Waders a Will, There's a Way

The forces of GoodGym Yorkshire came together for a river clearing session at Dearne Valley Country Park!!

Despite the fierce competition of the January Challenge between GoodGyms in Sheffield and York, we all came together on the neutral ground of Barnsley to be friends for 90 minutes and have a lot of banter.

The Yorkies were first on the scene and in a nice warm car whilst the rain came down outside. We made space as Josh and Dan approached - running in to bag more kilometres for Barnsley. Next up, Sharon managed to squeeze in the car too, she'd also been doing a long run to get over there - dedicated bunch!

We met Sophie from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust at the big container in the car park and she tentatively asked if we were still up for actually going in the water, what with it being a bit cold and wet.

I haven't even had to get my big coat out yet - Josh

The answer was a resounding yes as all the waders and wellies came out. Some people were less interested and didn't mind litter picking on the banks, but some people were pretty keen.

I've wanted to wear waders for a really, really long time! - Mel

So Sharon, Grace, Mel and Josh took on wader duty and we all headed down into the park. The area for clearing was actually an outflow, so rather than a river it was more of a big pond of stagnant water. There was some talk that the task has been mis-sold as the stench filled the air around the wading team.

Every now and again the smell comes in on the wind - Grace, whilst retching

Meanwhile, everybody else had paired off and were clearing various bits of the park near the river, there was a lot of rubbish and we came across a real eclectic mix which included:

• almost a whole, slightly dismantled lawnmower
• two deck chairs
• a thick winter coat
• the sole of a shoe
• a frying pan

A squeal came from the outflow, it was Mel and she was very excited as Josh had taken a step and one leg had really sunk in.

It's like the best lunge I've ever seen!

Josh wasn't quite so excited but he certainly wasn't deterred and battled on. Shortly after this, the (much shorter) Sharon must have stepped across the same patch and Josh managed to save her before the water went over the waders.

I've never seen anyone sink so quickly - Josh

Sharon got out and joined the ground crew in their search for peculiar items. In 50 minutes we'd filled up nine big blue bags with rubbish and made the whole area look a lot better.

After carrying all the rubbish back to the container we headed down to the awesome, urban location of the skatepark for our Cones of Joy fitness session. The ever-adventurous Suze had a smile planted firmly across her face as she completed her running laps by banking on the slopes and Stephen and Chris showed their best hip thrusts on the hula hooping station!

We finished up with a stretch and a bit of hand disinfecting before everyone headed home for a thoroughly good wash. Go Team Yorkshire!