As the last of the hungover festival goers left the Victorious campsite at Farlington, the Herts for Refugees team and the GoodGym gang arrived.

Our task was to find any salvageable tents and sleeping bags and to pack them up ready to be transported off the site. We were warned that some tents might not be in the greatest condition and to be cautious as we emptied them....

We found much treasure in amongst the rubbish: plenty of tents that will be useable in the refugee camps, a few sleeping bags and blankets. Also 22p to go into the GoodGym coifers, a double air bed and pump, some mini cones for GG fitness sessions, a roll of binbags for the litter picks, a denim jacket, tins of food (mostly donated to the camp, one tin of sausages donated to Tony's post race dinner next weekend!), a hammer and a mallet. Wilson also collected a big bag of plastic for recycling.

The wind did make life a little more challenging when trying to roll up some of the bigger tents but in true GG tradition, team work made it happen with various bodies lying or standing on the outer shells to stop them blowing away.

The guys on the litter picking were also determined not to let sealed beers/ciders go to waste and took a good haul home. They also cracked open the rich tea biscuits that had been left. Luckily for us, Janet had been baking so we were already well looked after.

This was definitely a good deed where we could see a big difference and it's great to be able to make sure the camping equipment gets another life and isn't just sent to landfill.

Thanks to Wilson & Speedy for capturing lots of the action 📷

The great 8 turned up at Baffins this morning to help clean up around the pond and playing fields. Tony and Jo had ran Great Salterns parkrun beforehand, met up with Angela and Sam then we walked across to Baffins to meet Abby, Janet, Jules and Katie We grabbed our pickers and gloves and headed off in different directions looking for rubbish. Tony and Sam headed down to the waters edge and Tony managed to retrieve a can in the pond. They also found a syringe which Sam notified the organisers and this was collected separately. Abby and Julie headed off towards the woods and main field and Janet towards the other side of the pond. Angela made friends with the tame squirrels although they weren't too happy when they didn't have any food and just the nibble of a latex glove. After years of picking almost every type of litter we finally found the kitchen sink which even had the waste and taps still attached.

Other treasures found were: easter egg hunt tokens 5p vape containers plastic ties used for the bird food bags

Welcome to Amy and Janet on their first official GoodGym good deed.

We met up with Scott from People & Stories and Anita from Action Asylum at the City of Sanctuary plus a group of her asylum seekers from all parts of the world including El Salvador, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. They were all very complimentary about the welcome they've had from the folk of Portsmouth which is always good to hear! We had fun working together, using the app and practicing each other's languages.

As it was low tide, we headed towards the entrance to the marshes and down into the seaweed. Some bits were more sinky than others.... We logged lots for Jetsam as there was sadly lots of plastic.

"Interesting" finds included a flannel, some bits of rope, a bag, a pen, lots of milk bottle lids. Plus the usual bottles, crisp packets etc. The big surprise was that we didn't find any items of clothing!

Thanks to Anita & Scott for the additional photos as I didn't take very many!