies) if that a counts.

Of one thing you can be assured, you won't need to practice your SRT skills in Co. Cork.

Sewer Rat said:

1 what is the situation with flying with caving gear?

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If you're flying with Ryan Air or similar low cost airlines, they are usually stricter with baggage weight tha BA, etc (including sometimes your carry-on stuff as well - although EasyJet were allowing anything in their carry on stuff - within reason! - when I flew to Slovenia a few months ago. This may have changed after the recent terrorost clamp downs).

Basically try and get everthing as light as you can and stay within your luggage allowance. I usually ditch larger re-chargable lights and go for AA powered LEDs as the batteries (FX3 or similar) seigh a fair bit an AA's are almost universally available. IF you can't cut down on caving gear (and SRT kit weighs and appreciable amount) chuck out you spare undies, etc! 

County Clare would offer more caving possibilities, in my humble opinion, if you can travel to there from Cork (where I was in fact born but moved from at 18 months old so have no recollection of the City!).

paul said:

County Clare would offer more caving possibilities, in my humble opinion, if you can travel to there from Cork (where I was in fact born but moved from at 18 months old so have no recollection of the City!).

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Certainly would, but if you are only there for a couple of days there is stuff worth looking at in Cork, also in Tipperary and Kerry all of which are nearer to you than Clare.

Check out the Irish Caves Database at http://www.ubss.org.uk/irishcaves/irishcaves.php by searching on those three counties & then look up any hopeful prospects on the Irish Caves Bibliography at http://www.ubss.org.uk/search_literature.php

I'm living in Kilkenny and am hoping to do some caving in Cork soon. Most cavers in Ireland stick to Clare and Fermanagh but there are a few decent caves in Cork so I'm told. I'll get back on to you here and let you know how I get on there. I think you wouldn't need an SRT kit, a ladder will do for most of the caves there.
Unfortunately around New Year most cavers in Ireland head off up to Fermanagh for a big party involving caving and some drinking...

Laura