In eight years of GoodGym Newcastle we have used wheelbarrows before, but (correct me if anyone knows better) I don't think we have moved mountains of sand with them. Tonight's task was to move the sand from Stepney Bank Stables' bottom yard up to their outdoor arena, to be used to create enrichment activities for the horses.

Stepney Bank is an actual bank with some decent inclines, as is Stepney Road, which leads up to the outdoor arena. With some encouragement from some slightly tipsy pub goers, five trips involving ten wheelbarrows full of sand were made. The tyres in the centre of the outdoor arena took quite a lot of filling, but we got there in the end. Given the highly physical nature of the task, this was a unique Monday with no run offered. This proved to be a good decision as we had a later than usual finish in order to complete the task. Many calories were burned by all involved.

The final throws of the task were distracted by a game of cat and mouse with an actual cat and mouse. After a lengthy chase in the dark, it wasn't a happy ending for the mouse. Hopefully the horses fare better with their enrichment activities.

It was a pretty cold Monday night task, setting out from Stepney Bank Stables to deliver our own GoodGym Newcastle leaflets around the Shieldfield area of Newcastle. It's been quite a while since we've done this sort of self-promotion!

Onyinye joined us for the very first time! Welcome to GoodGym and well done on your first good deed. Old hands Scott and Richard revisited some familiar streets to help spread the word about GoodGym.

The forecast rain didn't arrive and hopefully we have helped recruit some GoodGymers, so it was a successful evening!

On a pleasant Monday evening, three GoodGym litter pickers headed out up Stepney Bank towards New Bridge Street. It's not an area we have litter picked in often and it was certainly needed. The main road into the city centre from Byker, New Bridge Street had mountains of litter, particularly around its bus stops. It's hard to understand how it ends up like this as there are numerous bins around the bus stops.

We had several people stopping to thank us and asking what GoodGym was. We did our best to explain and told people to look us up. If you were one of those people and are reading this, please sign up and come join us on a Monday night soon!

GoodGym Newcastle's latest litter pick involved heading towards Shieldfield and Jesmond, areas which we haven't litter picked in very often.

There was a particular area near Osbourne Terrace that Scott said had been bugging him due to the amount of litter present. We managed to clear a large proportion of it, hopefully boosting Scott's happiness!

We encountered a number of people tonight keen to ask what we were doing and to thank us. Several GoodGym flyers were distributed, including to the two students who deserve a photo credit tonight. If you are reading this, please come and join us on a Monday night soon!

On the mildest Monday evening in months, two GoodGymers set off from Stepney Bank Stables bound for Heaton, an area of Newcastle that is prone to being badly littered.

The most unusual items discovered were a pair of saucepans, side by side in the undergrowth. It seemed like we'd go a whole litter pick without finding a discarded wine bottle, which almost never happens, but we found one just before we called it a day.

Six bags full of litter after another successful litter pick.