A warm but wet evening, and seven of us gathered at the long layby where you park below Goodluck Mine, deep in the jungly valley of the Via Gellia. Pete opted to head over to DCRO base, where cas carers were updating their fentanyl training, in the hope of getting cheque counter-signatures for some important payments he needed to conclude on behalf of the team. Chris, Steve, Grace, Jen, Bernie and I changed and headed down the A5012 past Tufa Cottage in search of Bonsal Lees Level.
Slaley Sough
Having missed a week while working up in Scotland, I wasn't sure if anything had been organised for this week, and I didn't get any hints from the usual sources. All of the Peak was very wet, thanks to recent snowfalls, thaws and plenty of showers, so I was looking for somewhere weatherproof when a few recent postings on UKCaving were talking about Slaley Sough, and memories of a trip a couple of years back made me think, "Why not?".
At the February meeting of the DCA in Monyash, shortly after discussing the air in Slaley Sough with Mike Higgins, I was asked by Adam Russell if I could take a trip in there some time, and sample the air in Thunder Shaft, a 151ft deep winze which lies just off the main cartgate in the Flixen Rake section of Slaley Sough. Getting information about Slaley Sough isn't easy. The description of the approach in Caves of the Peak District is vague, and a six-figure grid reference doesn't help much in the thorny jungles that cling to the high slopes of Via Gellia!