Dive site
Mount Carmel farm, Northern Cape, South Africa
Boesmansgat (Bushman's Hole)
Typical depth
270m
- Type
- Cave
- Typical depth
- 270 m
- Level
- Technical
- Visibility
- 10–30 m
- Water temp
- 16–18 °C
- Current
- None
- Access
- Restricted
- Min cert
- Hypoxic trimix or CCR with full cave certification. The site is restricted to invited expeditions; recreational diving is not permitted. Deon Dreyer died here in 1994; Dave Shaw died in 2005 attempting to recover Dreyer's body.
- Cave
- Sinkhole
- Overhead Environment
- Trimix
- CCR Recommended
- Extreme Depth
- Altitude
- Permit Required
- No Light
- Freshwater
When to dive
BestAvoidOK
Inland Northern Cape — surface pool is small and shaded, dive conditions are stable year-round; access is gated by the landowner and by the diving team's capability rather than by weather. Southern hemisphere winter (Jun–Aug) is cold on the surface support.
28.5908° S, 23.2872° E
Notes
Inland freshwater sinkhole opening from a small surface pool to a chamber 270+ m deep. One of the world's deepest dived sinkholes; site of the 1994 Deon Dreyer fatality and the 2005 Dave Shaw fatality during the attempt to recover Dreyer's body.
Marine life
- Other
- almost no life past 50 m — the dive is geological, not biological
- Invertebrates
- freshwater crabs in the upper chamber
Sources
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