Boesmansgat


Boesmansgat, also known in English as "Bushman's Hole", is a deep submerged freshwater cave in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, which has been dived to a depth of.
The greatest depth attained was by Nuno Gomes in 1996, diving to a depth of. Its altitude of over makes this a particularly challenging dive, requiring a decompression schedule equivalent for a dive to at sea level. Gomes' dive was a close call, as he got stuck in the mud on the bottom of Bushman's Hole for two minutes before escaping.
On 24 November 2004, Verna van Schaik set the Guinness Woman's World Record for the deepest scuba dive by a woman, diving down to a depth of.
In October 2022 Karen van den Oever broke her own Guinness World Record when she descended to using open-circuit equipment.
In May 2024, Richard Harris used hydrogen as a breathing gas in his twin rebreather system to explore the bottom of the cave, at a depth of 284m. On his second dive to the same depth, this time accompanied by long time friend Craig Challen, Harris suffered spinal decompression sickness requiring treatment in a Johannesburg Hospital.

Deaths

  • In 1993, Eben Leyden died after blacking out at a depth of. Leyden was brought up immediately by diving buddy Boetie Sheun but could not be revived.
  • In 1994, while helping a team prepare for a dive, Deon Dreyer died on ascent at a depth of. Dreyer's body remained in the cave until being discovered ten years later at a depth of by cave diver Dave Shaw.
  • On 8 January 2005, Dave Shaw died after becoming tangled in the line while attempting to recover Dreyer's body. On 12 January 2005, Dreyer and Shaw's bodies were ultimately recovered near the surface, while members of the dive team were recovering technical equipment, which included a camera that filmed Shaw’s last moments in the water.

In literature

In Mo Hayder's novel Ritual, the death of the parents of one of the protagonists while diving in Bushman's Hole is an important plot device.

In media

The 2005 attempt to recover Deon Dreyer's body that led to the death of Dave Shaw is the subject of the 2020 documentary Dave Not Coming Back.
"The Last Dive of David Shaw", the third track of Australian post-rock band We Lost the Sea's album Departure Songs, was inspired by the same incident.