Coasting our way to a great good deed!

Sometimes that period between Christmas and New Year can be a difficult one - should we visit the relatives, hit the sales, or spend more time in front of the telly working our way through those tubs of Christmas sweets? Well for 10 keen Goodgymers, 2 mini Goodgymers and Stephens wife Michelle, it was of course none of the above. Instead we rose to the challenge of fitting a good deed in by doing a beach litter pick along part of the North Norfolk Coast.

A bracing wind greeted us on arrival but we soon dealt with this by doing a bracing warm up session on the grass by the car park - much to the amusement of passers by! Running round in a circle with instructions to jump up, touch the floor or turn around according to the number shouted out was fun and Jaak - mini Goodgymer no1 - was soon able to take over issuing instructions. (Watch out Hitch there's a budding GoodGym run leader waiting in the wings....!)

We then jogged out along the cliffs until we reached a point where we could get down on to the beach. Once down we got stuck into the task of picking up 'litter', including our wonderfully behaved and hardworking mini-Goodgymers Jaak and Isla.

Actually along this part of the coast and at this time of the year there was hardly any litter one might expect from tourists. Instead and perhaps rather sadly, there was however no shortage of items to pick up. Threaded along under the cliffs was the tide line where rubbish brought in by the sea has been deposited. A lot of this is clearly from the shipping/fishing industries - plastic rope, fishing line etc. Left where it was, it is likely to be taken back by the sea on further high tides where it can break down into more dangerous plastic particles, harmful to wildlife and the environment in general. With this in our mind we all 'got our eyes in' scouring the shingle for items. Some items were more easy to spot being rather large and heavy! That didn't put us off and taking the opportunity for weight training we dragged it all back to Sheringham where we left it in a prearranged spot ready for the Council to collect and dispose of properly.

By the end of it we were all rather shattered and some of us were able to find a cosy cafe to recover in whilst others headed off to other commitments. At this point a special mention has to go to the amazing Tasha who had cycled all the way from Norwich! Whilst we were all warming up she had to face the long journey back (30+miles?!)

Thanks everyone - a great Goodgym effort!