Timburrrrr... dock

To continue our time-related adventures in Hanwell, we met at the Hanwell Clock Tower at 18:45. It was our first take on a different group run location. Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash ran to the starting point and were all pumped up to start their run to Elthorne Park... then Madhan appeared out of nowhere! It was a surprise as no one saw when he covertly signed up. Madhan chose to walk to the task while the rest opted for a run. They were all pumped up to start their run to Elthorne Park... but they had to wait for quite a while to cross the busy road.

The running group chose the scenic route: they headed West and crossed River Brent, then ran on its bank South until they reached the canal. The way along the canal led them to Elthorne Park where the runners finished with a short loop around the park. While the guys waited for the guest from Hammersmith, Divya, to arrive on his bike, Kash went to use a secret magical phrase to open the tool container. Inside she found treasures: wheelbarrows, loppers, gloves, tonne bags and, most importantly, brand-new long spades. The latter was promised by Jon the Ranger who asked GoodGymers to dig the burdock which, not tackled recently, was spreading into the entire park.

Five GoodGymers versus whole fields of burdock? We had to choose a spot where we can work together and make a difference. We looked at the map of burdock-heavy areas sent to us by Jon and picked the area between two enclosures at the top of the hill. The path was slowly but steadily becoming overgrown by burdock, brambles, nettles and other plants with unwelcoming features.

Many of the burdock plants were already taller than us, so it wouldn't be too inappropriate to yell "timber!" when chopping them close to the ground. We cut the largest plants into smaller pieces to fit them into the tonne bags, then dug out the roots. As much as we enjoyed sweet and juicy blackberries, we had to cut the brambles back as they didn't stick to the boundaries of the enclosure. While hacking the burdock, we were approached by a friendly dog and worried a little bit that he is going to be soon covered in burs. Luckily, neither the pup nor we caught any Velcro-like passengers before heading out of the park.

We collected two huge bags of burdock and hauled them back to the container. The rest of the unwanted plants, as the proverb says, we threw over the fence - with Jon's blessing, of course.

Next week we are back to our regular starting location, Bodyline, from where we will venture to a task in Acton.