Otter Hole
?OTT in Otter?
Saturday 19th April 2008
Weather: - Wet
The time had come for us to visit this magnificent cave and to see the formations for ourselves so after requesting a date we were given a leader/guide and all was set.
Meeting Rob and Alex at 6:30am we set off down the M6 on the long drive to Otter hole, the rote planners on the net gave a travelling time of 2hr 57 minutes but this turned out to be more like 2hr 20 minutes!! Anyway it gave us time for a quick stop at a caf? for a bite to eat and a coffee or tea. We then carried on to the meeting place and once there we met Damian and got kitted up for the big trip to follow. Once we were all ready we set off down the hill towards the entrance.
A long walk to the entrance soon passed and now we were face to face with the steel door protecting the depths of Otter. Damian led the way and we followed like lambs to the slaughter. Short stooping sections led to a climb up and along into a small chamber with the way on being a climb down and a muddy crawl through a pool where the not so bright ones went the hard way through a squeeze. Next came a small squeeze onto a dropped block and a slide along and down in to another muddy crawl and again another climb up and down to a long wet crawl in deep water. After that we where soon in to walking cave with odd boulder obstacles thrown in for good measure here and there. All to soon we arrived at the tidal sump which to be honest looked rather inviting, but we were to early so had to wait for a few minutes for it to open or not.
Gurgle gurgle splurge splurge sloop slosh was all we could hear for a minute or so followed by a few booms and then we noticed the water level dropping which was good news so we waited patiently for the sump to drop low enough for us to gain access to the eyehole and the far side of the tidal sump. All too soon I noticed the ropes that were in place to assist you over to the eyehole and upon shining a light over to the far side we could indeed see the eyehole had opened up completely. Now the only thing left to do was for one of us to volunteer to go through it first. Damian seemed reluctant to lead anymore so Rob was forced to go first followed by Duncan and then me. Strangely the water was warmer than I thought it would be and it wasn?t that bad at all with the only problem being swimming in wellies full of water! Luckily the eyehole was not that far and by the time I had reached it my nose was still above the water. I then climbed up and into the eyehole which wasn?t very tight at all the only hard bit being the wind that was blowing through with tremendous force! Once through the eyehole a short traverse in the water along the rift to the far side to where it was possible to touch the floor albeit in chest deep water. Daniel came through after me and was not impressed at me talking to him while he was chest deep!
Once we where all through the way on was up a ladder and through a couple of climbs then back down to the stream way a short walk in the stream led to another boulder choke to pass, easy enough and then a traverse and some more boulder hoping. Then some more stream way until the junction with Cross over passage was reached. Cross over passage is the connection to the higher level and the place where all the pretties are.
Cross over passage starts as a upwards sloping rift followed by a boulder choke and then a wriggle through a squeeze (apparently) then some more boulder wriggles until you climb up into an ?L? shaped chamber, the way on being a climb down behind a big boulder at the top of the ?L? after that it is just straight forward walking in an enlarging passage until you appear at the bottom of the Hall of thirty.
Well what can I say the formations in the Hall of thirty are out of this world and by far the best formations I have seen in the UK to date everywhere you look there is either a stal or flowstone or a straw they are just everywhere!
We left Daniel and Alex to do some photographing while we carried on a bit since we had 3 1/2hrs spare before the sump closed. I find it hard to believe that some groups only have time to get to the Hall of thirty and have to turn back and even some groups don?t get that far! Never the less we had so we carried on to have a look at some nicer formations and we eventually turned back at Tunnels junction. We had the time to get to the end of the cave but since it was apparently just sand crawls it wasn?t worth our effort plus the others would be getting bored and cold. Retracing our steps back to the Hall of thirty we picked up Daniel and Alex and made our way back to the sump. Reaching the sump it was fully open now and we walked through the bottom only getting wet up to our waist. Having been through both the main way and the eye hole I recommend the eye hole due to its excitement and it?s a challenge. We then made our way out through the entrance crawls with a few tricky climbs due to the wet slippy mud covering everything and finally exiting at around 3:30pm which coincidentally was 1hr 50 minutes before the sump was due to close!
Well we had done Otter hole with three of us making it to Tunnels junction. I enjoyed the trip thou roughly and would recommend it to anyone it has allsorts and does not get boring in the slightest. Yes it may be muddy in places and there is the tidal sump to pass but as for being hard? Not really the hardest bit was walking back up to the car!!
At the risk of being fussy I think it was 3 1/2 hours! 
