Bogg Hall Cave

Saturday April 25th 2015

Members present: Alistair Rollinson,  Andy Hurlbatt,  Mark Sims,  Matt Ewles,  Rachel Findlay,  Will Scott

After our excursion into the Excalibur system, I was quite keen to have a go at Bogg Hall, if partly to wash off some of the mud! The entrance is doable with a handline, and we were very quickly at the bottom, sitting in an inlet amongst the bird remains and otter poop. A short distance to the main streamway and we were splashing upstream.

Low air space is the theme of the middle third of the cave, starting off easy with a crouch under the left hand wall having just enough room to keep your whole head dry and upright. The second obstacle involves putting your head on one side and getting a wet ear for less than a metre. This is followed immediately by a choice between a squeeze over or a duck under a partially submerged rock. Being skinny and not having a good wetsuit, I went for the squeeze. A short distance on from this is a section of passage of crouching height, but with only 10 cm of airspace. Progression involves an odd position of floating your legs in front of you, with one hand on the floor behind you and the other holding your helmet, all while getting tickled in the face by dangling roots.

This section, lovingly called The Drain, is soon over, and you're back in good size streamway. A couple of turns in the passage brings you to the upstream sump, an impressive pool around 20 metres deep. Here we saw the highlight of the trip, and indeed the weekend, when a bemused otter swam around in the pool only a few metres from us!

A fun little cave, and a great place to get to grips with low air space passages.