Messing about on the river (well, canal!)

On a gorgeous sunny afternoon six goodgymers joined the Canal & Rivers Trust for their campaign to clean up the canals of plastic and general rubbish #PlasticsChallenge

We met at the Stanley Locks in the Eldonian Village, donned our life jackets (in case the plastic fought back and we ended up in the canal, very happy to say non of us did!), collected our litter pickers, bags and hoops and off we went.

We all became quite fascinated by the variety of objects discarded both in and besides the canal, lots of the usual suspects in plastic bottles, chocolate wrappers and cigarette butts, but we also found a coat in the canal and an office chair! Under the bridge was an impressive (and gross) collection of dog poop bags but nothing phased our hardy bunch, all were collected and disposed of properly!

We also saw some uplifting and inspiring street art and were thoroughly supervised by the local geese who followed us all the way.

Great to be joined by Sal and Jessica for their first time out with GoodGym

There’s nothing more soothing for the soul than a walk in the sunshine by the water, and all the more satisfying to know we were able to leave the canal in a better state than we found it.

Thanks to the Canal & Rivers Trust for inviting us along and we can’t wait to do more with them in the future so keep an eye out for new community mission listing!