Cally Park Calling

The Goodgym Islington crew met up again on Tuesday evening for our post Bank Holiday group run session. Area Activator Simon was greeted by Goodgym tourist runner Ramon from Waltham Forest, GG Islington legend Steve and Wandsworth's Track Attack everpresent Matthew at Elizabeth House Food Hub, ready for a scenic run towards Caledonian Park near Holloway Road. On route, we took on the pretty steep slope of Highbury Park Hill, and spun past the Emirates Stadium and Paradise Park to cover about 1.7 miles together.

Upon our arrival, we spotted a familiar looking cyclist pedaling next to us, and greeted Victoria as we entered the park. We spotted Miriam, the local volunteer coordinator, and several large builders bags of gravel and soil next to the Cally Park Clocktower and the Tolpuddle Café (the finishing location for Cally Clocktower junior parkrun). Our task for the evening was to transport as much gravel as possible over to a newly constructed planting bay on the North side of the park, using wheelbarrows and shovels to shift the material. Matt and Victoria got straight to digging the pebbles and debris, while Simon, Ramon and Steve took on wheelbarrow and gravel distribution duties.

We put in a solid 40 minutes of hard graft between us (while finding time for chatting to other park users, cyclists and dog owners while we worked!), and we successfully cleared a full builder's merchant bag of rubble just at the sun went down. A very satisfying way to round off a top parkland mission!